Well hello everyone! Long time no blog, eh? Yeah, I've been busy... getting injured! Not badly, but rather annoyingly. I've known for quite some time that I have a penchant for ITB (ilio-temporal band) tightness in my left leg. In fact it's plagued me in every long-distance run I've ever trained for. So now, as I was increasing mileage to get ready for the La Jolla Half on April 26, I started having sharp pain in the outer side of my left knee, which only appears to kick in after running 6 or 7 miles. Since denial was no longer working, I decided to go see an orthopod. Coinidentally, I also was having pain in the same knee, toward the back, but only when I did a deep squat, so it would only really come up in yoga.
So I go to the doctor, and he tells me what I already sort of knew about my ITB, which is I need to vigilantly PT it by doing stretching exercises and pointed strengthening of the vastus medialis (inner quad area), to compensate for the fact that the outer muscle has gotten too strong and is pulling my knee cap out. He also told me, however, that the pain toward the back of me knee might be a ... TORN MENISCUS, which can ONLY be REPAIRED BY SURGERY... although a minor scoping procedure.
Egads!
Nothing definative yet, though; I did have an MRI on Friday, and I'm waiting to have another appointment to discuss decisions with the doc. I definitely need to rehab the ITB (I'm guessing with legitimate PT, but if the meniscus only hurts when I do yoga, maybe it can wait? Problem is I doubt yoga caused the meniscus, as it was likely due to chronic impact (i.e. running). Anyone out there, what's your opinion?
Oh and I did the darndest thing yesterday... I was running (yes, but I've cut way back and only run 3-5 miles like 2-3 times a week now), and a rabid pinecone lurched out of the bushes and tripped me. I came down hard! Managed to seriously bruise/scrape my right (i.e. good) knee and elbow, so I now will have matching scars (the ones from the bike crash were on the left side). Har har! Managed to lightly sprain my ankle in the process, but it's not a bad one I think. Just taking it easy today.
OK, upshots! I had a killer swimming week, went 5 times. Two days at Masters, and on the second time I swam 130 lenghts! So fun; Masters rocks and definitely makes me work harder. On Friday I swam for the first time in a long time in the Pacific, with 2 very fit and young guys from the UCI tri club... I was only going to go down and back one time, mostly because I hate my wetsuit so far and was swallowing lots of ocean. They were going to do it like 6 times, but we had a close encounter with a large sea animal (I think dolphin, one of the guys thinks seals) that literally freaked us all out enough that we headed for shore... and I managed to lose one of my fins in the process.
So maybe I should have titled this entry: "Mistakes and mishaps"?
Never fear, dear readers, a few strained tendons, ligaments, and a bit of bruised pride won't keep me down for long. I gotta do something to burn off the foody in me!
xoxo Erin
