I’m sidelined.
I had knee surgery on Wednesday February 24th. How long I’m sidelined I do not know. This is what I do know.
On November 29th I was doing a long run. One of my back to back 30km runs I had been doing for a couple of months on Saturdays and Sundays. I was about 28 km’s in coming up the escarpment on the rail trail approaching the Scenic drive access, on my way home. I felt this tightness in my left leg start. It started in the calf and started creeping up towards the back of my knee. The tight feeling started spreading and enveloping the whole knee. Then i was frozen in my footsteps with this sharp pain that covered my entire knee. Front, back, sides, top to bottom. I walked it out. then started running again. 2 minutes into the restart the tightness started again. Then the sharp stabbing pain. this continued for the remainder walk/run 3km home.
I took 2 days off and started again Tuesday night. It wasn’t too bad, but i had no power and felt unstable on the knee. This continued for the rest of the weeks runs and i attempted the 30 km run come the next Saturday. made it 21km and the pain started again. I cut the run short. After 4 days off i did a 3 km test run. Still felt shaky and unsteady with a weird pain (discomfort) coming from the inside of my knee. So i took another day off and did 13 km on the Sunday. According to my log book, I ran slow and had knee discomfort.
I spent the next 2 weeks doing short runs as anything long caused pain. Even the short ones had on and off again pain. Sometimes it felt like there was something tickling the knee from the inside. The more i moved, the more that tickle turned to a pulling and then pain. On the following Sunday i attempted a 30k again. Coach Dee followed in a car to do some filming. Here’s that video. At km 24 the pain came back. It’s almost Christmas so i took a week off. Then another.
The New year came with great expectations. I began with a slow 1 km in the morning and 2 at night. Day off. 2km in morning 3km at night. I did this for 2 weeks building up distances to 8 km at one time. The pain never let up. It would come and go. But it never left! That tickle was always there. I was driving myself and Casey crazy. I have been dreaming and planning this run for 3 years. I have sponsorship and were getting more. I have the perfect idea and group of people around me to get it done. Now this damn knee! I was taking anti inflammatories daily trying to keep the inflammation down while i trained the legs to be stronger. I had seen 3 sports therapist and they all figured it was caused by a muscle imbalance, pulling on the knee joint causing inflammation in the tendon’s behind the knee and thus creating a bakers cyst. It wasn’t getting better.
On super bowl Sunday I went for a run with my friend Phil. I did 26 km that day. I came home and as I iced and stretched the knee really hurt. I could barely walk. I decided then I would stop running until i got treatment. On the 24th of September ( my carpe diem) I had surgery to repair the knee. The Doctor said he cleaned things up ( I’m assuming the meniscus had some fraying). there is no sign of arthritis, but I have one very pissed off knee. The knee of a 38 year old. (what ever that means)
Here I sit, on the couch with my leg wrapped and ice on the knee watching the Olympics. Is my dream of making a difference by running across Canada gone? Has the last 3 years training and planning been for not? Can I come back from this? Can i rehab my knee back to good “happy” health? now what?
Well, for today there’s the Canada hockey game against Slovakia. Tomorrow, is another day!
Steve