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Saturday, August 3, 2013

July 22-Aug 2: Officially Injured

For the first time in about 3.5 years, I'm injured to the point of not being able to run... bother, bother, bother.

I had been managing through outer left knee issues, where it feels like cartilage was missing.  I sprained my right ankle twice.  I wasn't doing unreasonable mileage, although maybe the jumps were faster than I had adapted to.  Anyway... the first few days, even my walking was affected, with my left knee giving out sometimes, especially going up and down stairs.  It's mentally miserable to be injured and not being able to run.

Monday and Tuesday rest.

Wednesday, July 24 - Tempted to try a run... even 2 days without running was hard... but I decided to do a strength session to see how my infrastructure was holding up.  My quad dips were really shallow yet still hard.  I don't know how my quad strength deteriorated so much after only 10 days. 

Thursday, July 25 - Biked for 45 min.  Knee held up for the most part during the bike session, but it did get a little stressed towards the end.  I had attempted a run before deciding to switch for the bike, because I only managed 90s before I was limping really badly to manage a running motion.  Sometimes, I feel almost normal, when I walk around or lie down.  I think the root cause of my injury may be week quads... or is that the side effect?  In any case, I'll need to fix that, before I can run safely.

Friday rest.

Saturday, July 27 - 2 mi on the treadmill at about 8:41 pace, 1 degree of incline.  Had to lift knees to help. Scary, but manageable.  Breathed through my nose from min 4 onward, to get more exercise benefit while not stressing my legs any more.  Afterwards, I did 40 min of biking, to extend the cardio benefit.  Breathed through my nose the whole time.

Sunday, July 28 - 70 min bike session.  Body wanted cardio.  I'm trying to do some squats every couple of days.

Monday, July 29 - 55 min strength session.  Knee wasn't good today.  Tight legs, and my left knee was poundy and sore, even just walking.  Woke up with my left knee tingling with a dull pain... bad sign.  My left leg was shaking uncontrollably from the difficulty of doing the quad dips, and my left back tightened when trying to control my left quad.

Tuesday, July 30 - 2.5 mi on the 1 degree treadmill, ave 8:20 pave.  Legs felt almost normal at work today, so I tried a run, although I only went 2.5 mi before feeling like it was getting too risky.  My left quad was tight afterwards, due to compensations.

Wednesday rest.

Thursday, Aug 1 - 5.0 on 1 degree of incline at 8:33 pace.  Not bad - feels like a normal poundy run.  Just had to be very careful.  Right back started to tighten a bit at the end.  Glad that I may be on the mend.

Friday, Aug 2 - 55 min bike session.  Went pretty fast, I think.


Beer bottle cap collection update:

1 comment:

Lindsay said...

Rest that ankle and knee! I saw someone say on their blog once if it alters your gait - take some time off and treat it like an injury, even if you think you can run through it. I used to be (super) hard-headed about aches and pains but after hurting my back - I am the complete opposite now. I've realized I want to run/workout for the long term and sometimes that means sacrificing the now, but in the end it's worth it (or should be at least lol). Don't forget to roll it all out - quad, hams, IT band, adductors.