I’m lame. I haven’t written a blog post in a while. I have let life get in the way. Oh, that thing called LIFE. Well, there were some tough things going on so I guess had no motivation to post anything interesting about my running.

I officially started my training plan for Eugene about 8 weeks ago. So, I have been running just fine getting short and long runs in. I also decided to become a member of the Sacramento Running Association (SRA) and started a free 8-week training last week. I figured it couldn’t hurt to get some extra training and an extra push for my next marathon. I feel really good about it!

Last Wednesday I did a double workout. I had missed my workout on Tuesday, so I didn’t think too much about doing this. I got in a cardio/weights/lunge workout in the morning, then met with the SRA training group for a speed workout in the evening. Everything felt great. Then I did a run Thursday morning and the side of my knee felt a little sore after, leading me to think maybe my knee popped out again. I had done some intense cycle and lunge work and then a hard speed workout back-to-back on Wednesday, so I thought maybe just my inner quads were sore. But after a couple days, I knew it wasn’t just sore muscles. I haven’t had any problems with this since January or maybe even December. It’s been quite a while. But I just knew something was off.

I iced and continued to pay close attention to the sore area. It wasn’t as bad as it had been in the past (last November), but I knew I should get in to see my PT. In the meantime, I got a long run in on this Monday and it was fine. My knee never hurts when I run or walk or anything, just after the run is when it’s a little tender. I met with SRA last night for a Fartlek workout and everything went great! I felt good and after the run, my knee didn’t feel sore. Of course! The day before I am supposed to see my PT, now my knee doesn’t hurt. But I was still going to see him anyway.

So,  I saw my PT this morning. Right after I laid down on the table, my PT saw that the back of my leg had fluid on it and was swollen. I didn’t even notice this morning! But I know for sure it wasn’t like this yesterday. He checked different spots on the knee to see where it hurt and then tried to pop it back in. He realized he wanted to do some muscle massage and stimulation to the hamstring and calf first before popping it in. I hate the stimulation machine thing he uses. It’s a tingly sensation that feels so weird. The massage mostly feels good until he gets to the super tender spots in the muscles that you didn’t even realize were tender. Ahh!

After all that, he was able to pop in the knee and everything was fine. It actually didn’t hurt as bad as it had in the past, which is also good. He also said my quads and calves are looking rounder and beefier, which is great. I have been working on my inner quads a lot the last 6-7 months to make sure this knee-popping thing doesn’t keep happening. I need those inner quad muscles to be stronger.

He wrapped my leg up with Rock Tape and now I’m all good to go! I’m going to take it easy today and tomorrow with some cycling and strength training and continue with icing. I have a 15 mile long run planned for Monday and he said I should be fine to run that.

I asked him what could have caused the knee to pop out again. He said it could have been anything. He said maybe I stepped wrong. I explained that I thought maybe my shoes might have contributed to it also. I had recently (about mid-March) gone back to my old shoes that still had some mileage on them but were coming up on 300 miles. I finally looked at the bottoms of the shoes a couple days ago and noticed the wear on the tread on the heels. Yup, these are dunzo! And I had put 298.5 miles on them as of Monday. Lol! He said maybe I should only put 250 miles on my shoes instead from now on.

One thing I have learned over time with all this constant running is to listen to your body. As soon as I feel something different or have a feeling something is out of whack, I get it fixed as quickly as I can so that I can recover faster. I’m not stressed about this. It just goes with the territory.

Oh life…as a runner.

I hope you all are running injury free and having a great Spring!