Saturday, January 12, 2008

Is anyone a knee doctor?

So remember way back in the last race report how I mentioned that I had some pain in my knee during the warm up to last Sunday's race. That has yet to subside. What it's left me with is my lowest mileage week in several months. Three times this week I was unable to go beyond 3.5 miles due to pain in my knee. This culminated last night while on the treadmill and shortly after passing three miles, the outside of my right knee felt a shooting pain so sharp that i wound up grabbing onto the handles of the treadmill and hopping on one leg until the treadmill came to a stop. As tonight I will not be getting any running done since I am packing for a ski vacation the weekly total Sunday through Saturday looks to be about 23.5 miles.

Now, I've talked to Spitz about this and he's saying the right things. Be careful, take a few days off. You won't lose your fitness after one week off. These are all true. That all said, I very much want to participate in next weeks Boston Build-Up 15k. I haven't registered yet for that, and it looks likely that I will wait till midweek, maybe Thursday or Friday to make my decision on this.

But truthfully it isn't so much worrying about missing a few days here or there. It's just thinking back that this was the same knee that I had a small fracture in about a year ago after a soccer game. It took a month for that to be diagnosed, and I have wondered often if it ever healed correctly. And if it didn't, would that affect my running down the line.

Over the past 2-3 weeks before this, I'd been able to increase my weekly mileage to around the 35 mile mark. Combine that new distance with the times I'd been setting at some races and I suddenly was not only looking to finish the Indianapolis Mini Marathon in May, I was toying with ambitious time goals in my head. Is 1 hour 40 minutes possible? 1 hour 35? Would even a marathon be possible by the end of the year? Definitely in 09, right?

But now there is the knee. And that ridiculous battle between self doubt and all out stubborness that thinks if I just keep running perhaps my body and later my mind will become numb to this.

In the meantime, it looks as though I do have two days off coming up due to travel up to Smugglers Notch, VT for some vacation time. And then possibly some cross country skiing to keep the cardio up, and hopefully by Monday or Tuesday I'll be getting in some 7 or 8 mile training runs in anticipation of the weekends 15k. It all remains to be seen though.

3 comments:

HeRunsHeBikes said...

I see no downside to seeing a knee doctor if you have health insurance. The last thing you want to do is make it worse by running. If you ignore it, you may the ultimate recovery alot longer. Good luck and have a good vaca.

nora leona said...

Ohh, I hope your knee is okay. I agree, see a doc. Skiing on it does not sound very healthy for your knee either.

Good to see that you're blogging again. Congratulations on the great race finish!

scot said...

Hey nora! Good to see ya again. I may get the knee checked out as herunsshebikes suggested. i haven't skied on this vacation. It's been more of a relaxing trip. i have got in two quick training runs, and have 9 miles under my belt for the week. but i am still unsure of running the race this weekend,