A month later...

I'm finally getting my knee checked out as absolutely nothing (excess rest, rolling, stretching) has improved the distance I can run without exquisite pain and knee failure. So Friday I should have the start of an answer. Or at least a referral to someone who can give me an answer.

Other than that, I missed the Ras na hEirren because it was daylight savings time this Saturday. So my clocks didn't get moved forward Saturday night, and I woke up an hour late to the race. Oops. But probably just as well since every other weekend I've tried to run a 5k distance things went to crap pretty quickly. I got my t-shirt at least. Oh yeah, it was downpouring all day. (Which resulted in our basement flooding with a 1/2 foot of water, but that's another story). Not fun to run in anyway, so I avoided that wet mess.

I am seriously excited to get this knee business solved though.

On another positive note, it's only 57 laps in the pool to swim a mile and it really flies by. I'm becoming a better/faster swimmer every day. By around lap 30 my form just feels really smooth, natural and powerful - like I'm a fish! The kind of wish that has to breath at the surface though - which I've seen before at an aquarium, but I can't recall what it was, although it was cute. I'm even getting better with a really shallow side breath too, so I'm not slowing my pace by sticking my face too far up. It's just not as sweat-pain inducing as running though - not remotely the same level of satisfaction. I don't know how long I'd have to swim for to get that. Maybe 2-3 miles? Ha, if I didn't turn into a prune. Although if the knee problems keep up, endurance swimming could be kinda cool... 3-4 hours of swimming...

Swimming

I spent the majority of Sunday limping around. This morning hurt less, but still not up for any kind of knee-bending activities. Instead, I took to the pool. I swam the following:

15 laps legless backstroke
15 laps legless breaststroke
10 laps legless crawl
5 laps full crawl

I went mainly legless since even with the 5 laps in a crawl my IT band was achy. By the end my goggles were oddly leaking as well. Annoying. I was using the older indoor pair, which a little more generic, a little cheaper.

While I felt good to have gotten in some "cardio", its not remotely as satisfying as running. I feel crippled and frustrated. Cardiovascularly I can run for 20+ miles without too much trouble. This shouldn't be happening. I will give jogging another shot on Wed or Thurs.

Knee Injury Revisited

It's been a week since I took the dive. I'm healing pretty nicely. I swapped to bandaids to prevent chafing and irritation from my jeans, but the cuts are otherwise shrinking in diameter. The bruises got worse over the past week, but are now fading.

I ran 20 miles today.

I'm in severe pain after the fact, but the run itself was awesome. I felt great, strong, motivated. I got faster as I went even. Miles 6-13 were beautiful. I ran along with another marathoner along the 2-3 mile stretch through Bedford. They don't plow the Bikeway in Bedford, by the way. Heads up. Lexington and Arlington plow, but it still remains relatively icy since they don't use sand or salt. Bedford however just waits for snow to melt. Rough terrain once it ices over all lumpy too. It was encouraging not to be the only runner along that stretch however. And man, not only was she faster, but she just glided without hesitation over some icy-lumpy stretches. I stick to my theory that running on ice is all about confidence, not friction. I think when people hesitate and stiffen up when walking/jogging on ice, it changes their stride and it automatically unbalances them. It's almost better if you didn't know you were running on ice.

Anyway, great run. Sore knees - both. Long, long, long nap.

But I'm photographing my injuries again because of the weird stripes that developed on my left knee during the course of the run today. Check out the striations:



The right knee coming along and one of the bruises is yellowing:

Evening update

My knees are killing me. That last mile or so of achy knees wasn't just a fluke. I took some ibuprofin and I'm crossing my fingers that they'll be better in the morning. I'm thinking about icing them at the moment. Going up and down the stairs to my bedroom is horribly painful. So now that I'm up here, I'm going to stay until I have to brush my teeth. No more ups and downs.

I'll update tomorrow on how they feel. I had considered doing a light jog to the grocery store if it wasn't raining yet in the morning. Now I'm not so sure.