6.42 miles, 48:09
It has been an interesting week. On Monday I got an appointment at the Standford Medical Institute which actually isn’t associated with the university of the same name but does work on the track and field team as well as the Nike farm team (i.e. elite atheletes). I have never had any physical therapy before and therefore I was not prepared for the amount of pain involved. At times it felt like there was a warm steel rolling pin going over the outside of my left leg while a red hot poker was being inserted underneath the skin.
On Tuesday morning I went to see my doctor. Unfortunatley, my doctor wasn’t around so I got the other fellow he runs his practice with. My doctor is a runner and this guy was not. Therefore there was lots of laughing and shaking of the head when I explained what was wrong and what I intended to do. His advice: don’t run. Not so useful. He did prescribe 1000mg of naproxen a day and gave me the all important slip of paper that would allow me to claim the physical therapy with my insurance company. Which is good because physical therapy is not free.
I was instructed by the therapist to go running on Thursday. I woke up and my knee was still sore as was the whole of my left leg. But I went anyway, without my timer and with the intention of only going a mile or so. After three miles my knee didn’t hurt at all. Hurrah! Basically, the pain had moved from the knee to the sore muscles that had been worked on in my upper leg.
Thursday evening I went back for more physical therapy though this time it wasn’t as painful. I learned that muscles apparently have a release trigger point or some such thing where the muscles will actually defer pain to another part of the body. I’ve seen this when scratching the dog’s butt. You know, his leg starts moving not of its own volition when you hit the right spot. However, I had not expected my lower shin to start having empathy for my upper calf.
The doctor also recommended I wear a brace. Thursday night we went to the opera and at intermission I had to take the brace off. Otherwise it has not been too bothersome. Thus today I set out fairly confident that I would be able to do six miles without pain. If only.
Unfortunately, the GG Park is not flat. It is a gentle slope downwards towards the Pacific Ocean and a gradual uphill battle back east. Damaged knees and hills do not mix. After about three miles running with a new neoprene brace on the knee cap start creaking again. It felt like I was quickly undoing all of the work of the previous week.
Fortunately, it didn’t hurt too badly after walking up the last hill and running again on
the flat. My outside hope now is that since the marathon course is
fairly flat that I might be okay after resting this entire week. However, not being able to really train for three weeks leading up to the race is definitely not helping my chances. I wish I was going there with a fair shot of finishing and not just a distant hope. But I’ll work with what I’ve got. There was one thing the doctor said that I couldn’t disagree with: there will be other marathons.
Technorati Tags: running, physical therapy, knee brace
October 26th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Not related to your post…but do you lose signal on your Garmin in the SF fog? I’m considering getting one but would like to know how it actually works in SF before investing in one…thanks!
October 31st, 2005 at 8:15 am
Lan - the Forerunner does work in the fog but, you definitely have to give it a few minutes to get the signal. Sometimes I have had to turn it off and back on to start the satellite search process over again. Even with that caveat I would still recommend it.