Well, there's another day that just drifted away. They slip past almost unnoticed, one by one by one. And they're busy days, full of work and family and everything else that matters. Until you suddenly sit up and think, hey, it's nearly the end of April, that's another month lost by stealth, another month without running. And you start to realize what it means, that yet another season is just going to pass you by. It's a cold feeling in the pit of your gut, to face up to the fact that all those races you had hoped to enter for the first time in, what, 3 years? will be run without you. Oh, just checked, 4 years. This will be my 4th year without a single race from the spring/summer program. But it's not even the racing, or the CI of a sub 6 minute mile before Lori - it's the horrible thought that I haven't run since early February. What? How? Why? And I've worked on the phlegmatic and I've worked on the philosophical and I've worked on the optimistic and I've done all the XXXXing boring exercises that the physio reckoned would sort out this sore knee in 8 weeks.... and you start to lose hope when there's just no traction, that, actually, it's not improving, that it's not making a difference, that, if anything, it's getting worse. Going down stairs, going up stairs, any kind of knee bend, but especially, yikes, especially, the dreaded pistol squat, gives the distinct impression that someone is trying to lever off my kneecap with a crowbar. Knee tracking problems, apparently. Weak quad muscles, they reckon. But giving it a name and a diagnosis and a whole heap of corrective strengthening exercises hasn't changed a damn thing. And so the sense of something slipping away increases. Oh, I plug away. I keep doing the fitball core stuff, if only because a six pack at my age is no small achievement. And I stand dutifully on the slant board, though more out of habit that any sense that it will be of any immediate use. But it's so frustrating, because it seemed so close to realizing the dream of just being able to run and run and run...
Sorry, very depressing post. Needed to get it off my chest.
Comments
Hi Paul, I was wondering if you have ordered your B2R's yet, if you have run in them and if so did they make any difference to your knee problems. In my case, when I run in them my form tightens up, in fact it's hard for me not to run with good form.
From the outside looking in and not knowing the specifics or causes of you knee problem, if you haven't run in the B2R's they may help! Cheers
Many thanks for the kind words. As everyone who has ever been injured (i.e. all of us!) knows, it can sometimes be really hard to see any end to the tunnel. It also seems like such a colossal waste of all that time and effort and commitment (not true, of course - even if I never run again, the 3 months of Phase 1 training was one of the most exhilarating sporting experiences of my life and I am incredibly grateful to Eric for that). Anyway, I've started riding my bike again (great fun with the Garmin - I've shattered my 1 mile, 5K, 10K, half marathon and longest "run" records and am hitting 2 minute mile pace on some of the descents!) and that, more than anything else, seems to be helping develop quad strength and alleviate knee pain.
So, thanks again for the sympathetic messages - I'll be back in a month or six or whatever to tell you about my next run! And brilliant work, Lori and Robert, in over-coming your own injury problems.
Paul, BELIEVE ME, YOU WILL RUN AND RUN AND RUN AGAIN!!!
As I have documented in this place before, for 14 years I did not run, I was told not to run, I was told I should not run, I was told I could not run, I was told never ever again should I run because ....................... I have flat feet, weak feet, poor feet, injured and injury prone feet, that the ponding was no good for my feet and I need expensive othotics in every pair of shoes I own just so I could walk. And yes I did have weak feet, poor feet, injured and injury prone feet because funnily enough they were WEAK, AND POOR AND INJURY PRONE, as up until then I had not trained properly, run properly or used the correct shoes.
While running one weekend I tore the tendon that would form the arch of my foot, if I had one, due to, I now know, poor foot strike and form, weak feet, the wrong shoes and inefficient training. The path back to running was a winding one and a long story, but the short version is. I went to a different orthodisist who said he could get me running again with his orthotics, which he did. Then as I tried to improve and educate myself I found Born To Run and then Eric and "The Cool Impossible" which has changed everything for me, in fact, I'm now me again, A RUNNER. Through Eric's philosophy's and training methods as I am transitioning into the B2R trail shoes, I'm transitioning out of my orthotics, my feet are getting strong, changing shape and I have the beginnings of an arch forming on both my feet.
If you want something bad enough you will find a way to make it happen even if your not aware of it at the time and it sounds like you are doing the things you have to do. Besides you have something I havn't YOU'VE GOT A BLOODY SIXPACK NO LESS! Lifes not all that bad. :-}
Take Care Paul