Work and its conflicts

Work doesn't go along with running well. Truth be told, work doesn't go along well with anything! A very tiring day at work, coupled with the need to tidy the house a bit for a dinner tomorrow, made me skip the gym tonight. But ice made its presence on my knees and the inner quads and gluteus exercises are lined up for when I go to bed, which in fact, will be now, 11 p.m., as going to bed at 1 a.m. last night didn't help much in making me feel fresh today.

My Runner's knee

The pain in my knee is, apparently, a condition named "Runner's knee". It can be caused by a softening of the cartilage around the knee cap or it can be a tendonitis.

Mine seems to be a tendonitis, as I've had it chronically for years and years and also because the pain is right under the knee cap.

To correct it, I am:
- Taking ibuprofen for a few days
- Stretching, stretching and stretching, specially muscles which I feel are understretched
- strengthening my inner quads and my gluteus muscles, the last to avoid ITBS (iliotibial band syndrome), which has also started to manifest itself.
- Using arch supporters, to raise my feet arches, throughout the day.
- Not running.

Hopefully this combination will get me back to running, pain free, in about a month.

Slacked off on Friday

To come back from Zurich at 1.30 on Friday morning didn't help me feeling fresh when I woke up yesterday. A tiring and stressful day at work didn't either. That's why I decided not to go to the gym after all, and decided to go today instead. I gotta take this sort of rehab program very seriously, as I really wanna get back to running ASAP.

Lots of stretching

Yesterday I didn't have much time at the gym, because I had to go to Zurich. Only about 40 minutes. I proceeded to do 15 minutes in the elliptical trainer, not more than a warm up. Then almost 20 minutes stretching, also doing some new strecthes which I found at Cool Running. Some of them are pretty good. Numer 2, for instance, was pretty good to show me that the muscle under my calf, whatever its name is, is poorly stretched. No surprises it would very frequently be sore after a run. Number 8 is also much better than the similar I used to do, where I kept one leg straight.

After the long stretching session, I did some exercises to strenghten the inner part of the quads and the gluteus muscles. Go away, runner's knee and ITBS. Away!

Back to square 1

Ok. Hard decision, but the best one, I believe and hope: I won't run again until the pain in my knee is completely gone. It's kinda stupid to continue to run through this pain and believe that it will get better. So, starting today, I'm back to the elliptical trainer until it heals. I'll also do more stretching than I've been doing, specially to the hamstrings, quads and the muscle under the calf. Will also dedicate to strengthening exercises to the inner part of my quads. Will tape my knees throughout the day. And after my holidays, which start in a few weeks and end on July, 12th, I will get back to running, pain free. Amen!

The beginning of it all

This is being written after I've started the web site, and I've changed the date of publication to have it shown before everything else.

I like to run. I really like to run. To say I love to run wouldn't be an exaggeration. The bad thing is that I haven't been able to do so regularly in the last few years. Some knee pain here and some shin splints there have kept me away from it for a while.

I started running when I was 12. I really liked it and continued to do it. For a considerable amount of years, until I was 20 or so, I didn't have a clue on how to train properly and would try to beat my own PR 5 days a week. That was my (wrong) idea of training.

By doing all this "break my PR" runs and through hours of basketball playing every week, I had some speed and some pretty good endurance and was admitted into my university track and field team in 1997. There, I learned the intrincacies of proper training, with speed work, long runs, rest days and the like. Unfortunately my coach pushed me too hard and after 6 months I got a really severe case of shin splints that kept me away from running for about 6 months. Every time I tried to get back t regular running after that, knee or shin pains would force me to stop again.

I've done over 150 physical therapy sessions, but most of them were based on applying ultra sound to the sore parts and stretching. Finally, last year here in Switzerland I did PT with a professional who also runs. He found muscle imbalances in my leg which were probably responsible for my knee pains. I did a lot of work to strengthen my inner quads and started to get back to running. The effort had to be cut shout, though, because I broke my right foot while playing frisbee (don't ask!). It's almost a year now, and the foot hasn't fully healed yet, but it's 95% healed and I've been cleared for running.

During the past Winter I did a lot of strength work and elliptical training at the gym, to get ready to run by Spring time. In May I returned to running and it didn't take me long to remember why I like it so much. MY goal is to run the Berlin marathon in late September next year. For the first time in my life, I really have a lot of patience regarding training and am willing to hold back, cut down if it hurts and all. Age apparently brought experience as well.

As I started this blog, my knee was still hurting after easy runs and I had to decide how to proceed. The rest of the story will be told by this blog.