Back in Training (or listen to your body)

I haven’t run in ten days. Knee pain.   I never get knee pain.   But I’m starting to get better at the self-diagnosis thing.   After an extremely fast 40 miles the week before Christmas averaging slightly under an eight minute pace, my knees started to ache.   But then I got sick and took a week off to get better.  Two more runs last week totalling a whopping eleven miles and the pain was still there.  But as stupid as I am I pushed those runs at my eight minute pace as well.   I thought I had a speed breakthrough.  Those miles were feeling easy.   A dull pain directly under my right kneecap told me something else was up.

A quick search for possible causes brought me to Runners Knee.   A simple and common overuse injury.  I went over possible causes in my head.  My alternating pairs of Adrenaline 10’s were both slightly over 300 miles.   Maybe it was the road camber from running against traffic like every runner should.   Or maybe it was running too fast?  So I took those ten days off to see if simple rest would take care of it.   Plus it’s been really cold out and I wasn’t missing getting up at 5:30 AM to run.  One of my main goals this year is to stay healthy and here I find myself injured the first week of January.   But I’m actually starting to get smart believe it or not.   LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!   So I did.   You can’t run a marathon with knee pain on 11 miles per week.

Yesterday was test day.   To eliminate possible variables I brought out a new pair of Adrenaline 11’s.   The 11’s by Brooks feature DNA instead of the MoGo mid-sole compound.  It provides a more comfortable ride and is a custom personalized cushioning.   Decided to run really slow at a ten minute pace.  Speed in January doesn’t do you a whole lot of good so why even try to run fast.   I also made the run purposely short.  

3.3 miles later I kept waiting for the knee to react.   I stretched for a good 15 minutes afterwards.   It’s been 24 hours and all knee problems seem to have disappeared.   It’s amazing how my mood has improved by knowing I can run again.  I’d rather not run for 10 days than have horrible problems and struggle all year.   Again, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!   I’ll do another short run today but I think the knee is Ok.  Oh yeah and if you need some support when you run go get the Adrenaline 11’s.   Pretty plush ride without being too soft.   There is a reason why Runners World awarded it the Best Shoe Update.

As a side note, I’m a Green Bay Packer fan.   Huge playoff game today.  Go get ’em Pack and take one step toward the Super Bowl.   I don’t want to listen to Chicago sports radio tomorrow and be depressed.