This morning, I started my run at 4,000 feet of elevation in a small town known for it’s apples. The goal was to run 20+ miles and I wanted to add miles at the top of the mountain at the cooler temperatures. So, I traded pace time for some big hills and added 6 miles at elevation before starting the descent. I felt great. No leg pains, no cloudiness in the head, great music, just me and the road. Really enjoyed in the mountains. Much prettier than down here in the city. Fantastic views of the valley.
Met a nice guy who has run 14 marathons. He said he was just running for the health of it and enjoying every minute. Hopeful that someday when he is old and barely moving he’d qualify for the Boston Marathon! I wished him luck as I passed him twice.
Mile 11, HEED, New Strawberry flavor, yummy. At this point, I was pumped up. Had felt great up to this point. My average for the descents was just 8 minutes a mile and that was all I needed. I FLEW down the last big downhill section. Got the first truly hot section of the run at mile 15 and then my performance went from great to bad in just a few miles. I really don’t understand what happened, except that my knee just blew up. Felt like the patella was coming away form the muscles. I could run uphill no problem, but descending just made it feel like FIRE. On all my previous runs, this knee has hurt in the last quarter mile downhill before my house- but it always went away on the flats. Today, I could NOT shake it. Then, I see my hubby hauling my two boys up this massive hill and that was a very cheerful moment. We chatted for a quick minute and I attempted to keep going. I only needed 4 more miles to get to twenty and that would be way before my house, so, I told him to just go and get the car, and I was hoping to finish the run.
Not going to happen. The more I ran, the more pain I had. Ran one tenth, followed by walking four tenths of a mile. Last mile was mostly walking. Finished with 18 miles at a 9:20 pace. Not quite the goal. Bummer. On an interesting note, in an article Runner’s World “Think Fast” by Matt Fitzgerald, he states that your brain focuses on the endpoint and calculates how hard you can push yourself and still complete your workout. “Your brain anticipates when you’re going to be done running and regulates your pace accordingly”. Not sure if this has an effect on my knee but it does make sense that my brain thought I was done. I had already run 15 miles and so it thought I should be winding down.
So, there you go. Nothing but Yoga and ice for a few days and see how it goes.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Training4Dublin // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:05 am
Wow! Sorry you we’re in pain but we’d love to run that pace and distance! Amazing! Did same distance today but 30 second per mile slower! Great work!
2 kch // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:06 am
Sorry it didn’t go as well as you had hoped – heal quickly!
kchs last blog post..Review: Treadmill Trainer
3 Running Knitter // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:20 am
Oh no! Hope the knee is better soon!
4 FitMom // Sep 8, 2008 at 4:37 am
Thanks everybody. Knee feels better. Did some recovery yoga, took an ice bath, advil…got to commit to MORE yoga. I think it’s the only thing that is going to save my legs. will attempt a run wednesday.
FitMoms last blog post..Booty got kicked!
5 Chellie Has Issues // Sep 8, 2008 at 4:41 am
Ouch! That doesn’t sound good. I hope ice is all you need to fix it. Mine is a bit better today. It hurts when I sit though and is better when I’m on it which seems counterintuitive to me.
Chellie Has Issuess last blog post..First Place Female
6 MizFit // Sep 8, 2008 at 11:33 am
Better this morning?
I hurt just reading & thinking about it.
Miz.
MizFits last blog post..Monday Facetime. Bent Over Row: The Dress Returns.
7 SeeMomSweat // Sep 8, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Hope you back to full strength soon.
SeeMomSweats last blog post..The Taste of Independence
8 Mark Salinas // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Rest and relaxation my friend!
I ran a 25K yesterday…some reason I am a bit sore. Resting for a couple of days.
Mark Salinass last blog post..The Active Child with Rosabel Yip
9 Lance // Sep 8, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Feel better soon. – R&R I say!
10 WeightingGame // Sep 8, 2008 at 7:07 pm
so smart of you to listen to your knee! Plus, 15 miles in high altitude is nothing to shake a stick at. Happy icing and hope you recover quickly!
WeightingGames last blog post..5 Ways to Master Your Emotions
11 Al Lyman // Sep 10, 2008 at 3:28 am
HI Rachel. As you know, I just saw your post and your email. I did reply to it, but wanted to also post my message to you, here, for everyone’s benefit….
———
My first question is, do you still have any pain or swelling in the knee? If you do, then it would be craziness to attempt to run on Wednesday, let alone do any tempo stuff…
If you don’t have any swelling or pain, then I might consider running, but only very easily, and obviously with no downhill terrain….
As for any input from your brain that you were “done,” I’d say that clearly DOESN’T account for the pain you felt, that’s for sure….
As you may know, downhill running places a great deal of eccentric (eccentric means that the muscles are contracting but ALSO being pulled apart, or lengthening) stress on the muscles, and if downhill form and technique is less than optimal (more pounding or impact stress), then it can also place a great deal of stress on the joints and especially on the knees (and hip and low back, too). Also, as you know me well, I am a BIG advocate of the importance of hip mobility, stiffness/strength, and elasticity, to HELP absorb the impact stress and take it away from the knee. The stiffer and less mobile and elastic and flexible your hips are, THE MORE stress your knees have to absorb, especially when running downhill….
My first question is, where is the pain and swelling? Is it on the lateral aspect of the knee, or at the knee cap, or somewhere else? Location gives an indication for what kind of injury this is.
Your comment that you were “flying” down the hill tells me that you were perhaps, pounding pretty strongly down the hill. I have never seen you run, and have no idea of your downhill running form or technique, but as I said earlier, this is a big factor in how much stress your body (and knee and low-back, as an example) has to absorb as you run down hill. Also, very often the ITB can be aggravated or an injury will flare up around the knee at the ITB attachment point, because the ITB has to work so hard when running downhill, to control internal rotation of the leg through the stance phase of running. This is often more common in women runners, because of the fact that your hips are wider and therefore, there’s often more lateral stress on the knee (more acute angle from the hip to the knee, IOW).
The bottom line: I guess as I type this, I’m once again acknowledging that there’s no way I can diagnose an injury over the internet, without a picture or any other info at the very least, and even if I could, I shouldn’t, since I’m not a doctor or a PT. What I DO KNOW, is that its fools gold to be running through pain of any significant kind that isn’t “effort” pain. If you are injured and if you have been running through this pain, its a “pay me now or pay me later” kind of deal.
One thing for sure, you clearly are very fit. The best thing you can do is allow this to heal. Do NOT run until the pain has completely subsided, and consider turning to some form of cross training (water running?) that doesn’t injure you further or cause more pain, to maintain your fitness level. Runners as a general rule, are well known to run through pain, and then “hope and pray” that an injury just “goes away”……very rarely does it ever go away on its own, though we wish it so!
Be smart, take care of your body, first and foremost. Running through injury never pays! Get this diagnosed if it persists, and then once you have healed and are ready to move forward, attack your weakness, whether its eccentric strength, running form (get videotaped for form review and learn how you can improve your downhill technique as an example), or some other issue, so that this injury goes away and doesn’t return…
If you are coming up upon your “A” race very soon, say in the next few weeks, then the BEST possible thing you can do is to be smart, so that you arrive on race day as close to 100% healthy as possible. If you can do that, and then maintain some semblence of your fitness between now and then, you can take your great fitness and have a great race. If you force the issue now, all you will do is ensure you get injured worse, and end up with little to no chance to run well, ON the day….
I hope this helps…
All best,
Al
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12 Humbled again… // Sep 11, 2008 at 4:44 am
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