My treatment is a combination of ice, deep heat and in the evening drinking plenty of beer and wine. Who'd have thought wine could help with knee injuries
My treatment is a combination of ice, deep heat and in the evening drinking plenty of beer and wine. Who'd have thought wine could help with knee injuries
ha ha wine.
I find it has the effect of reducing pain from running induced injuries as well.
Mainly due to the requirement to stay in bed all day
Sunday 29th June 2008 - a swift (well actually not that swift) up and around the back hills from my house - maybe 5 miles and 500 ft of ascent
At long bleeding last I can run again. Not fast and not yet without some pain but it was running and my right knee just might be on the mend (says stolly as he nonchalantly touches wood, throws salt over his shoulder, kisses a rabbit's foot and crosses his fingers). The injury, which I picked up on the same night that Man United played Chelsea in the Champions league running in the hills with Settle Harriers, has been a massive frustration, a real nightmare especially in the beginning, with me missing Duddon, the Wharfedale off road marathon, Settle Hills and one or two other planned escapades to boot.
Although I wouldn't have ever believed it I've kind of enjoyed it though .......
as it has inspired me to blow the dust off my mountain bike and do some fantastic on and off road cycling instead. Cue loads of humdingers of hill climbs, all sorts of terrain crossings and loads of opportunities to have fun in the hills in all sorts of weather. Kind of business as usual then. Mind you even though the cycling was keeping my quads taut, I was beginning to suspect the worse for my knee; I'd diagnosed (using the internet as you do)that I'd probably torn my inside knee ligament but, with much the same symptons, it could easily have been a cartilage, which could have been a real long term problem.
With no signs of improvement, finally I booked a physio appointment 2 or 3 weeks ago with Kate Bolger in Settle and now, after two good knee mangling session with Kate, my knee is looking like its coming through. Kate far more expertly suspects that I've torn the medial knee ligament but hasn't fully ruled the cartilage yet, although she thought I'd have probably squealed more on one or two of her knee and foot twists had it been the cartilage. Apart from the neading and bending of my knee, Kate also has given me a couple of ultra sound knee massages and some (weirdly nice) electric current treatment, all with a view to improving blood flow to the ligament and speeding up healing. Great stuff so far Kate and hopefully a couple of three more sessions might sort me out proper!
Anyway Kate also recommended that I try a run this weekend and, feeling less than confident, I gave it a go. On the down side my knee felt tight and ached a little right from the off but, on the positive, it felt the same all the way round and doesn't feel any worse now either, a couple of hours later. I did chuff along at a pretty slow pace it has to be said but it was over proper fells with a steep climb to start and a steep finish at the end and my knee managed to hack it okay. I do have my work cut out mind, trying to get fit for Borrowdale in a month's time, hopefully my comeback race!
Having said all that I do appreciate that as far as my knee recovery goes this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning
Last edited by Stolly; 29-06-2008 at 08:24 PM.
Weh hey another 'adventures post' at last!
Good on you Stolly!
Glad to see you've escaped the knackers yard!
Hope it's all uphill from here
Buggeration - a total reversal of fortunes yesterday and today with my knee stiff, swollen, painful and............. fcuked. I somehow think its a cartilage problem now and my summer of running is laying in tatters before me.
Oh dear! Did I speak too soon. Looks like we are in the same boat!Originally Posted by Stolly
Buggeration - a total reversal of fortunes yesterday and today with my knee stiff, swollen, painful and............. fcuked
What are you upto on Saturday? Why don't you come up to Osmotherley for the show and we can laugh at Ambrosia Kid sweating it out in the heat of the summer sun!
Oh dear! Did I speak too soon. Looks like we are in the same boat!
What are you upto on Saturday? Why don't you come up to Osmotherley for the show and we can laugh at Ambrosia Kid sweating it out in the heat of the summer sun!
Sorry MG, only just noticed this. My trouble is that, if I can't run, it really frustrates me to watch others being able to..... the bastards
Re: Stolly's Running Adventure
sorry to hear that stolly, I was looking forward to a catchup at borrowdale.Sorry MG, only just noticed this. My trouble is that, if I can't run, it really frustrates me to watch others being able to..... the bastards
Knowing how frustrated you get, I wont go on about my recent races then eh.
Hope it clears up soon bud.
Well at long bloody last my knee feels like its getting better, with the last week in the Lakes with my daughter Kelly spent walking, running and swimming being the tipping point back to some kind of running fitness. Well fitness might be the wrong word but I can now chug along and it doesn’t cripple me any more. Whilst away we did three runs......... of sorts:
Lakes Run #1
Having walked up Helvellyn in fairly pissing with rain conditions on our first Saturday in the Lake District, the next day I decided to grab the bull by the horns and have a crack at running the Fairfield Horseshoe from Rydal, only my third attempt at a run in almost two months. We followed the walkers route rather than the race route, albeit the only difference being the route up Nab Scar as far as I could tell.
OS Explore Route
So me and Kels hacked off and, although my knee was aching and feeling less than 100% stable, I managed the going up bit all the way to Fairfield summit okay……ish. Kelly took advantage of my lack of speed by setting a nutter pace going up Nab Scar, leaving me comfortably trying to play catch up (and failing) all the way to Heron Pike. After that though my superior superiorness kicked in and I was slightly ahead at the half way point of Fairfield. To be fair Kelly was feeling a little light headed at the top and was suffering some sort of energy crisis but, what the heck, a win is a win.
We both then suffered on the long descent with me not feeling at all comfortable running down hill on my knee, which was feeling increasingly ‘achey’ on every downward pound of my right leg. Kelly already had her lack of petrol problem (yep I didn’t bother carrying any sweets for refuelling) and it was compounded probably by the increasing lethargy of a relatively warm day and a long, long trog along what can seem a never ending ridge to nowhere. Kelly (the dot on the landscape) snoozing and losing:
We made it in the end though and proceeded to each snarfle and slobber our way through a huge slab of lemon drizzle cake in a matter of seconds at the Rydal tea shop..... as you do. Overall then a success in that I managed to run it (sort of) and was not in too much pain afterwards. The run though took ages – maybe 2 ¾ hours.
Lakes Run #2
We cycled around Lake Coniston and climbed the Old Man on Monday leaving Tuesday as a potential run day; the trouble was that we were both completely and utterly knackered. We did however manage a short trot over the cliffs from St Bee’s Head to the lighthouse and back with a quick rock pooling, beach combing break in the middle at Flitwick Bay. OS Explore Route Again the knee ached but not enough to stop me running at a slow chuff-along pace. Barely a run then but a run all the same. Fantastic views from the cliff tops and a great dip in the sea to finish off.
Lakes Run #3
And this was a utterly classic run. We’d walked Bowfell from Langdale the day before and a loop from Buttermere to Scale Force in the afternoon before that (after our St Bee's run) so nothing too testing was required and this fitted the bill perfectly on what was a very warm and sunny morning. Incredibly no hills were involved, it wasn’t a long distance and the running was all on the roads (wash my mouth out) but, regardless of all that, it was an absolutely fabulous ‘run’ all the same. OS Explore Route
Its one that we’ve done before and the plan is to park up just off the road on the west bank of Coniston Water directly opposite Peel Island (just down from Sunny Bank) and then run the road south, go around the bottom of the lake and then back up to the jetty on the east bank at Rigg Wood. Maybe a 40 minute run all told. You then dive off the jetty and swim at a diagonal to make an intermediate landfall on Peel Island, followed by a quick Swallows and Amazons nostalgia trip before plunging in again and swimming across the lake on the last leg back to the car. Simple.
And it was simple. A lovely run out for me, testing the knee a bit on hard ground with me wearing my walshes too (as the best bet for giving a soaking and swimming in). When we beached on Peel Island an open water swimmer who's followed us was amazed at our tolerance to the cold of the lake without wearing whimpy old wet suits and even more amazed when he saw we were swimming in fell shoes. Cold! Pah! He needs to run the full tour of Pendle in November in proper wind and rain to know what proper cold is
Kelly making landfall on Peel Island:
Both of us having just crawled out of the lake at the end:
All in all then a positive return to some running even though two of the three runs weren't exactly taxing. Next stop desperately trying to get fit for the Ben.
Last edited by Stolly; 01-08-2008 at 06:14 AM.
sounds like a great time away. Love the pics, always cheer me up when sat in t'office bored outta mi brain!
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