the scoop about my knee
So, my knee started hurting a lot in March, and it's taken me until now to actually see a physical therapist (due to my sickness, busy-ness, and lameness in getting organized). In the meantime, I've been running and biking a lot less, and worrying a great deal about what the mystery knee pain meant, and whether I was damaging it with my occasional running.
So, there's bad news and good news.
The bad news: My hips and knees are not at all made for running, especially on the right side. They're apparently perfect for dancing -- too bad I lack any coordination or grace whatsoever. :) My femur twists between my hip and my knee, and that puts a lot of strain on my ligaments when I run. Because it's a bone issue, there's no way to entirely fix the problem, and I'm probably never going to be able to run as much as I was at the beginning of the year, or train for really long races.
The good news: I don't have to stop running. I'm not actually damaging anything by running right now -- she says I'll get sore a lot sooner than I'll actually hurt myself, so I'm welcome to figure out how much I can stand to run, and to go ahead and do that. I don't have to worry that that will cause my knee long-term injury. From my recent experience, it seems like I can run 5k a couple times a week, or less than that more times a week, and my knee doesn't bug me too much. She said she doesn't think it will probably be a problem for me to run 10-12k races occasionally. Yay!
She also told me I should be stretching my hamstrings 2-3 times a day and doing leg-lifts with weights for my quads, and she showed me how to do all those things effectively. If I do those consistently, it should also improve things when I run. Yay!
Also, there's no need for me to keep going to physical therapy, which is good, because it did cost me a $25 copay. But she gave me her contact info in case I had questions. Speaking of -- I initially intended to see Eric Holm at Harvard Vanguard (in Somerville), who had been recommended to me. But for various reasons, I ended up Karen McCarthy (same location) instead. She was awesome, and I definitely recommend her if you have running-related injuries, are local, and your insurance will cover it.
So, there's bad news and good news.
The bad news: My hips and knees are not at all made for running, especially on the right side. They're apparently perfect for dancing -- too bad I lack any coordination or grace whatsoever. :) My femur twists between my hip and my knee, and that puts a lot of strain on my ligaments when I run. Because it's a bone issue, there's no way to entirely fix the problem, and I'm probably never going to be able to run as much as I was at the beginning of the year, or train for really long races.
The good news: I don't have to stop running. I'm not actually damaging anything by running right now -- she says I'll get sore a lot sooner than I'll actually hurt myself, so I'm welcome to figure out how much I can stand to run, and to go ahead and do that. I don't have to worry that that will cause my knee long-term injury. From my recent experience, it seems like I can run 5k a couple times a week, or less than that more times a week, and my knee doesn't bug me too much. She said she doesn't think it will probably be a problem for me to run 10-12k races occasionally. Yay!
She also told me I should be stretching my hamstrings 2-3 times a day and doing leg-lifts with weights for my quads, and she showed me how to do all those things effectively. If I do those consistently, it should also improve things when I run. Yay!
Also, there's no need for me to keep going to physical therapy, which is good, because it did cost me a $25 copay. But she gave me her contact info in case I had questions. Speaking of -- I initially intended to see Eric Holm at Harvard Vanguard (in Somerville), who had been recommended to me. But for various reasons, I ended up Karen McCarthy (same location) instead. She was awesome, and I definitely recommend her if you have running-related injuries, are local, and your insurance will cover it.