It’s been a long time since I’ve made a post. And I can’t say that I will be posting
regularly, but I hope I do. The reasons
for not posting mostly boil down to excuses.
We all have them. The same ones
we use for not running some days: not enough free time, I’m tired, there are
other things I would rather do/need to do.
But the main reason I haven’t posted is due to injury. For the first time in my entire running
career (going back to 1997) I have had to take significant time off due to a
injury I can’t figure out. Back in
2006-07, I developed stress fractures that took me out for a couple of months
and kind of derailed my running career for much longer. But back then, I knew the problem and just
didn’t go about fixing it the right way.
I was in my mid-20’s and should have bounced back from that in a couple
of months and never looked back.
Instead, I let it redefine the runner I was and I’ve never been the
same.
About 2 years ago, I finally began to emerge from the shadow
that had developed over my running career and began to taste success once
again. I ran my 2 best marathons (winning the first, and running a big PR in
Boston 7 months later). I won a series
of 5k’s broke 16 minutes for 5k several times, and actually won money racing
for the first time in close to a decade.
I trained for and completed my first Ironman (I have the tattoo to prove
it). And on a personal note, I got married
a week after the Ironman. I was riding
high and I had some big goals in mind for 2016.
Then the knee pain started.
It was actually on our honeymoon.
I had taken a little over a week off after the Ironman (with the
exception of a 3 mile run the morning after the wedding with my new wife). I ran 4 days in a row on the treadmill at the
resort, and each day my IT band got a little tighter, and my knee hurt a little
more. I wasn’t too worried. I’d had IT band problems before, and had
always bounced back quickly. I sat out
running the last 2 days of the honeymoon and came home focusing on treatment
and foam rolling (at least a little bit).
But the pain didn’t get any better. Actually, it got worse. At first it was just the side of my
knee. Then it turned around to the
patella. I had never realized the IT
band wraps almost completely around the patella and so that pain was
alarming. It felt like I had a bruise on
my knee that wouldn’t go away. I could
barely press on the kneecap without pain.
While alarming, I still wasn’t convinced it was much more serious than a
strained or tight IT band. I mean,
training for and competing in an Ironman will tear up your legs. Maybe I just hadn’t taken enough time off.
So another 2 weeks off, a short run, and no progress. If anything, my knee was worse. And now it started to hurt below my
knee. I went for 1 final run, 3 miles on
the state cross country course with my boys cross country team, on November 7th. And that was the last time I’ve run.
Now here I am, almost 5 months, 7 doctors, 1 x-ray, 1 MRI,
and lots of frustration later. But my
knee has started to improve. I’ll get
into more detail later on actual exercises, but over the past 3 weeks, the pain
has gone from hurting to straighten my leg to almost nonexistent. After so long with discomfort, the rapid
healing has been shocking. The pain isn’t
gone. I also have a large Baker’s cyst
on the back of the knee that’s not going away anytime soon. But the main IT
band symptoms are virtually nonexistent.
And so I’ve been given the ok to run. Not much, and if the pain comes back it’s
time to shut down again and look for answers.
So today begins my long road back to competitive running. And that’s what I plan to tell you about in
my posting. I’m going to continue to
research, talk about exercises and give my progress. So hopefully I can help, inspire, or at least
entertain a few people as I try to make a comeback. But for now, the road is long and the
progress will be slow, but it’s time to pound the pavement!!
