Battle of the Wounded Knee

For those who haven’t heard me whine lately, my knee has been bothering me off and on for the last 6 months.  I rest it for a few days, go easy for a week or two, and it gets better.  Thinking it’s better, I start to use it like a healthy knee, and it’s back to step one.  Rinse, lather, repeat.

It’s finally reached the point where I called an orthopedist I had used years ago, and got no answer because he’s closed on Tuesdays.  I’m guessing actually getting an appointment might take several weeks, so in the interim it’s more self-diagnosis based on hearsay and internet research.

Until I get a professional opinion, I’m following my home-made recovery strategy:

1) Try not to be stupid and overdo anything.  Obvious, but many times it’s clear that I have a 20-something brain controlling a 40-something body.  It’s also complicated because the threshold of stupidity changes from day to day.

2) Rest and ice when possible.  I’m horrible at this, but at least I’ve discovered a good way to ice a knee.  There’s this high-tech ice pack that consists of biodegradable pellets in a plastic bag.  Because it’s filled with small pellets, it will automatically conform to the shape of the knee.  Just plop it on while sitting in front of the TV.  The problem is that the pack slowly shrinks with time, because somebody in the house keeps eating the pellets.  (it’s a bag of frozen peas, if you haven’t guessed).

3) Mentally prepare myself for a long recovery.  This means no major races and lots of slow running and hiking for 2014.  On the bright side, I may actually learn to do an easy run properly.  At the indoor track tonight I ran/walked slower than a 13-minute pace.  Considering my one and only marathon was a 12:40 pace, and my heart rate tonight averaged out to zone 2, my easy runs should be this god-awful slow.  On healthy legs I’d run much faster, and cover up my lack of aerobic capacity with my ability to run up an oxygen debt that would make the government blush.

Admitting I have a knee problem is the first step to recovery.