Monthly Summary – November 2012 (and knee update)
November definitely wasn’t the training month that I planned, but on reflection, it was probably the month that I needed.
Here’s November:
In retrospect, my October training wasn’t very smart. I made the silly (but I’m sure very common) mistake of getting back to running too soon after a big race. My original plan had been to take October off from running. Instead, I ran 90 miles. It didn’t seem like a lot at the time and who knows if my knee issues would have happened regardless, but I should have waited a couple more weeks to really start running again.
During October, I’d hoped to get back into regular running in November, but after a mid-month scare about my knee, I ended up taking nearly three weeks off from running. During those three weeks, in order to keep myself sane and to suppress any urge to run, I swam a lot (10 swims, over 20,000 meters – that’s a lot for me). After the swelling went down and I was able to bend my knee, I rode inside on the trainer a couple times and did some easy sessions on the elliptical. By Thanksgiving, the pain and swelling were pretty much gone, but I didn’t want to push it until I got the results of my MRI.
I feel a little like the boy who cried wolf. On the other hand, the scare was sufficient to get me to rest my legs and hopefully let my knee heal.
The advice from both doctors was that once the swelling is gone, I shouldn’t have any problems running. If this was a one-time issue, then I should be good to go. But they couldn’t say what actually caused it – and because of that, there’s no way to know whether it’s going to happen again.
So now, I have a few goals related to the knee:
- Ease slowly back into running, being especially careful to avoid steep hills or fast running until I’m more confident that the swelling is gone and isn’t coming immediately back.
- Make sure to do
moresome consistent strength exercises. I have a little routine I do at home and I’ll start working the yoga back in. I’ve been thinking about trying pilates also. - Continue to see my chiropractor for soft tissue/fascia work and also check out some potential underlying causes. For example, multiple people have suggested that my right leg might be slightly shorter than my left and one of the doctors mentioned that I’m a little knock-kneed. I don’t want to make any drastic changes to gait or shoes or whatever at this point, but those are things to keep in mind.
Here’s my final Movember picture for 2012. The light pretty much washes out the ‘stache. In real life you can see it better, even if seeing it “better” doesn’t make it “better”. Thank goodness the stupid thing is getting shaved off tonight or tomorrow morning.
