For medically-trained folk, I'm sure these words are as basic and familiar as they come—even helpful for the precision the words carry. But for everyone else: what was a speed bump on the road to recovery just became a mountain, full of uncertain footing and fearsome peaks.
Uncertainty and fear—these are two of the stronger emotions I've experienced during the past few weeks of (in)voluntary rest. Usually in that order—uncertainty giving rise to fear, normally in the form of an unsuspecting question. What happened—was it related to running, to stretching, to racing? What if there is significant damage? What if I can't run all summer? What will become of the summer months? What if I never recover? What if...
And so it goes. I guess the uncertainly piece is why people visit a doctor. I imagine, if I went (I chose to wait it out), the visit might look something like this:
I imagined Time #1-10 to be before the visit, basically the trying-to-run-through-it phase; mostly a steady, linear rise in fear+uncertainty as the pain won't go away. I imagined Time #10-22 to be during the visit; mostly an exponential rise in fear+uncertainty in direct proportion to the usage of big, unknown words I mentioned above...though some relief at the end should be noted as the doc reassures me that I'm not the first runner with such an issue. This knowledge and reassurance would probably mark a peak and a decided turn in fear+uncertainty recovery, steadily decreasing from there out (Time #22+).
Anyways, as best I can tell, I think I'm currently in recovery (@Time #26?) from some sort of "runner's knee" (we'll stick to the less scary language for the rest of the post). My best guess as far as a cause is either: 1) a tweak that occurred during the Trail Mix 50k, or 2) a tweak during the week after the race while my form was still recovering, perhaps pressing into the next training cycle a bit too early. I highly doubt it's a more serious biomechanics issue (as suggested by some of the articles), as I've been running for too long (20+ years) without any issues.
Either way, I'm not too worried—though seeing day after day after day of warm sunniness pass without exploration is difficult, to say the least. Injuries are just part of the reality of pushing the body to its limits in a fallen world. Alas. Hopefully, a few weeks of rest has done the trick. (Coming into this week, I had taken two consecutive weeks off from any running.) I plan to test it out some this week.
What have I been doing in the meantime?
Well, among other things, mostly some lower impact activities:
Biking!
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| I could actually see biking as a legitimate cross-training activity in the future (though I think I would need to acquire a better, lighter road bike, which = high dollars). Biking affords many of the same joys associated with running with minimal exertion it seems. Last week, I took a 33-mi ride down to REI and back, roughly 2.5 hrs, and only felt as if I had run about half that time. Interesting. |
Disc-golf!
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| Seriously, this guy is serious... |
Reading!
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| "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." --The Hobbit |
Even though I hope to never need these again, some links I collected:
- "Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: How to Prevent and Treat One of the Most Common Running Injuries" (Runner's World)
- "Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: Information from Your Family Doctor" (American Academy of Family Physicians)
- "Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome" (Wiki)
- "7 Ways to Improve While Injured" (Runner'sFeed)
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