10/21/2009

now what?

so yeah. shauny reminded me that i should take this seriously. so i've got an appointment with my ortho on monday morning. which is good and all. but: now what? i'm ITCHING to keep moving, to hit the gym. it's driven by both love and fear. love of working out. fear of losing my momentum, whatever that is, anyway.

in a perfect, knee-pain free world i would he doing this:

wed: rowing machine, weights, powerplate, 30 min (intense) treadmill run, stretching
fri: 60 minute run
sat: rowing machine, weights, stretching
sun: 30 minute run

now what? should i just ditch the running for now or ditch everything until in can ask my doc on monday? should i check with my physio?

i know i should listen to my body, and yaddayaddayadda, but that is pretty damn hard to do when your body told you for the better part of thirty years to eat entire boxes of choco crossies and tubes of pringles.

runnersworld, by the way (hello, dr. runnersworld! are you a colleague of dr.google?) tells me that my pain might point to patellar tendinitis, an "inflammation of one of the knee-joint tendons. tendinitis occurs when tissue breakdown outpaces regrowth, and is caused by increased mileage, hills (especially downhills), and pace."

can someone laugh now? with me? please? otherwise, i might just start to cry.

[increased mileage? check! hills? check! downhills? check! pace? check!]

"running through tendinitis will make it worse and prolong your recovery, says davis. but treated early, it can heal in a few weeks. here's how: cross-train, ice, wear a patella strap, take anti-inflammatories, stretch, and do exercises to strengthen the joint and quadriceps, such as leg extensions."

well. i KNOW i will not balloon to 90kg by sunday if i don't work out for the rest of the week. i KNOW i will not loose my fitness and health and all the other good things i've worked so hard for. but still! my RACE! and my SANITY!

3 comments:

Shauna said...

me again... sorry mate. it's just that i can relate to this injury-induced BLAHS so well!

after long periods of woe i finally figured the best thing to do was to focus on what you CAN do. see it as an opportunity to do something different and shake up your routine and shock your body!

my knee wouldn't work properly but i could do a KILLER upper body weights workout, or a swim, or some boxing, or grueling intervals on the elliptical machine (i used Cardio Coach to make it less bloody boring) or if it doesn't hurt too much, cycling - or even a spin class if you be really careful with how much resistance you use.

don't be scared... you are fit and it won't disappear over night and there are so many different ways to stay fit even if they're not your ideal! :)

caro said...

you're spot on, shauny. thanks for being so clear headed & calming me down.

it took your comment to make me realise that this freakout? is not about my knee, but about me failing at being perfect. same old, same old. i thought i'd finally successfully given up on that. guess not. so yeah.

i will take it easier until my knee's been checked out. the world will not end. i will still fit into my jeans. it will all be good.

now. a new plan.

today: nothing.
thursday: swim after work (definitely going to be fun for everyone else at the pool, because i might just loose my too large bikini-top)
friday & saturday: pilates (yay, love it, never go), and some sort of non-impact cardio at the gym
sunday: rest

sanity: saved.

Shauna said...

ohh man i so get the perfect thing! it's so hard to convince yourself than anything less than 100% doesn't mean a piano will fall from the sky and crush you. hope you enjoy the swimming and don't lose your top :)