Finally! This morning I headed out for a run and for the first time in two weeks, I could run more than a half mile without any pain. After falling and severely bruising my knee after a race November 9, I've been in recovery mode, mostly doing treadmill walking and cycling.
Gingerly, I tried to run on Friday, and had pain starting about 50 yards in. I toughed it out and found that if I ran slowly (less than 9 minutes / mile) the pain wasn't too bad, and I ran 3 miles. On Saturday I dialed it back even farther, running 3 miles at about a 9:30 pace, again with moderate pain.
Sunday I just rode a bike and didn't run at all, but still felt quite a bit of pain in the knee, both during and after the ride.
So I was surprised when, this morning, I was able to run quite easily at an 8:00 pace. I ran the regular 4-mile DART loop with Tristan and Joey and felt okay for pretty much the entire run. It was a bitterly cold morning, and the only time the knee really started bothering me was when we picked up the pace at the end, anxious to get back to the warm confines of Summit Coffee. I had to dial it back just a touch, but still completed my final mile in 7:40.
There are still some things I can't do -- at the gym afterward, I found I still can't do squats, even with a substantially reduced load. I can't do any exercise that requires me to put weight directly on my knee. But I'm RUNNING!
I have just under three weeks until the Kiawah half marathon, so if I continue to make progress like this, I think I should be able to give it a solid go. The next project is going to be losing some weight.
I gained about 7 pounds during the course of this injury, so I'd like to lose at least 5 of that before the race. It'll be tough to do, especially with Thanksgiving this week, but I've got to give it a shot. I'll try to keep you updated on my progress here.
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