Knee-dy

As a runner, I've been quite spoiled.

It took me a long time to find my groove with running, but since I have, I've had the (please, universe, don't jinx me for writing this!) luck and pleasure of staying pretty much injury-free. Sure, I've had my share of shin splints, but those are an annoyance, not an injury. And my December back issues were not a running injury, though they kept me from running for days at a time.

On Monday, I was a little concerned when, at the beginning of my run, my right knee seemed to be hurting a bit. As I got into my groove, it went away, and I stopped worrying...only to find it twinging a bit as I walked home later. A little while later at the gym, I spoke to M. the Reasonable about it and he agreed with me that taking Tuesday off from running would be a good idea, just to give my knee a break and see how things go.

So yesterday I swam, and today, I had a crazy day that involved driving deep into Gold Country for a job interview, going to the gym for strength training, teaching piano lessons, and finally going for a run at about 7:00 tonight.

I was looking forward to a nice easy run, and I started out slow to assess my knee. It was a little stiff and twingey, but nothing to cause concern, really.

Then, as my right foot struck the ground about two minutes in, pain shot through the knee, causing me to gasp loudly and hop around for a moment. Fortunately, the pain was fleeting, and I was able to walk it off. I tried running a little more, to find my gait was stiff and that a bit of residual pain came back. Discouraged, I turned around and walked home.

Being paranoid about injury and especially about ruining my knees, I emailed the ever-patient rock star trainer known as M. the Reasonable 'round these parts:

So I took yesterday off from running, and didn't get around to running 'til just now tonight. And about two minutes in I put my right foot down and pain shot through my knee. I walked it off, tried again. My gait is really stiff and it started twinging again (not horrid pain, but not very comfortable, either). So I just walked home. Walking is fine.

It's definitely muscular pain, and I was quite stiff this morning when I used the foam roller. Then I did all those split lunges.

Frustration!!

Guess I should swim tomorrow? 

 Within a few minutes, M. the Reassuring had responded:

I understand the frustration but the fact that it took a couple mins is a good sign. Give it some more rest. And swim tomorrow.

So tomorrow, more swimming. I'll try not to whine. And hopefully it's just a temporary setback and in a few days I'll be back out there, running happy and not bothering M. the Really, He's A Rock Star with freaked-out emails.