Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

AM - Easy 10 along Provo River as usual. The good news is my knee felt a bit better. It only bugged me a couple of times during the run which is a big improvement. It has also bugged me less during the day and it hardly even bugs me going up-stairs as well. So, hopefully the reduced mileage and intensity routine is working. I will keep it up this week as well and see if it continues to improve. It sure would be nice to be able to get back to my normal routine next week.

I ran with James today up in Provo Canyon. We did a 2 mile uphill warm-up at 8:00 pace and then did 5x1000 meter repeats down the canyon with a 400 jog rest followed by a 1.5 mile uphill cool-down at 7:45 pace. The 1000's were into a pretty strong head wind and it was snowing as well. We were pretty cold by the end. The 1000's were as follows:

3:32, 3:32, 3:37, 3:39, 3:38 (These really felt like a jog for me which is a good sign)

This was James last tough workout of the XC season. He has the Foot Locker West race this weekend and then USATF Nationals next weekend.

My knee was ok for most of the day and actually felt good going upstairs again today. However, it acted up during the slow 400 jogs between repeats. It did not hurt at the faster paces. It seems to hurt more when we ran slower than about 8:00 pace. Overall I think it is getting better but it is obviously not healed enough yet to up the miles. I still need to proceed with caution for now. 

AM - 6 easy miles with Sasha this morning. Knee was ok for the most part except when we were under slower than about 8 min pace. I think when I run slower my forum changes and I brake more and thus the issue with the knee at slower paces. So still not where I want it to be but getting there as stairs are still good right now. I guess I am in a bit of a holding pattern training wise. We will see but I probably will not run tonight just to give it more healing time. I really want it to heal up this week!

Another easy 6 miles with Sasha in almost exactly the same time as yesterday. The knee felt better than it has for awhile so the 6 miles yesterday was a good call. So I will do the same today and only run the 6 miles. The plan is to get back on track by next week so this week is essentially a loss training wise anyway. Hopefully this will end my two week forced break. It is if I was tapering  the last two weeks just without a real race to run.

Easy 3 in CA. Rest knee and traveling.

Ran the Parent/Coach  race at FootLocker West in CA. The course ended up being on the rods this year due to weather. The knee felt mostly ok so I pushed the first mile to see what would happen. The knee complained a little so I backed off to more of a tempo/threshold pace and it felt ok enough to finish. Ran 17:21 for 3.22 miles with very slight rolling terrain. 1st mile was 5:04 and felt good except for slight knee pain. Ok, but wish I could have run faster and harder.