Knee Problems

This is a picture of what my knee looked like after I left the physical therapist this afternoon. Physical Therapist, you say? Oh no! Let me be a lesson to you all. This is what happens when you don't train the way you should.

I don't know if you know but I ran a marathon in June. That's right, A Marathon. So therefore I can do anything now. I could rule the world if I wanted to. Running a half marathon, a paltry 13.1 miles shouldn't be a problem, right? I don't really need to train. Well I mean, I can run a bit here and a bit there but I don't have to REALLY train, right? Wrong.

Of course that's wrong. Everyone knows that's nonsense. Even I knew that was wrong and yet that's exactly what happened. When October 3rd showed up and I found myself on the start line of a half marathon I hadn't trained for I thought, 'I'll be fine', 'It's all in my mind' and 'I ran twice this before, I can DO this'. Well as it turns out it's not all in your mind. Your body actually has to do the running. And sure you can run through the pain if you're focused on that finish line but it's what happens AFTER that, that people don't talk about on race day.

So, on October 3rd I ran a pretty great time in my half marathon. When the pain started at mile 3, I ignored it. As it got worse at mile 8 I put my head up high and kept going. When my knee started bobbling at mile 11, I walked for 30 seconds then pushed through it. When I nearly fell over with the abrupt piercing pain at mile 12.5 I gritted my teeth, growled a little at the pain and sprinted to the finish. Hurray!

3 weeks later I'm still in pain. I rested for a week thinking that would do it but my knee got its revenge the first time I went out for a jog by flinging the pain in my face. I jogged for 10 minutes and eventually turned around defeated and walked back to my car. After a similar outcome the next few times I ran, I eventually made an appointment with a PT here at work.

During my appointment he watched me run, walk, squat on both legs, squat on one leg, rise up on my toes. He twisted and turned my legs and knees in all directions and moved my kneecap (patella) around and winced as it crunched a bit. In the end he said that as the pain was quite localized and given the symptoms of when it occurred and how long it lasted he thought it was probably a problem between the patella tendon and the fat pad. He recommended targeted soft tissue massage for 5 minutes, 3 times a day. The specific massage is quite painful so I'm really counting down the minutes but hopeful that it will help. There's no running for the moment either. Bummer.

I have plans to run at least one other marathon next year though and maybe two, so I'm furious with myself that I let this happen. Next time I am reluctant to go for a planned run because I'm too tired or too busy I'll read this post again and remember that every time I skip, I risk taking away the option of running in the future.