Its been 4 weeks since my knee decided to crap out on me. Four weeks in which I have done a total of 3 runs. None of which were over a mile and a half. None of which did not consist of my knee flaring up and having to stop. And looking ahead to my half marathon I have to say that I was worried. What if everything I'd worked for was now impossible. I was pretty sure I could walk the whole thing, but that is NOT how I had planned this journey.
Even if I had not planned it this way, I had come to grips that the most important thing was recovering and working toward the next half marathon. But after one month of some but not much improvement I was looking for answers. So I got the name of a sports rehab specialist from a coworker and made an appointment. I felt bad. Like I was cheating on my other PT. But at the same time this is about my health and body. And I love my other PT, she is so nice and understanding and helpful, but she's not specialized in sports rehab.
And so yesterday I went to see my new PT. We went over all of my symptoms, how the pain started, she evaluated me the same as my other PT and agreed with her assessment that I had some weakness in my inner quads and butt (again I say ALWAYS a good thing to hear that your butt needs work. Thank you Dr. Quinn). What she also did is assess more of HOW my foot strikes the ground, and what she found is that my left foot collapses on the arch A LOT, which is most likely what causes the pain in my outer knee. She fixed a wedge under my insole, taped my knee up and told me to go run that night. To see if I could run 3 miles without pain, and continue if I could go further. She also showed me a few additional exercises to strengthen my butt, as well as how to reengage my fibular head (which is where my pain is), if it begins hurting during a run. Real life examples of what to do to help myself when NOT at the doctors office.
I went to the gym that night and got on a treadmill. Still going at a slower pace (5.5 on the treadmill - about 10.5min/mile). I reached 3 miles and no pain. So I kept going. Four miles passed......little to no pain. I stopped about half way through mile 5 to work on my knee for the slight pain and then kept going. And by 5 miles reached I was still good. I was in awe. WHAT?! Five miles was what was on my ORIGINAL training schedule for that night. A schedule I had revised like 5 times since I hurt my knee. So that's where I stopped.
After one hour in her office she had seemed to figure out what the root cause of my problem was. And suddenly I had hope. I didn't think I could run the whole half, but this gave me hope that I could at least do portions of it and not suffer pain. The great thing though is that it wasn't as if she said that what I'd been doing for the last month was wrong. She reaffirmed that I'd been working to fix the problem, and that obviously my gait had changed and things were getting better. BUT she gave me a solution. Not just fixes.
So here I sit. Hopeful. And for now that is all that matters.
