Out at Terp's office today Rusty told me about a recent running injury. Funniest thing, stepped on a branch, etc, etc. I say something like 'yeah, it's always the smallest things.' About 20 minutes later I leave the building and as I cross the threshold I realize there's a step down.
My knee was locked out and all of my weight fell about six inches onto it. No pain whatsoever. But, the sensation of a good bit of force landing on my knee, straight down. Didn't think much of it. Fast forward a few hours... slight pain when I extended my knee. Fast forward a couple more, hard to walk on... sharp, shooting pain, etc, etc.
Every year I seem to get one or two of these odd little injuries. Back, knee, shoulder, foot. Every year I freak out about it. And every year it's gone in a few days. So far I'm taking it easy, not sweating it. If I can't do my long run tomorrow I'll start freaking out.
The freak out is proportional to the time invested in the fitness build. So far I'm into my eighth week of consistent, solid workouts. On top of six years of working out. Don't want to lose that. I'm in that sensitive period where an injury or illness can derail my build. Critical weeks.
And it's all the training that makes me prone to such strange injuries, of course. Eight weeks of banging on the knees leaves them more susceptible to injury.
Logical me says 'nothing to worry about.' Emotional me says 'my season is ruined, get the dynamite... it's time to blow up a step at Terp's office.'
[Longtime joereger.com readers (whassup mom?) know that this post is code for: I'm going to whine incessantly for three days until the knee is better.]
Sunday, February 7, 2010