Sunday, September 9, 2007

La Patella

Phase II - Regressive Count - Week Twelve
09/03/07 - 09/09/07
Week Total: 22.9

No, it is not a veal or chicken scaloppine with mushroom portobello. Nor is a typo on my favorite dish, paella. It is that I hurt my knees. It's "Runner's Knees: Chrondomalacia Patella".

Yesterday I went for my 14 miles run, through a very nice route in Long Beach, California. Along water, and at a nice temperature of 66F. First along the Ocean, then through Naples Rivo Alto Canal, then Alamitos Bay Marina, back to the Ocean, Shoreline Marina and a last mile by the Ocean again.












The plan to ensure "non-depletion" was to walk for a minute every 10 minutes and having my GU's every 45 minutes. By mile 8, my legs were fine, my breathing was steady, so was my heart at an average of 152 bpm. However,
I started to feel pain in my knees. I kept going and also felt pain in my insteps, more in the right than in the left, which I assumed was due to tight shoelaces.

Every start after a walk break was harder than the previous, but I kept going. By mile 13 the pain was huge, but I could continue. Stupidly, I sprinted the last 0.2 miles, as fast as I could.

For the rest of the day I could barely walk due to my knees. Meanwhile massaging my right instep I touched something in a way that gave me a terrible pain. So, my two knees and my right foot were out of order, and I was limping for a while. After icing my foot, the pain in the instep was gone. The knees keep hurting.

I am concerned that I am injured now. My calves and hamstrings feel like if I walked in the park, but the pain in my knees is severe.

Would it be any relationship between the instep pain and the knee pain?

Or is the patella (knee cap) imbalanced due to weak quadriceps?

I see myself tomorrow visiting the running store to
get a strap for compression and stability to the Patella.

Ah, and no question, legs extensions twice a week.

4 comments:

Kevin said...

Very cool idea for a blog! I'll check it out from time to time and your daughters as well. Hang in there..

MarathonChris said...

I love running in CA. I was on a business trip to San Diego back in July and had a marvelous 16 mile run from La Jolla Cove to the Pacific Beach boardwalk and back. Sorry to hear about the knees. Although I fight aches and pains, my knees are not one of them (ask I knock on wood). PF, shin and hamstring - all on the left side (sigh). Hope it is nothing serious...you may need to give it a break.

You commented on my blog about running together sometime - however I live in Orlando, not Vienna. I am working in Tyson's Corner / Vienna. I come here every now and then. But if you find yourself in Orlando, DC area, San Diego....perhaps I am there as well.

Cool you are doing the marathon "virtually" with your daughter. I hope to run a marathon with my daughter some day!

Run strong!

JeffM said...

Sorry to hear about the knee pain, hope it's temperary and not serious.

Irish Blue said...

Hope your knee pain is only temporary. Take it easy for a couple of days.

Great idea running with your daughter. My daughter is a runner as well, junior high cross country. I love going to the meets and watching her run and improve.