Distance: 8.98km Time: 01:00 Pace: 7’12” kCal: 844 Heart: 137/158 RPE: 5 Type: Just wanted to run
Today was the day.
The knee specialist saw my MRI, shook his head, look me in the eye and said the words that all runners fear.
You got a tear. Actually, you’ve probably got 3 tears in the meniscus and your ACL is pretty thin.
Wow. Not good.
“But I feel great!”, I told him. “Really?”, he asked.
Up on the bed I went and time to start playing with the knees.
“Ow! Okay. That hurt… uhm… a little”. Well, you just can’t cheat the doctor, I guess.
He is the specialist after all!
So the bad news is that the tears will not heal on their own.
The good news is that, since I don’t really have any pain, I have to just watch what I’m doing and run properly (good old Chi Running!).
As for a marathon? He strongly discourages it. But… if it’s something I want to do… well…
Just be careful and do not run 5 times a week.
So a compromise.
I’ll run 1/2 the marathon and walk the other 1/2 (since I didn’t have any trouble in my long runs). He’ll do a follow-up with me 2 weeks after the marathon and send me to a physio/sports med clinic so that they can help me in any way I need.
It sounds like a plan. These next few weeks are not crazy runs, anyway. Tonight I’ll do a little 5k run locally just because it’s nice out. Hmmm… does it count toward’s one of my ‘4’ runs this week?
Tomorrow’s another day and I’ll keep my fingers crossed.