Ice, Ice, Baby

Ok, so the title of this blog post is entirely corny, and completely dates me, but I’m trying to amuse myself since in the first week of official training per Coach Jack Fultz’s 18 week marathon schedule I’ve found myself injured (or rather hurt by “GI Jane” standards). With an impending training mileage of 550-650 miles over the next 18 weeks, I will not be a movie Navy Seal and work through the hurt. Since I know that resting on a few 3-5 mile run days will likely do far more for my training then cramming them in and injuring myself more.

The pain is in my left knee. It locked up on me yesterday afternoon walking around the office and then was slightly sore thereafter. Driving a standard car in heavy traffic 45 miles west on 90W certainly did not help. I associated the pain from my clumsiness rather than a training injury but sure enough later in the evening at the gym after walking a ¼ mile warm-up on the treadmill and starting to jog, the knee did not cooperate so I shut it down and went home. Based on how the pain was, cross training didn’t make sense either.

So I went home to my resident exercise physiologist, and NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist for an assessment. After putting me through a few tests, Dave determined that he didn’t think I had any structural issues or meniscus issues and while he qualified that patella femoral pain is hard to diagnose he thought that most likely I had inflamed a bursa or had some muscular issues in the knee area from overuse. This diagnosis is entirely plausible since I was surprised by how soon I was able to log 5+ miles runs. I think my cycling cardiovascular fitness allowed my heart and lungs to think my legs could run more miles than they were ready for. So no running for me Tuesday or Wednesday, and likely no Crossroads run Thursday. I’ll be icing and taking ibuprofen. Maybe some XT on Friday to see if that allows me to recover enough to make the Saturday DFMC run my only miles logged this week.

This is not an all dooms day report; there are two positive items. First, I am disappointed that I am unable to train. It was surprising to me to learn when I couldn’t run, how much I was enjoying the running becoming part of my daily routine. I will have to remember this feeling when it is very cold, windy or precipitating this season. Last but not least, fundraising emails have gone out and as of this posting I am $500 toward my $7500 goal. To break it down by mile marker standards I’m 1.75 miles down the 26.2 mile fundraising course. Thanks to Mom & Dad, Courtney Chronley, Dustin Demorest, Nancy & John Martin, and Tim Lenahan!