A Balance, Redefined

It's got you on the lone faithfuls list even though you had 15 comments yesterday. Hmm. Anyways, now you have one today, too. Keep us updated with your knee. I always say, when in doubt, better to be conservative with an injury.

I vote for seeing a doctor and getting it diagnosed.

Thanks. I'm thinking both. I cut my run in half today, will take tomorrow off, and reassess on Mon. There's either an Ortho or a PT that I saw when I first got here, I'll look them back up and go from there. There is a knuckle cracking sound with my knee. It has always been there but seems more persistant the last few days.

I sometimes use weekends to get a few extra days off- like do a Sat morn run, then take Sun and Mon off, and run again Tue afternoon. 90 hours of rest.

Jon, That's a good suggestion and then it gives me Mon to try and get a hold of Drs... My previous experience has just been so limited with them. Don't run so much is usually all I get. Again great race this morning. I wish I would have planned differently and been down there to join in the fun. Now I just hope that I can hang with at St. George.

I would rest Sunday... then try to run Monday and if it immediately hurts stop and stretch and just walk and quit.

I was able to run through my knee pain, but it wasn't extremely bad. I think maybe if I would have taken a couple days off though it wouldn't have progressed as long as it did.

Thanks Kory. After talking to the surgeon (family friend) I think I'll take off until at least Wed night. It may be overkill but one less run never broke a training program but twice I've had one more run destroy me...

Adam, where on your knee hurts?

Eric,

It is across the front of the knee. It is more of a dull pain. On Wed it more or less felt like something locked in there. I stopped and walked a block and then just jogged home as soon as it happened. Yesterday and today it didn't hurt just more of that dull pain and the popping/crackling on some steps? I'm not going to take IB today and see if there is any additional pain. The main thing that has me concerned is how sudden and how sharp the pain was on Wed. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't think anything of it.

So I saw a Dr this morning and he did the quick movement related diagnostics. The long and the short of it is there isn't much to do unless there is more contact related pain. He suggested that at this point there is not need for the MRI until I have something that is keeping me from moving my knee. He also supported the previous Drs assessment that it is probably use related inflammation that was sent over the edge by the combo of the fast mile in the new shoes. His current thoughts are to rest the few days. Try it out later in the week and assess at the race. If something gets worse go for the MRI. The good news is even if there is a tear he said it has to be so minor that it wouldn't affect performance (unless it gets worse). So I'll take off until at least Wed afternoon and go from there.

That's great Adam. At least you have some ideas what might be going on and that it's not serious. I think you just have inflammation, and maybe the fast mile exploited it. But the rest will definitely heal it.

Your too great of a runner to be held down too long.

Kory, Thank you for the kind words. The running rest is also giving me time to catch up on sleep and some of the work related stres... You ready for Sat?

Adam - I'm very anxious to see what I can do. I wish I would have put in more track work and tempos, but other things and being tired from work unmotivated me from getting some good intensity workouts in. I think it's more of a harm to get speedwork in when your tired. You know as well as I do that your form wouldn't be as good. But I did do a track workout last week and I did have some good tempo runs leading up to this event. I have confidence that I can do well. I've ran the course seven weeks in a row and each week I ran it 22 miles.

But I can't wait to hit the rolling hills section of the marathon course. The downhill really isn't where the race will start. For me it's miles 15 through 21 that I really need to be patience and have a decent pace. I've ran this section a lot and feel I can do well.

Here's the course map and elevation

http://www.pocatellomarathon.com/2008PocatelloMarathonCourse.pdf

My strategy is to target 2:40. I think I need to try to be aggressive even though this is a tougher course than Ogden and Salt Lake and Definitely St. George. If I can hit 1:19 the first half that would be good. I think I can average a 6:05 minute mile pace the first 13 miles. Then I want to see if I can run the last four miles of the course around a 5:50 to 5:55 pace.

The rolling hills is where the pace will be hard to tell what consistent pace I can stay at.

Any input would be great. I did make a split graph for each mile that I will post of the discuss forum to get input.

Interesting, I also have used a similar weekend recovery pattern and it has worked really well. Still, be careful nonetheless, at the first sign of pain get off the road.

Good news about the knee. Sounds like the rest approach will likely help, but as Steve indicated listen to the warning signs and be patient.

Hope to see you back on the roads running without pain this week.

Kory, Sorry I haven't gotten back to you about the course. I did take a brief look but I wanted to spend a little more time on it before I gave my final opinion. The thing that helped me most mentally was using the course tool and focusing on the even effort. Your plan seems like it is conservative the first half with more on the second is that right?

Steve, I will call it quits first sign of something "off" on Sat.

Jeff, I'm hoping to try 4 miles tonight and go from there. This is my most time off in over a year and I'm going crazy. However, even with the rest and the Drs reassurance that there is nothing too serious I still feel "something" down there so I'd rather take time off now, risk loosing a little fitness but still be able to make it to the line on Oct 4th...

That's alright, I've been so busy with work, and running kids to XC and Soccer Practice that I haven't even posted my split strategy. But I was planning on trying to it the half way point at 1:18 or 1:19, maybe conservative for this course, but that would give me something left for the second half of the course. This course is harder than running SLC and Ogden.

IMO, after the acute phase of the injury, a little jogging is almost always better than complete rest to facilitate healing. This is especially true with joint/tendon injuries where blood supply is low and fluid/nutrient exchange is highly dependent on activity.

Thanks Eric. Opinions are always welcome. My main reason for being so standoffish this time around is becuase my last injury was a piriformis inflamation and going out for that one additional run knocked me out from running for a couple months. I'm looking forward to the run this evening though. That and I've been doing a lot of extra walking around to keep the area stimulated as well as a couple hot baths followed by stretch and then ice.