TALES FROM THE TRAIL (AND SOMETIMES THE ROAD TOO)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Injured?

Something is definitely going on.  Injured?  I am not gonna say it.  I believe that I do not have a repetitive-use injury, which to me is a good thing.  It does not hurt to run.  I feel no pain walking on level ground.  But I feel severe and sudden pain in the center and left side of my left knee when I walk up steps, stepping up first with the left leg.  When I step up first with the right leg, I have no pain when I follow with the left leg.  Weird.  I feel that same pain when I release the emergency brake in my truck.  And I feel that pain when I bend or straighten my left leg.  I also feel it when I lift my left leg from a sitting position.  Yet, as I already mentioned, I can run fine (which rules out IT band syndrome – plus I’ve dealt with that so many times, I’d know if I were dealing with it again). 

I ran this morning in fact, a short run as scheduled per my training plan. I had no pain before this run.  I pretty much rushed it, because today was the last day of school for our two youngest boys.  I wanted to get back to school in time for the last day festivities.  I worked on my up hill speed, as usual.  I really pushed it on the downhill, often having to bank off the trail’s slanted side to keep my speed up.  Perhaps my leg was at the wrong angle when I pounded down on Cholla. 

I’m not calling myself injured YET.  Yes, I’m wearing a knee brace.  And yes, I have iced.  No, I have not taken any pain relievers (except for wine).  And yes, I have foam rolled.  I felt a bit of tightness in the lower quads of both legs, a little more so in the left leg.  Time will tell.  Tomorrow is a rest day, though I’m taking our boys skateboarding and biking.   But overall, it’s a rest day.

Dainty white flowers that lined the single tracks along West Ridge this morning:

Running the back on this out-and-back to Top of the World (& I really think that I look like a boy here, but I didn’t have any pictures from today’s run where I looked less like a boy and more like a girl : ( )

My Activities cyn vistas out-and-back to top of the world 6-21-2012, Elevation - Distance

May your runs be merry this weekend!!

8 comments:

  1. Hope the knee is sorting itself out already. No, you are not injured if you can run without feeling it. Take it easy anyway. Have a super weekend! I have nice training runs this weekend. 10km on Saturday and 28.5km of hard trails on Sunday.

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    1. 28.5km of hard trails on Sunday -- fun, fun! (When it's over!!). Knee is good. Thanks for your thoughts as always, Johann. : )

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  2. Ice and rest and fingers crossed!

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    1. Thanks Stuart. Iced. But I only rested on scheduled rest days. With fingers crossed I was very fortunate that my knee is good now. But I have a feeling that I better tame my explosion on technical downhills (I was hoping to make up time here). Thanks again.

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  3. I hope ice, rest, and foam rolling make it better. Since it doesn't sound like you will really rest yet, take it easy running, especially on those downhills when it's so easy to twist the knee.

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    1. Foam rolling is such a great thing Rachel. I'm not sure, but besides the icing, I think it was the foam rolling (especially the quads) that got me through this knee thing. I really didn't rest much though. BUT, I do have 2 scheduled rest days a week.

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  4. Those "Dainty white flowers" are Buckwheat. :)

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    1. Thanks Scott! That sounds very familiar to me. Buckwheat is out in abundance in the coastal hills about now.

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