Frostbite!

[mattaitch]

After my first 5 miler on Sunday today's run should have been a vanilla Stamina run.

However yesterday, to my surprise and delight, I had NO KNEE PAIN whatsoever, not even a twinge after sitting on my arse for a couple of hours (Since about week 7 I have been used to having a stiff knee with the odd twang the day after a run, but nothing like the gravelly feeling when it was well and truly buggered)

So today I decided to put in a few extra "signs of of the cross"* and ended up doing 5.12 miles in 54m:2s

It wasn't a fluke! And I did it without Bovine intervention. I also knocked 80 seconds off my 5 mile time (no wading today) and I even managed to up my pace for the last quarter mile.

I also ran past 2 more village people at full clip, so I am definitely out and proud

But where does frostbite come into it?

Well, on my triumphant return I decided to ice my left knee as a precautionary measure just to pre-empt any protest. However I think that there must have been ice from the freezer stuck to my cool pack. The ice then melted through the tubular bandage I use as a prophylaxis and re-froze next to my skin. With the result that when I took the pack off, my knee looked like a lamp chop that has been lurking at the back of the freezer since last Easter.

It's an odd feeling watching part of your body defrosting, but fascinating.

Now it looks like someone has spilt a cup of tea over it. I've prodded it with a biro and I've still got normal sensation so I don't think there is any serious damage. I promise to post pictures if I get blisters or black bits.

I don't think Ranulph Fiennes would be impressed, but please watch out when using ice packs and make sure they aren't covered in freezer frost before you use them.

*at the end of the 1.5 mile track I run up and down is a crossroads with 3 gates which I run between to up my mileage. As you can see in the screenshot from Endomondo, it ends up being a bit "Spectacles, t*******s, wallet and watch"

[Mitts Graduate]

Well, you live and learn...

If it does blister please do be very careful. A good tip someone gave me once is to use a damp paper towel or the like between your skin and the ice pack, and there was something about oil too, I think you had to oil very sensitive skin under the paper towel too. Not that any of that helps your knee right now...

Looks a lovely run, though, all that green and possibly even sunshine - get that knee better soon and get out there, you're well on the way to 10 miles now!

[mattaitch Graduate in reply to Mitts]

thanks. The ice pack came with a sort of impermeable bag, but that was lost ages ago, so I've been using a Tesco tubular bandage to both act as protection and hold it in place. I've been using it for ages (3 times a day back when I wasn't able to run), so it's odd that today was an issue but it had been pushed right to the back of the freezer alongside the mammoths and Alien spacecraft and I remember getting a shower of ice down my front when I extracted it this morning.