SHOE PORN!
Last week, I managed an 8k that completely wiped me out left me feeling a bit worse for wear, so I held off running again for a few days. I then ran a 2.5 recovery, not too many problems, but a night on the beer the night before emptied the fuel tanks, so I kept the distance down. And then after a couple of nights where I went to be early, was a good boy and ate well, yesterday I popped out for a nice easy old 5k. Wasn't too bad a run, until I got back...
After the relax I had after the run, my right knee felt stiff, very tender and generally quite unhappy. The wife asked for my help doing a few bits, carrying things up and downstairs. After the second trip, I had to tell her I couldn't do any more, as I was in an increasing amount of pain with a lot of cracking and grinding feelings coming from my knee. So, off to the physician, thinks I, and booked an appt this morning.
(Brace yourselves, here comes the woe, unhappiness, general feelings of offence, fury and outright violence...)
I went to see the 'other' Dr at my local surgery, he's new, and has been really good so far. But today... He moved my leg about, asked some questions and diagnosed me with a sprained tendon in my knee. All good. So far. Then, the poor fool opened his mouth, meaning I'll never visit him again. I'll go and see the other one. The 'proper doctor'.
"You do realise there are other things you can do to exercise? There's cycling and swimming? Neither are as high impact as running is. Don't get me wrong, it's great that your staying fit, but with your 'problems' you've had, running might not be the activity for you." (Just so you all know, I had arthroscopic surgery 3 years ago for a tear in the cartilage in my left knee.)
I was actually quite astonished. I did tell him that I don't run fast, I can still talk when I run, and then asked him two questions. 1: will getting my gait tested so that my shoes give me proper support whilst I run help? And 2: will wearing supports for my knees help to alleviate the symptoms? He just looked blank, and went 'umm, yeah' whilst looking blank.
So I left, in an absolutely foul mood. And went to my local running shop. The ladies there were AMAZING. (Running Fox in Loughborough if you want to know which it was.) As I walked in, saying I wanted running shoes, one of the ladies looked down and tole me she could already tell I over pronated, just looking at my ankles. So I spent a lovely 45 minutes talking shoes, knee supports, (one of the ladies even got a tape measure out to make sure I had the right size knee support!) And hopping on and off the treadmill, where they even showed me the effect of the shoes I tried on on the camcorder, explaining everything that was happening.
Best thing is, when I explained about my knee, she took me to a video of me running with my current trainers on and showed me exactly WHY I've sprained the tendon in my knee, showing me how a certain roll on my left foot and ankle effects my right knee, and how the new shoes stop that from happening!
So after starting badly, the afternoon ended up lovely, and I'll never go anywhere else for running shoes. And so you know, these are New Balance Support 860 v8's.
Sexy aren't they?
Oh, and I've been given anti inflammatory meds for a month to take twice a day. I promise I'll try not to run for at least ten days.
Post-injury run and getting-back-to-it thoughts
A bit down in the dumps as IC beckons...
10k tomorrow and need some advice!
Running in the dark, a cautionary tale ....
It's the IC for me
