“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” – Robert Jordan
April 18th – Days until Dartmoor 108: 28, Days to Silverstone 10k: 138
I am nursing a mild injury. I have felt fine whilst running or walking, but recently, once I stop I have started to experience a prolonged aching in my right knee. I wrote this off as ‘the usual aches and pains’. The last few months have seen a lot of activity, so I wasn’t unduly surprised. To counter it I started to pay more attention to stretching out before and after walking or running. But this weekend my knee has been a bit more troublesome.
It started on Thursday with the 9.5k with race intervals. The run itself was fine, I felt really strong and finished in good form. Once home, I stretched out in the way that I do normally, showered and set about the rest of my day. As I walked about the house I noticed that my knee was painful. I put it down to the punishing run and thought nothing of it. I had planned for a rest day on the Friday, so was confident in my ability to recover.
I took #dogbeast out for a walk on Friday as normal, and within about 10 minutes of setting out with him, on what turned out to be a gentle 90 minute walk the pain in my knee had all but gone. So far, so good, I thought. Arriving home I sat at the kitchen table with a cuppa for a good 20 minutes, feeling pretty good about myself.
Standing up caused a bolt of pain to shoot through my leg. This wasn’t right. So I started to read about what I could do about it.
Rest, Compression and Elevation was the consistent advice that came across the internet. We had a tubigrip in the cupboard, so I put that on, lifted my leg onto a couple of cushions and took it easy the rest of the day.
When I woke on Saturday my leg felt as right as rain. All good. The plan I am following called for a 70 minute easy run, so, a little nervously, I stretched and set out for that. Fully prepared to come up short if my knee started to give me any grief I ran out of town and followed a loop that would eventually take in about 10k.
No issues, nothing to worry about, good pace (easy pace) and no trouble with my leg at all. I came home and stretched out as normal. It was going to be a lovely weekend. #littleDacombe was spending it with us, I had #dogbeast to take out, a trip to our local pub with friends and a 20k walk planned for Sunday.
My knee was aching, but no more than normal, #dogbeast and I were out for an hour, no problem with that, #littleDacombe arrived and we walked into town for a couple of pints and some lunch. Bliss.
The walk on Sunday was when I started to feel something was amiss. Whilst my leg did ache somewhat at the beginning, it didn’t calm down at the start of the walk as it normally does. Whilst it didn’t get to the point where I felt that I couldn’t go on, it was constantly nagging. I kept pace with the others and we finished about 20k in 4 hours. But it wasn’t the most enjoyable day from that perspective. I had ordered a couple of knee compression socks, which turned up in the afternoon once we got back, so cleaning up after the walk I rinsed and repeated Friday’s schedule. Compressed my knee, elevated it and took it easy in front of a movie.
I am now waiting for a foam roller to arrive, as the advice is to massage the muscles, not the connective tissue. And I have paused the running training for a few days. I will take these days with gentle walks, continued compression, rest and elevation and an hour on the foam roller before I start running again.
Whilst I am really enjoying the running and the benefits it provides, I do not want to jeapordise my ability to complete the Dartmoor Walk.
“She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.” – Elizabeth Edwards
