I have 2 news, a good one and a bad one. Good news is I broke my 5k PR, I went to the Treadmill, warmed up, got ready and went as fast as I could for 5k. Took me 21 minutes 45 seconds to complete the distance. A time I’m proud of, since when I started running doing a sub 30 5k seemed impossible.
There’s a marathon on Caracas on December 13th, and the plan was to train using the FIRST plan using as a reference a 22 min 5k time, It’s slower than my new-and-shiny PR, but since I did that PR on a treadmill (which is flat and easier) I will add 15 seconds to it. Also, all the pace calculators put me around a 3:35 marathon with that 5k time, which seems crazy to me, my goal right now is just to go sub 4, maybe sub 3:55 if I have a good day, but those times still sound crazy to me, no matter what the pace calculator say!!!
Now to the bad news. Since the San Francisco Marathon each time I ran my right knee was bothering me, I was running short distances because I wanted to give my body some time to recover. I started training for the Caracas Marathon 2 weeks ago and on my first long run, which was supposed to be a 13 mile run, my knee was hurting REALLY bad. I couldn’t complete the distance because of the pain and was able to run only 10 miles. Also I did that run on a beach house where I was that weekend with some friends and on the afternoon I had to drive 5 and a half hours to Caracas, which made the pain even worst. Since that day I can’t walk without feeling pain on my right knee, it hurts when I put weight on it.
I made a doctors appointment for this friday, is the sooner I could get into one since all the doctors seem to be on vacations right now!! A physiotherapist saw me and she said that it seems like its the tendon that goes from the quadriceps to the knee. I guess they are going to order me to rest, take some pills and maybe go to physiotherapy and that I’m going to be off for some time, I’m just hoping it’s nothing too serious that requires surgery…
So my marathon plans are gone, and probably most of my training goals for the rest of the year. This is the reason why I have been MIA from the blogs and tweeter, its been depressing and I didn’t want to know anything about training, but I will try to get back to it this week.I also need to find a way to work out, at least a little. I can’t go to the gym because that would require me to walk from machine to machine and that’s not a good idea right now, I’ll ask the doctor if I can swim, or maybe in a couple of weeks I could get go for a bike ride.
I’ll keep you all updated, thanks for reading.
That sounds like your IT band. It is a very common runners’ injury. If you google it, you can find a ton of articles about it. The good news is that with the right stretches etc. you will most likely be running before you know it. I have several friends who had IT band issues and recovered pretty quickly.
I am so sorry you are injured. I know how frustrating that can be. I hope the doctor confirms that you can be back on the road soon.
I’ve thought that it can be the ITB, but the pain is more to the center of knee and I’ve reard that ITB hurts more to the outside. Also I’ve reard that the ITB cures by resting and It’s been hurting for over a week now and it’s not any better. I’m pretty sure it’s a problem with a ligament and the ITB could be the one, at this point, I’ll be happy if it is the ITB and not something else. Thanks for the support.
Actually the way you describe it…it sounds alot like the knee pain I had last year. They just kept calling it “runner’s knee” but that just irritated me more. I’d say you should possibly check out more than one doc. Resting is good…but sometimes the knee needs activity to recover. And if a doc doesn’t know what is going on with your knee exactly–they could be giving you misleading advice–especially if they are not a runner themselves. Take it easy and I hope that it gets better soon!!!
Rachel, I was also thinking that it could be something like what you had last year. I’m also pretty sure that the cause is the downhills from SF, and I remembered that your knee pains started on a huge downhill too.
Oh no, you poor thing! I’d say you are definitely smart to get that checked out sooner rather than later. Knees are nothing to mess around with. I hope it’s nothing serious . . . and that it gets better soon! Hang in there
Did she call it the palpateis tendon (not sure of the spelling but that’s how it sounds) – I had that problem after my marathon (never bothered me before) but with physical therapy, it went away, so what I’m trying to say, is all is probably not lost.
I was wondering where you had gone, but figured you get busy with school sometimes, and you’d be back sooner or later.
Oh no, sorry to hear about your knee! But good thing you are backing off running and getting it checked out. I keep hearing of some runners running through pain and doing irreparable damage to their knees – crazy!
You have a lifetime of running ahead of you. Stay smart and keep us posted on how you are doing. Best of luck for a speed recovery!
-Terri: yes thats the name, palpateis tendon (or whatever it’s spelled). How long did it take you to recover?
-Shirley: Thanks. I prefer to take it easy as you say and make sure everything is healed instead of carrying on with an injury, that can only make things worst.
Hey alien!! Sorry to hear about that!! I had an injury on my ankle some months ago and I also felt pretty upset…but I realized that having positive touhghts is what made me go through that difficult time.
Try to spend this time doing some other hobby, like reading or writing. I know you will get over this one pretty quick!!
Web.me.com/amaurydeleon
Hey Alien/Alejandro,
Just wanted to drop you a note telling you I’ve missed you, your blog posts, your tweets on Twitter. I know you’re probably super busy with school though, so don’t worry, we’ll still be here for you when you come back.
Come back soon, though, will ya?
Terri