Monday, October 14, 2013

Training Update

After how amazing of a summer I had I'm not super surprised that the wheels have started to fall off some. After the Nike Women's Half Marathon (which seems like forever ago!) I had a little bit of hip pain that required a week of no running but besides that I haven't really had any training snafus. I came into this marathon training cycle with high hopes of what I could achieve based on how far I had come over the summer.

The first few weeks of training went well and even a few of the not-so-stellar weeks weren't that bad, plagued with an eye infection and a short but nasty head cold. After each hiccup I was determined to hit the next week hard but it seemed like by the middle of the week something else had derailed training.

Last week was the worst. Something in my personal life happened that left me unable to eat for three days and sleeping just about as little. I tried desperately to keep up with training but my body had other plans. I took it as a cutback week hoping to nail the last two weeks of training before the taper.

Wednesday morning I went to the track ready to put in some work. I floated through my warm up, amazed at how great I felt. My legs felt fresh and ready to run. I started noticing that the back of my right knee felt a little off but since it didn't actually hurt I finished my warm up. I started my first mile repeat feeling good but the feeling quickly faded. By three quarters of a mile my knee felt really wrong and before I could even stop my knee buckled.

I stopped immediately, stretched, walked around for a few minutes and then tried jogging with no luck. With a serious sad face I packed up and headed home. I tried running again on Thursday with no luck and knew it was time to get it looked at. I've had little training injuries before but this just felt like something more. I took the entire weekend off except for a swim on Friday. I knew I would be told to rest my knee so I figured I'd get a head start on that.

So where am I now? Well I went to the doctor this morning and he confirmed my suspicions that I have a case of runner's knee plus some IT Band issues. My entire life I've always had loose kneecaps and it seems that my right one isn't tracking correctly which was causing my leg to give out. I was fitted for a patellar strap to support my knee both when I'm running and just in everyday use. I can run as long as I can tolerate the pain.

Hopefully between the strap, a few days rest, stretching, ice and taking ibuprofen I shouldn't be in too much pain. I'm not sure what all this means for the New York City Marathon, which is in less than three weeks, other than I should be able to at least complete it. I had big goals for this race, and I'm not giving up on them but I want to be realistic and not overdo things with my knee.

So there you go. I'm down but I'm not out. I've been wearing the strap since I saw the doctor this morning and my knee feels better but the real test will be how it feels while running. I'll report back soon with how my first few runs back go and hopefully it will be good news. After all of the incredible racing this weekend I'm ready for my turn and am going to do everything possible to get to Staten Island healthy.

2 comments :

  1. I hope everything is ok! Sending happy + healing vibes your way :)

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  2. I'm glad you have some answers, hopefully the brace helps. I am glad you are not out of the game, and I know you are tough and can push through. NYC will be a great day, you may or many not get original time goal (I'm not counting it out, you've been training strong regardless of your knee)...Can't wait to cheer for you out there!

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