Marathon Recovery & a Knee Update

It's really hard to believe that it's already been a week since I ran the New York City Marathon. Despite having some really solid triathlons over the summer, this will go down as my favorite race thus far. I don't have any intentions of running it again next year but I know that I will run it again sometime. It's that amazing.

The number one question that people keep asking me is how my knee is doing. The answer is that I honestly don't know. It hurt pretty badly during the race and it hurt pretty badly after the race on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday my quads were really and sore and I had the typical trouble going down the stairs but nothing out of the ordinary. Since Tuesday my hips have gotten really tight but no actual knee pain.

One of my favorite signs from the NYC Marathon

Before the race I took 2-3 (I don't remember exact duration) weeks off running to try to light my knee heal as much as possible. I did a lot of swimming and biking to help stay in shape. While I do think that taking that time off helped, it certainly didn't fix everything. I made it to mile 9 before experiencing any pain at all, which is a lot farther than I was expecting. Although that gives me hope, running so many miles in pain did absolutely nothing to make my knee better.

I took this entire last week off of running and am taking this next week off too. I swam twice last week but kept it super easy with the intent of solely shaking out my legs. I will do the same thing this week before hopefully trying a little easy jogging next week, depending on what my physical therapist says.

Sporting my finisher jacket to class

Yup, I'm doing PT to try to take care of this once and for all. I've had similar knee issues in the past before I started running which means it is not as much of an injury as a biomechanical problem. Plus the rest and cross training for a few weeks didn't really do anything. I started PT on Friday and will be going twice a week for about a month to work on stretching and strengthening my leg.

After doing some strength tests it looks like the issue is a combination of a super tight IT Band which is causing my quad to do more work which is putting a lot of extra stress on my knee. My exterior rotation was by far the weakest, which doesn't really mean much to me but it's nice to know what is actually wrong.

Because shopping is the best marathon recovery

From all my years of swimming and dealing with shoulder injuries I know which pain is okay to swim through and which you should stop for. I also know what exercises to do to keep my shoulders happy and healthy. I have no idea about anything with my legs. I think it is really important to know your body's strengths and weaknesses, especially for when you get in the weight room. I'm hoping that going to PT will help me get a better understanding of my body and how to deal with similar issues should they arise in the future.

I also got a massage on Saturday which really helped. It was a deep tissue massage but it was not a sports specific massage. My lower back, ankles, and of course my legs were feeling the aftermath of the marathon the most and it felt really good to have them worked on. This week I will be hopping on the foam roller to keep loosening things up.

So not a ton to report in the way of progress but at least I'm heading in the right direction. I have some really big goals for 2014 that I can't chase if I'm not healthy.