With my new found motivation from earlier this week, I had problems telling myself that I was going to sit out from this weeks long run. Although I had been having some knee issues all week, it had improved as the week progressed with ice, motrin and rest (a recipe for success with any orthopedic injury). As Sunday morning approached, the knee felt good. I was no longer in pain and could walk down stairs without difficulty. I decided that since my cardiovascular exercise this week had only consistent of trying not to die of boredom on an ellipitcal, that I would suit up for the L Street run.
The planned run was ~15 miles, but I knew ahead of time that I likely wouldn't be able t complete the whole thing (nor did I want to as I knew my knee would be sore after that given the fact that it had only been a week). As 6:45 am rolled around Sunday morning, the alarm went off. I got up, showered and got the winter running gear on. Once Renee & I had suited up, we headed out to meet our friend Lauren to start our run. This was probably one of the coldest days that I have attempted to run outside. It was a clear day, the temperature at the start of our run was 11 degrees, with the windchill it was 0 to -5 degrees. Even with this cold, after the first 0.5 miles I warmed up and never had as much of a chill from that point on.
As we set out on the run, I wasn't sure how much i was going to be able to do. I figured I would start running and play it by year based on how my knee felt. This weeks course took us down into Milton. We started running and the knee felt great. The first two or three miles went by without so much as a twinge in the knee. After a while we hit our first water stop which was at mile 3.7. It was at this point when Lauren wasn't feeling well and decided to head back. I figured that since the planned run took us further from South Boston, that I would head back too that way if the knee started acting up I would be closer to home and could just walk back.
So Lauren and I set off back towards Southie. I figured at the worst if I ran back to the house I would have completed about 8 miles. The run continued to go well until I got to about the 7 mile mark. It was there that I started to feel some pain on the outside of my left knee & knee cap. As it wasn't that bad, i decided to push through and ultimately did ~10 miles ... which isn't bad considering I almost didn't go for the run. The frustrating part of this run was that when I stopped I felt great from a cardiovascular standpoint. I definitely would have been able to rock out a bunch more if the knee didn't flare up.
I spent the rest of the day icing the knee. Still to this point I am not sure what is causing the knee pain. I think its a combination of patellofemoral syndrome as well as a possible bursitis. Regardless, i think my plan of action for this week is going to be rest and rehab. The race is still far enough away that I can take some time off to heal without compromising my training that much. Hopefully the knee gets better or else its going to make for a long 26.2!!!
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