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Thread: Couch to 169K..... or bust

  1. #61
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    VO2 max now said to be 45.

  2. #62
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    Well I threw the massive challenge of the three peaks at my knee last Saturday. 23 miles and 5,700 feet, and my knee managed to hold up which was fantastic. My quads were smashed though....

    To be fair my knee has been quite sore for the last couple of days, not surprising really as my previous longest run this year was the Saturday before at 11.6 miles, but it is feeling surprisingly perkier this morning.

    My feelings about my knee are now both elation that its a million times better than I ever dreamt it would be and disappointment that its still pathetically not nearly as strong as I want it to be
    Last edited by Fellbeast; 25-05-2021 at 09:11 AM.

  3. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fellbeast View Post
    Well I threw the massive challenge of the three peaks at my knee last Saturday. 23 miles and 5,700 feet, and my knee managed to hold up which was fantastic. My quads were smashed though....

    To be fair my knee has been quite sore for the last couple of days, not surprising really as my previous longest run this year was the Saturday before at 11.6 miles, but it is feeling surprisingly perkier this morning.

    My feelings about my knee are now both elation that its a million times better than I ever dreamt it would be and disappointment that its still pathetically not nearly as strong as I want it to be
    Well done - that is good news.

    I suspect some people with symptoms similar to yours would have undergone an arthroscopy and had things "tidied up" - but the evidence that there is shows that it will have made no difference in the long term, apart from moving funds from one person to another.

  4. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike T View Post
    Well done - that is good news.

    I suspect some people with symptoms similar to yours would have undergone an arthroscopy and had things "tidied up" - but the evidence that there is shows that it will have made no difference in the long term, apart from moving funds from one person to another.
    Yeah there was a now relatively well known medical study in the US where they offered 180 people with similar knee osteoarthritis issues, three potential operations. One was a loose cartilage snipping op, one was a cartilage flush out job and one was a placebo with effectively just a minimal surgical cut to the skin. All participants accepted that they had a one on three chance of the placebo.

    Apparently recovery rates over two years were identical in all three circumstances. Which I guess shows the power of thinking something has been corrected so ergo it will get better. To me though it just shows that to get over some things you just need to be willing to tough them out and fight back

    There’s also examples of people having mri’s on painful knees which identify problems they, given exactly the same mri’s of their ‘good’ knee, are also found to have in their good but not painful knee. If it hurts, it gets an operation but if it doesn’t it’s not even noticed. Painful knees can be made extra sensitive for some one off reason and the sensitivity can be worked on over time. My wife saw Karen May, a top physio to some of the top of the top fell runners, regarding a knee issue and Karen told her at the time that a knee operation is the thing you consider when every other option has been given a try first

    Well that’s the theory anyway
    Last edited by Fellbeast; 25-05-2021 at 12:11 PM.

  5. #65
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    Placebo is a wonder drug. And more expensive and complicated ones work better.

  6. #66
    Moderator noel's Avatar
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    Forget what I just said.

    Next time your knee is sore, send me £4000 - I have a cure for sore knees. But you need to take it eight times a day while upside-down and holding a live frog.

  7. #67
    Quote Originally Posted by noel View Post
    Forget what I just said.

    Next time your knee is sore, send me £4000 - I have a cure for sore knees. But you need to take it eight times a day while upside-down and holding a live frog.
    Snake oil salesman!

    It can't be any good if it only costs £4000.

    Now if you had said £40,000 my cheque would have been in the post.
    Last edited by Graham Breeze; 25-05-2021 at 07:34 PM.
    "...as dry as the Atacama desert".

  8. #68
    Moderator noel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post
    Snake oil salesman!

    It can't be any good if it only costs £4000.

    Now if you had said £40,000 my cheque would have been in the post.
    I can see you're no fool. We have a special placebo for men of your discerning skills.

  9. #69
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    A big big try out for my knee of doom at Saturday’s 22 mile Ullswater Way Trail race and, all things considered, my knee was just about up for the task (and I didn’t need to deploy the emergency walking poles I was packing). In fact I think I ran the first two quarters of the race pretty darn well, out anti-clockwise around the lake from Glenridding to Howtown and then climbing Barton Fell before dropping down and reaching Pooley Bridge at the 11 mile point. That side of Ullswater, the south/east side is as rocky as feck in places and, coupled with queues of runners at these tricky bits (there were 582 in the race), meant that it was a bit slow going to begin with, especially as I started near the back, but I did manage to make good headway and overtake a good chunk of the field. The steady pace probably suited me anyway.

    The third quarter of the race after that, mainly spent steadily climbing Gowbarrow fell, was super hot but I think I did okay here too but the final quarter, descending Gowbarrow to the checkpoint at Dockray and then running in via Aira Force and the lakeside to the finish at Glenridding, was a bit of a grim do, with wheels falling off left, right and centre, and was all about hanging in through gritted teeth. For sure my knee wasn’t dead keen on the steep rocky descent off of Airy Crag but the heat and my lack of running so far this year also played their parts - I checked strava afterwards and my total running for 2021 now stands at 220 miles so this race accounted for 10% of it all!

    My knee was definitely groaning a bit at the finish and I was feeling a bit sick and completely trashed too but I managed to stagger over to the lake and dive in, which seemed to help a bit

    I finished in 4 hours 39, 215th out of 582 runners and 4th old bastard out of 24 old bastards - and in the circumstances I’ll take that. But jeepers I would have smashed that time last year when I was running fit

    Me looking a bit battered, running down from Dockray into the woods at Aira Force in the searing Lake District heat. Apologies for my poor hair styling but I'd just doused my head in a stream:



    As for after effects, my knee did swell up a bit on the day and aches a fair bit now too but, when compared to my run around the three peaks a couple of weeks ago, it feels like its aching a little less on a relative scale. So the graph is still I think going in the right direction. It was brilliant to be back in a race and finishing above the median with a gammy knee definitely exceeded my expectations beforehand. I am now though leaning towards a more patient recovery this year, just getting back and enjoying the fells, and am looking at the Lakeland 100 at the end of July somewhat more sceptically. I might still give the Lakeland 5 Passes a go later this month, if my knee continues to improve, and just see what happens after that
    Last edited by Fellbeast; 07-06-2021 at 12:36 PM.

  10. #70
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    VO2 max = 47.

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