The Knee That Just Wouldn't Cooperate

By now, most of you know that for the last few weeks I've been having problems with my left knee. What started out as just a slight pain turned into something that side-lined me for two weeks of training, and stopped me completely mid-race.

Well on Monday, October 24th I got to go to my doctor to start figuring out WHAT was wrong. The recap....they're not REALLY sure. My doctor came in and tested my range of motion, putting pressure on my knee, my heel, twisting me, poking me, prodding me...trying to provoke my symptoms. Well of course, now that I was FINALLY in my doctor's office, my knee didn't seem to want to show any signs of pain. Perfect. Freaking figures my body won't cooperate. Of COURSE my body wanted to be difficult and be the oddball...would anyone expect ANY less from me? Seriously? :)

Well it turns out maybe that's a good thing when it comes to my knee. Because it was a sign that there is no tear in the tendons/ligaments/meniscus. There was no swelling or tenderness to the touch, and the twisting and pressure giving no pain was also a good sign that there was stress fracture either. Nothing appeared in my exam that would give the doc cause for significant worry, or additional testing (e.g. MRI, x-ray, etc). Well that's all great news (seriously it is) but COME ON! Give me a diagnosis! Tell me what I can do! And in a way she did..but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.....No running for a month.....that was the original order.

I guess I say goodbye to the half.....not so fast she says. My doc seems to think if I keep up my endurance training (low/non-impact), that I could still run my half...IF my knee gets better. In the meantime I was ordered to physical therapy twice a week for the next month. Well I wasted no time called up the PT office and made my appointment for a couple hours later.

I went in and basically got a more in depth evaluation than my first doctor did. Lots more twisting, pressing on my ankles, testing strength in my legs....trying to provoke my knee pains. Nothing really happened, except for when they'd ask me to flip from my back to my stomach, or when I'd lower my leg down from some random position. I have to grimace at the fact that I'd have the pain on the most RANDOM times....but it also makes me laugh because it 100% matches my personality. Go figure. I'm a quirky chick.

After the first session, there really wasn't any specific diagnosis other than what they could rule that it WASN'T. Again, no thoughts of any real tears to tendons/ligaments etc. Probably that my knee was just irritated with the increases in distance and pace. Maybe an IT band issue, or patella tracking. They gave me a couple of leg strengthening exercises to do while I'm not running and then we scheduled the remaining appointments.

I will say that it was hard NOT to be downhearted at the end of that day at the doctors office. I mean....I continuously thank my lucky stars that I didn't do something TERRIBLE to my knee, BUT it is almost MORE frustrating to sit in this limboland. To have no idea what caused it, and to not know a straight path as to how to fix it and get back on my feet (literally). I sat in bed that night wondering how in the world I could make my training schedule work with being off my runs for a month. That would mean I'd be cleared to run MAYBE on the 17th of November, which would give me only a week and a half before the taper week for race day. Could I really just hop back on and do an 8 or 9 mile run in that time, and then be prepared to bust out 13.1 on race day? And would that be smart?! Because after no running on the knee I feel like just hopping back into that distance would probably work ON race day, but afterward I'm sure that my knee would be putting up a major fight. But maybe it wouldn't....TOO MANY MAYBES!

I guess its just a wait and see game. Which SUCKS for me because I don't tend to have much patience to just wait and see what happens....I think for me its going to be a new type of training. Training my mind to deal with things one day at a time, and not allow myself to get downhearted before the game has ended. Because nothing is ever lost. Maybe delayed but never lost. Because you can always change, adapt and grow. You just have to have a little faith... a little hope...a little strength.

Training Week #15

So as you know, during week 14 I had started feeling quite a bit of pain in m knee and so for week 15 in the training schedule I got a free guest pass to LA Fitness by my work and each day I'd go in and do the bike for 40 minutes. NO PAIN! YAY! I didn't even try to walk Green Lake (grumble grumble). Nothing with an impact that could set back my knee. If it hurt my knee I stopped immediately. Icing it every night, I even went and got an IT band roller to work out my leg (at the advice of multiple running friends). 

After a full 5 days of no running, and no pain it was Dawg Dash 10k time. The morning of the race I felt good. I'd been able to go up and down stairs with no pain, walking around with nothing hurting and so I thought it was a sign of my knee healing up. 

I started the race and felt pretty good for the first mile. I had a slight twinge one mile in, but it quickly subsided and I thought it was just part of my body getting warmed up since it went away. Throughout mile 2 it started to kick in a lot more though. Especially on the hills. I ended up having to stop and walk for little pieces, resting the knee and when I'd start back up the pain would subside. And then it'd increase and I'd have to walk. This continued through mile 2 and 3. During Mile 4 it started to be pretty damn excruciating. I was basically running in constant pain and bending my knee was starting to get pretty difficult. 

I'd made it a little over the 4 mile mark and at this point was pretty much just walking. And by walking I mean limping. And by limping I mean hobbling along being able to walk with my right and pretty much being locked leg on my left because bending my knee made me want to scream. And at this point in the race I was on a very narrow path. Runners for the 10k going both directions (there was a turn around at one point on the path). And I was pretty much directly in everyone's way. AWESOME. Given the amount of pain just hobbling around, I stopped and told a volunteer I was injured and needed to be brought back to the finish. Well apparently these volunteers SUCKED. No way to communicate with the main camp and no way to transport injured people off the course....SERIOUSLY PEOPLE?! At the 26th Annual Dawg Dash you have NOT YET figured out that people get injured and MAY need help getting off the course?!?! I wanted to bitch slap the idiot volunteers who told me I would just have to WALK the last 2 miles back. If I COULD walk I WOULD you freaking MORON!!!

Luckily, the point in the course was just directly across from the parking lot we'd parked in. So I texted my mom and told her to meet me at the car, and then proceeded to hobble my ass down the hill and across the street to the lot. By this point I'm infuriated. Infuriated at the incompetent volunteers, at the horrible pain in my knee and the fact that I see the last almost 4 MONTHS of training slipping out from under me.....I'm basically a MONTH till race day and I can't run 4 miles without my knee going out of commission....W. T. F.

The rest of the day was spent with my knee iced and elevated. Most of which I could not bend it without pain. But by the evening my range of motion had improved drastically, and I had my cousin Annie running me through some positions via phone (btw Annie you're thebomb.com! Thank you for dealing with my depressed as via phone to help figure out what the heck was going on!) to try and figure out if I'd done something severe to my knee. I was able to do a lot of the movements without pain which was a good sign. And luckily a week ago during the 7 miler I couldn't finish I'd been smart enough to request an appointment with my doc. 

Through it all I was trying to keep my motivation and positive frame of mind. That this was NOT going to sideline me for this race. That I'd push through. Figure out a solution......because nothing is EVER lost. 

Training Week #14

This week is not as happy as the last.... Started off the week by taking a break on Monday. After the awesome 7 miler I did on Sunday my legs were pretty freaking tired. So I took it as a sign to rest and stretch.

Tuesday rolls around and Jenny and I headed out around Green Lake for a nice 4.5 mile run (since when do I think this is NICE?! I remember when I looked at the 1 mile on my schedule like a death trap!). Felt great the whole time until about the last mile. Started feeling a slight bit of tightness in my outer left knee. Nothing too crazy but it was definitely uncomfortable. The following day when I woke up it continued to give me some slight irritation, and so for my own well being I decided not to push it the rest of the week. Didn't run Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday/Saturday when my leg felt better I only went out for a walk. 

I will tell you that this SUCKED. After the training program I've been on for over 3 months having 3-4 days of pretty much NOTHING was just plain annoying. I felt trapped in the house, needed to have SOMETHING going on. It was just playing tricks on my mind!! But I know that pushing through an injury is not always a great idea. 

So Sunday morning rolls around and my knee is feeling good. No pain and so I headed out for my long run. Another 7 miler. I headed out and everything felt great. Around 1.5 miles in I felt a slight twinge in my left knee again, but it quickly passed and I continued on the run. Come to mile 3 and I have a pretty consistent twinge. Nothing major, nothing that makes me think whoa this hurts BAD I NEED to STOP! I get right at the start of mile 4, and my knee buckles slightly....and the pain starts. With this I stop....I walk it out a little and its got a pretty steady pain going through. I try stretching it, and then a slight jog....still painful. So I stop. 

Heading home to ice and elevate.....severely PISSED off. I mean come on! WHAT is going ON!? I'd rested it, I'd iced it, I'd elevated, stretched....everything I could do to give it time to recoop. And now its worse?! And what ticks me off even more is that overall I felt GREAT on the run. My stomach was great, my heart rate was great, breathing great, felt energized and ready to go! But my damn knee had different thoughts in mind. 

And I kinda wallowed in this for about an hour. Getting upset that after ALL of my hard work this was going to set me back. But I reminded myself that I had 6 weeks till race day. Better to rest it now than make it worse and really count myself out. So I bucked up and figured out an alternative. What could I do to keep myself from going stir crazy, get in a workout to keep up my cardio endurance so when I start running again I don't keel over. The Gym! Week 15 here I come!

Training Week #11

HALF WAY POINT GOT REACHED THIS WEEK! Wahoo!

BUT starting the week we've had a little snafoo....Not sure how but I seemed to have tweaked my right knee a little. I never felt anything weird on my runs or as I was doing yoga or whatnot...but Monday morning I woke up and had slight stiffness and soreness on the inside of my right knee. I was able to stretch it out and it didn't hurt at all on my run so I was thinking it was ok, but as the week progressed the weird feeling in my knee continued.

It never really HURT. Just felt...different.

I did a 4 mile run on Monday and a 3.2 mile run on Tuesday. Didn't push it to 4 on Tuesday because of my knee, and then Wednesday I took the day off to rest it, and only walked on Thursday (albeit 6 miles walked, but at a leisurely pace). And it actually felt GOOD to get my legs going. Warmed up the knee and the pain was gone. It only seems to really feel WEIRD when I've been sitting at work all day, in the cold office building and then get up to move around. Its just stiff.


So after a couple days off it seemed to be feeling a little better, and I was jonesing for a run....I know I should probably rest it more but it didn't seem to be hurting much. But to be careful I went to my local Road Runner sports (my fave store now) and asked the rep about something to help support my knee. I bought a Pro-Tec knee band and strapped it on for my 3.2 miler that night. And the knee felt great throughout the run! No pain no weirdness. And I stretched it super long that evening.

The pain seemed to be even less Saturday morning when I woke up so I'm thinking the band is helping majorly! I strapped it on that morning as me, Jenny and Jillian set off for our 8 mile roundtrip hike to Lake Serene (see Lake Serene post for pics and details). Got through the hike with no real pain in the knee and even went on a leisurely walk that evening to keep the blood flowing through.

Another walk the next morning and then our 6 MILE run that evening. FIRST 6 miler of the training block and finished it with a 9:30min/mile pace! Wahoo! Feels good to know that I'm almost half way up there in the mileage, and now I'm halfway through the training block. The 6 mile run was down on Alki. Which I have to say is surely becoming one of my favorite spots to run. Makes me feel like I'm in San Diego, but keeps me firmly grounded in Seattle as I watch the Seattle city skyline across the Puget Sound. Absolutely beautiful. And to make the run even better it was rounded out because I had Jenny and Jillian both along for the ride. I honestly feel like running with friends is one of the things that gets me through all these training sessions. Gotta stick together right?

At the end of the week my knee is feeling better, much more with the support of the knee band. And I'm hoping that if I continue to take it easy on the knee it will be all good to go. BUT to be safe I've scheduled a full physical on Tuesday, October 4th, just to be safe. Want to make sure the knee and everything else with the body is good and set for the last half of my training. :)

And now for the weekly recap of stats!


WEEK 11 STATS (Sept 19 - Sept 25)

Total Miles Run - 16.6
Total Miles Planned- 18


Long Run - 6 miles
Total Miles Walked - 12
Lake Serene Hike - 8 miles