Posts Tagged ‘doctor’

Turkey and Trails

Distance: 5.22km Time: 0:38 Pace: 7’18” kCal: 541 Heart: NA RPE: 5 Type: 5k Trail Trot
Distance: 5.11km Time: 0:40 Pace: 7’59” kCal: 515 Heart: NA RPE: 7 Type: 5k Trail

I didn’t get too much running in over Thanksgiving, but I did manage to pull off two 5k Turkey Trots around the Monterey Peninsula just north of Big Sur, CA.

 

The first was the Salinas Valley 5k (Thursday).
This was a fun 5k event where the kids were having a blast. There was even one Turkey handing out water at the 2-mile mark. The course took place at the Toro Regional park.

The trails where nice and there was one hill that was a killer, but all in all it was a lot of fun. I did need to walk at one point.

There was a stretch that involved running through wet grass. That’s how I ripped my ACL in the first place – slipping on grass. So I still have a phobia and decided to walk it.
Total Time: 38 min.

 

The Second was the Peacock Areas 5k (Saturday).
Nice trails with lots of trees and hills. Some of the downhill trails where a little steep and dangerous… so I took those REALLY slow. But, man! What an experience. There were some people that even went out with baby strollers! I have no idea how they could navigate the course, let alone run with a good time.

some really cool pictures here

When I was nearing the finish line I was totally exhausted… and was not going very fast at all. As a matter of fact, my Portland Marathon Pace was faster! Go firgure.

Well… To be honest, I was fighting a serious cold that I picked up late Thursday night (definitely from someone at the Thanksgiving buffet). Total Time: 40 min.

Of course, after a 7.5 hour drive back on Sunday, I was feeling pretty terrible and ended up with a bad chest cold. I took it easy all week and doc says I need to rest another week, before doing any serious running.
So let’s see how things go.

Compromise?

Distance: 8.98km Time: 01:00 Pace: 7’12” kCal: 844 Heart: 137/158 RPE: 5 Type: Just wanted to run

Today was the day.
The knee specialist saw my MRI, shook his head, look me in the eye and said the words that all runners fear.

You got a tear. Actually, you’ve probably got 3 tears in the meniscus and your ACL is pretty thin.

Wow. Not good.

 

“But I feel great!”, I told him. “Really?”, he asked.
Up on the bed I went and time to start playing with the knees.
“Ow! Okay. That hurt… uhm… a little”. Well, you just can’t cheat the doctor, I guess.
He is the specialist after all!

So the bad news is that the tears will not heal on their own.
The good news is that, since I don’t really have any pain, I have to just watch what I’m doing and run properly (good old Chi Running!).

As for a marathon? He strongly discourages it. But… if it’s something I want to do… well…
Just be careful and do not run 5 times a week.

So a compromise.
I’ll run 1/2 the marathon and walk the other 1/2 (since I didn’t have any trouble in my long runs). He’ll do a follow-up with me 2 weeks after the marathon and send me to a physio/sports med clinic so that they can help me in any way I need.

It sounds like a plan. These next few weeks are not crazy runs, anyway. Tonight I’ll do a little 5k run locally just because it’s nice out. Hmmm… does it count toward’s one of my ‘4’ runs this week?

Tomorrow’s another day and I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

How long is a marathon?

Distance: 5.55km Time: 0:40 Pace: 7’14” kCal: 605 Heart: 147/159 RPE: 7 Type: 5k tempo

How long is a marathon?
Okay,  so I’m a little confused.

But, this last week has been pretty good. I did my long run in the weee hours of Sunday morning and after 3 hours, I still felt good. Physically exhausted, but no swelling around the knees or pain around the ankles.

To this day I still don’t see how I could have injured myself after just 30 minutes of running, when on Sunday I had no troubles for 3 hours.

 

The only problem I had was thinking that 13.1 miles was 23km. I couldn’t understand why I was 10 minutes over my goal at 23km (and I push the last 3km as to not have such a slow time)? That bummed me out for the rest of my run. But of course my wife pointed out AFTER I got home that 23km is NOT a ½ marathon. Oops…

Read the rest of this entry »

And the Doctor Said…


It took me a while to make this post because I wasn’t too sure of what to think and what to say about my experience.

First he was very good and the people at the clinic were in a good mood. Of course being the first there at 8am did have its advantages.

They took some extra X-rays and the knee specialists did a lot (and I mean a lot) of bending on my left knee.

He asked me what was wrong and I felt a little sheepish. After all, after waiting a whole month to see him, there was no swelling and hardly any pain. He then looked at me right knee to get a comparison and ended up telling me that my right leg as worse than my left. Huh? Go figure.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hi – I’m back running again

Distance: 8.07km Time: 1:07 Pace: 8’21 kCal: 767 Heart: N/A RPE: 3-5 Type: Pain Assesment


Hello every one.
I’m back.
Well… sort of back.

I had some serious pain and swelling in my left knee and the doctor said…

no running, no walking, no cycling, no jumping, no swimming, no sailing, no scuba diving…

 

You get the picture. The worse part was that I was going on vacation to the Rivera Maya with great intensions of running along the beach, climbing the great Mayan Ruins, and scuba diving.
Hmmm…. I guess I needed to compromise.
Read the rest of this entry »