Do I need to take an extra rest day?

[CatsRun]

I started Week 8 on Sunday, which went fine, and am due to do session 2 tomorrow morning. However, unfortunately my right knee is being a little twingy after going on a long walk yesterday (I run first thing in the morning). I already know what you will all say but I would still appreciate hearing it from you. I am guessing I need to take tomorrow as an additional rest day.

It is so disappointing because I have been injury free and well throughout the 8 weeks and am so close to completing the course. I really look forward to the runs, although often find the first one of a series quite tough. However, I am quite obsessional about getting out for exercise and a walk 2x a day, so on the day I run I also have been going on an evening walk. I thought my body was fine with this. Please do let me know what you think.

Many thanks.

[Instructor57 Graduate]

Personally, I would take an extra rest day.

You don't want an injury at this stage in the program !

You say it's disappointing, what , 1 day ! 😁

Thing is if you run on it and it's worse then you may need several days off !

Now THAT would be disappointing 😁

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

In the long term a few extra rest days are going to be much wiser than exacerbating an existing minor injury.

You can always do some other general strengthening exercises which don't load the knee and try to follow the advice in the guide on minimising impact when you start back again.

[Dups Graduate]

I agree with Instructor 57, take the extra day or days. I’ve been resting for over a week now with only two runs left to graduate. Believe me you don’t want to worsen an injury when you getting near the end.

He is absolutely right , it is disappointing.

Good luck!

[CatsRun Graduate]

Thanks for your comments. I decided to take a couple of days off and may start back on a 25 min run of Wk 7 to try myself out again. I spoke with my brother who is a little older than me but has been running for a decade or more on a regular basis. He said that whilst after 6-8 weeks the muscles will have strengthened but the tendons, ligaments etc take longer to adjust to extra load. It made a lot of sense to me so I will try a run this Thursday and probably do the 25 min to see how it goes. I'm not in a race with any one to reach the end of the programme and as you all say it is better to have some extra rest time to avoid creating a proper injury that will take longer to heal. Thank you for your support.

[CatsRun Graduate]

I gave my knee 4 days of rest and re-did W7R3 (25 mins). No problems at all, so glad I took the extra days off. Will try W8R1 (28 mins) in a couple of days. Thanks all!