My knee isn’t getting better.

It might be getting worse.

A visit to the Sports Doctor last Monday revealed no new information.  There is fluid on the knee, the x-ray doesn’t show anything, all of the manipulation tests are fine.  It could be an injury and the knee is swelling to protect it.  This seems to be what everyone is shooting for since it is just one knee.  We’ll actually need an MRI to try to determine the actual problem.  MRI’s can cost anywhere from a $1,000 to $3,000, which means we’d have to pay for it (we have a high out of pocket expense that has to be met first).  The doctor and I discussed it and decided to put off getting the MRI to see if the knee would get better.

On Monday while it was swollen it wasn’t too bad.  It started getting worse again on Tuesday.  I think in part because I stopped taking ibuprofen at her suggestion.  This let the inflammation return.  It seems that when I wake up in the morning the swelling has gone down but by the evening it is swollen up again, due to the activity we call going to work.

Obviously since I was hobbling around without being able to bend one leg very much I didn’t run or bike.  I opted for the “healing” time and didn’t do anything.  I’m getting fat and lazy.

Saturday morning Christy and I got up to help a friend man water stops.  A friend of ours is the local Team World Vision representative.  He has partnered with the Team Ortho Foundation as a Charity Partner. Part of the responsibility as a charity partner is to provide volunteers for water stops during Team Ortho’s training runs.  It was a great morning to run, but a little chilly to be standing around at the 5.5 mile mark/turn around point.  It was nice to chat with runners though and be part of it.  The highlights from the morning were getting to drive the Team Ortho truck (and learning more about their organization) and getting breakfast with a cool group of people at Moose & Sadie’s.

This week’s One Post is I Miss Trail Running.  I actually miss all kinds of running right now, but it has been especially hard to see posts and updates from my friends on their trail running this year.  It has been such a great spring for running….

This week started off with a swollen knee and a lot of uncertainty.  I was able to get into the doctor on Monday morning with a still fairly swollen knee.  It had gotten a little bit better since its peak on Saturday night.  After doing some tests the doctor looked a little befuddled and went to try and see if the sports doc was available.  You see all of her tests showed that everything was working properly (at least all of the ligaments and tendons).  The clinic supervisor came in and did a few more tests and they agreed on the obvious – I had fluid on my knee!  The question though is why and there appeared to be no answer. They suggested that I continue the course of treatment that I had started over the weekend – ice, elevation, and ibuprofen.  They took an x-ray just to make sure I didn’t have anything weird going on, the results came back normal.  Each morning I woke up with an increased range of motion and by Friday I was back to a normal range of motion with no pain or stiffness.

It was a rough few days as I hobbled around, tried to stay off my feet and keep the leg elevated all while doing my normal duties.  One problem with all of this is that my left foot was forced to take on more pressure than normal and that didn’t help the plantar fasciitis that continues to hang on.  I go back today to talk to the sports doctor more about the knee issue and I’m sure we’ll touch on the plantar fasciitis issue too. It will be interesting to see if she has any ideas.

Otherwise the week was good.  It was actually some amazing weather which made it hard to be stuck unable to go for walks or anything outdoorsy.  It cooled off over the weekend.  On Saturday morning I decided that I needed to get out and enjoy the sunshine somehow.  I figured running would be a bad idea, so I went on the first bike ride of the season!  I did a very easy 12 miles stopping along the way to take pictures of Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles.  Sadly my phone was acting weird and I lost quite a few pictures.

Sunday was an even nicer day than Saturday. Christy and I rode together to the Stone Arch Bridge and around the downtown riverfront.  It was great!! I snapped a few pictures of the swollen river.  The roads aren’t quite ready for bikers yet though, thousands of potholes made for an interesting ride.  The streets haven’t been swept yet so there is still a lot of sand and debris in the bike lanes too.

Just over 20 miles in biking.  My knee feels fine after that.

One Post is a somewhat funny Thoughts on Running Shoes and a look at the label that comes with them.

What a weird week. Monday I went with 100 7th graders to the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, MN. This is an annual 3 day trip that they go on to get some hands-on science experience, as well as for many of our urban students a chance to be out in the wild.  It was a lot of fun, though being responsible for 16 students and 3 adults would be draining enough, we rock climbed, cross country skied (classical), hiked (and fell alot), and generally were very active.  The weather was great – 40’s and sunny, but the snow conditions were terrible.  They decided we were the last group to ski, since we went through 3 inches of water while crossing the lake.  The snow pack was also fairly soft so every few steps you sunk a foot into the snow, which made for a very long and tiring hike.

The only free time to run was in the morning or late at night, so on Tuesday morning I set my alarm for 5 and got up.  I was supposed to run with one of the male chaperones, but he was up really late and opted to sleep in!  It was so quiet and peaceful.  I was a little concerned at first that some animal might attack me, but once I got over that I enjoyed one of the best runs I’ve had in a long time.  Just me and the serene early morning quiet.  Due to the conditions I just did an out and back on the Wolf Ridge dirt driveway, which ended up being 5 miles and a little hilly.  The actual campus sits atop a “mountain” at about 1,400 feet above sea level.  I gained about 400 feet in elevation over the last mile, which was a lot steeper and longer than any of the hills I’ve run this year.  I managed to keep running and finished without having to walk!  Like I said it felt really good.  I did some stretching, etc and then commenced the day of skiing, hiking, etc.  I was exhausted by the end of the day!

I felt fine on Weds to finish up the trip and we rode all the way home on the bus and only felt a little sore.  On Thursday I woke up early for a running analysis at a new physical therapy center and learned that I really do pronate a lot.  I still have a lot of weakness even after all the therapy I’ve been doing.  He wants me to try wearing insoles while I run, stretch the upper calf more (gastrocnemius muscle), and try to focus more on being a mid-sole striker instead of a ball of my feet striker.  My right leg was a little tight but nothing serious.

I decided not to run on Friday because I planned on running Saturday and Sunday with the guys, at least for a little bit.  I noticed that when I squatted my quad hurt on the outside part near my knee.  Odd, but I thought it was still residual pain from the hill work.  So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up at 4am with a lot of pain in my leg.  I took some ibuprofen and went back to sleep. When I finally woke up my knee was a little swollen and it hurt to stretch out my leg.  Even with icing, popping pills, and elevating it my knee cap was almost missing due to the swelling.

When I woke up on Sunday it was feeling better, though still stiff and swollen.  Christy was going to the gym so I decided to join her and swam 300 meters in the pool before sitting in the hot tub for a bit.  It is hard to swim without bending your knee, so I got a pretty good upper body workout out of it!  It really sucks because it was in the mid-50’s on Sunday and would have been a great day to break out the bike from its winter slumber. Oh well, there will be plenty of time for that.

How was your week?

One Post this week combines cookies and race strategy.  Enjoy!

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• Curing Plantar Fasciitis (teamcrossworld.com)

I’ve slowly been trying to increase my mileage since I am still fighting off the Plantar Fasciitis.  This week was the longest yet in 2010 at 13 miles, I know impressive?  I feel like I’m getting stronger (running-wise) and haven’t seen an increase in heel pain.  I don’t think I’ve seen a decrease in pain either, though it is hard to tell for sure.  I’ve gone 2x’s now to a free wellness clinic and gotten a massage, specifically on my foot as well as chiropractic work on my foot.  Last week was more of a chiropractic massage really digging in and put some foot bones back in alignment.  I got a lot of pain relief from that session, but not as much this week.  They are students, which is why it is free, so I might need to suggest that they work on my legs and hips too.

On Tuesday morning I woke up with the alarm and felt very awake so I jumped out of bed and got a 5k loop in.  It felt pretty good.  I need to be setting my alarm earlier, because it is hard to get even a 3 mile run in as well as the PT and stretching that I need to be doing.  I was very happy to run in the morning!

I didn’t run again until Thursday.  I knew that if I wanted to get the run in I would just have to do it right after work, but also knew that I still wouldn’t have a lot of time.  So I ran home from work.  It ended up being farther than I remembered but was a good 4 mile run.  It took a little while to get warmed up and relaxed (maybe hampered by the fact I was running with my wallet, cell phone, and keys).  It was 39 degrees so I opted to run home in shorts! A little cold on my knees but it felt great.

My third run was the Sunday morning 6.5 with the guys around the Get in Gear loop.  We split into two groups about a mile or so into it and I opted to stay with the back group and we had a nice and relaxed run.  It was overcast but still 36 so another great morning to be out on the trails.

Overall it was a pretty long week. Several late nights and long days made for a pretty exhausted guy come Friday night.  Though we enjoyed watching Invictus,  which brought back memories of my time in South Africa.

As the title says, I’m ready to start increasing my mileage.  I’m going to do this by adding a 4th day of running, though probably not this week.  I’m going on a 2 night, 3 day field trip with 104 7th graders to Wolf Ridge.  Should be a lot of fun, but don’t know if I’ll have the time to sneak in a run.  There will also still be significant snow on the ground there too.   I need to pick a race to train for so that I have that extra motivation to get out there.

How was your week? What is your next race?

This Week’s One Post is a short preview of the Human Race 8k that I wrote in 2008 when I signed up for it.  Back in January, I thought I might be in shape to run it this year, though it isn’t looking good on that front.  Probably not a good idea to run the 5k either.

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• Curing Plantar Fasciitis (teamcrossworld.com)