Run for the Lakes Marathon Result

Went in pretty uncertain of everything, knowing that I have a meniscus tear in my knee, knowing that my last 4 weeks of running were at best poor, so to say that I had concerns about pain management and pace would be a global understatement. 

But I did have a plan, the same plan I had before everything went off track, it was to run using the Galloway method and for this race I decided on a conservative method: run for 75 secs - walk for 60 secs. 

Unbelievable to me, it worked. At a couple points I tried to test the knee, significant pain increase after 90 seconds of running so I think I did everything just about right. The course was very enjoyable with minimal camber, no concrete, a nice breeze, sunny skies, friendly volunteers and a well marked course. 

I also tried the CoQ10 and NAC pills and had no issues with low energy and I sprinkled in some S-Caps and nausea was a non issue as well. Last I carried my own drinks, only drinking water with Nuun tablets. I had heard about using CoQ10 and Nac-Acetyl Cysteine on a nutrition video I grabbed off of YouTube, it basically said taking in anti-oxidants would allow your body to continue to use energy well. 

All I know is that between the Galloway method and the pills everything worked. My mile times were consistent throughout with only a couple mile splits off track. I was blown away at my consistency, my mile times ranged from 11:49 to 13:30, and the 13:30 was one of only two miles slower than 12:35. Every other mile was between 11:55 and 12:25. Oh yeah my time was 5:25:43. 

The time was better than anticipated and the post race recovery seems very good.This may take some to figure out as to what caused everything to work. Hopefully the knee recovers and I can do my next marathon in 2 weeks.

Run for the Lakes Update

Well, I am one day out from Run for the Lakes and I am a go to do the race.

That said I am not exactly going into it with great confidence. Since my last post I have been dealing with constant knee pain and up through Wednesday I was really thinking about pulling the plug.

First some background, over the last 4 weeks, I was able to hobble through a couple of longer runs but they were not fun nor effective for giving me confidence that I could maintain a marathon finishing pace. The problem with the knee is after we returned from vacation each run seemed to hurt more. I was in San Jose last week and I went for a 4 mile run and got through it but it was a struggle. The next day I went to Rancho San Antonio and had to walk more than I ran and my pace was very slow when I did run. On Saturday I went for a 7 mile run with my daughter in Lebanon and that run pretty much told me that I was nearing a decision point. I took Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off to let the pain and swelling subside which takes me to Wednesday. I had hoped that with 3 days off I would be able to start the run pain free or at least reduced but after a 1/4 mile I knew I had reached my decision point.

So I headed over to Twin City Orthopedics in Burnsville, they have walk-in appointments and less than 10 minutes later I was getting it checked out. They took X-rays to make sure that they looked good and then examined the knee. The doctor pointed out on the X-ray that I had the start of osteoarthritis in the knee which he considered somewhat normal since he knew I had knee surgery 10+ years earlier. He then took the knee through the movements and gave me the news of a torn meniscus which surprised me a little as I was hoping that Kevin's diagnosis of a bursa/tendon issue was the cause, oh well.

He said I could run on it and it would be all about my ability to manage the pain. Since I have had surgeries for my previous meniscus tears, my concern is how much meniscus do I have left in this knee. So I am hoping to avoid surgery, he of course said if I wasn't running on it, that for normal everyday activities I would probably be able to avoid it. Since the knee isn't catching and taking into account that probably half of the meniscus might already be gone from the first surgery, he seemed to think it's a smaller tear and might be manageable even for running. Of course it would take a MRI or surgery to confirm.

What he offered to do is to give me a steroid shot in the knee with the belief it could reduce the swelling and that should give me a shot at the marathon on Saturday. He said no running on it until the marathon to give it the best chance to help. He wasn't as confident about the rest of the races for the year but thought this marathon would provide me some insight.

So there it is, on to Brainerd for a marathon test.

Based on how things go it will probably dictate my year as if I have significant pain then surgery may be where I want or need to go. My hope is that I can manage it and run the races for this year as planned. Stay tuned.

Update on "Long run recap? "

I decided to go in and see Dr. Kevin at Lyn Lake Chiropractic. I figured if it's my meniscus he still might be able to help, if not, then for sure he would be able to.

He checked things out and believes it's an inflamed bursa just below the knee or possibly a strained MCL. He said with the swelling it's a bit hard to tell but he said the pain point was below the meniscus and probably the bursa. He said it's the  "pes anserine bursa." and agrees that I probably injured it when I missed the step out in San Jose and landed hard on the knee (at the time I was quite happy that I didn't roll the ankle). I then ran 3 days in a row while in San Jose on a mixture of concrete and asphalt which probably caused it to become more inflamed.

Anyway, they worked on it with a combination of stimulation, something else, ultrasound, he adjusted the knee and taped it. He said with what they did and then following up with ice that I will be running pain free in no time. So that's the plan, rest, ice, aleve, see Dr. Kevin for additional treatments if needed, repeat.

Long run recap?

The plan for today was to get a 19 mile long run, it didn't happen. As I posted last time, somehow I have injured my knee and the injury is eerily similar to one from the past with one very good difference. The injury, a possible medial meniscus tear, the problem is I have had it in the past, had surgery which means less meniscus so if I have injured it again, well not good.

Why have I jumped to this conclusion, the pain is on the inside of the knee, right at the joint line. I may be wrong but I am not sure what else it could be and based on two past meniscus tears (both knees) it seems similar. Maybe it's bruised, strained or ?.

Anyway, the plan for today was to continue with the Galloway run walk method which is a good approach if you have an injury anyway. All was going well until after 4 or 5 miles I meandered over to Apple Valley and ran a few miles on concrete, shortly after that the knee went from manageable pain to uncomfortable pain. I tried to work through it but as my form started compensating and not in a good way, I decided to abort at 14 miles.

What to do? Ice, stretching, ice, maybe see a doctor? The problem is I have 4 weeks until the first marathon of the year, one final long run in 2 weeks so I have just a few weeks to heal (optimist :-) or to see a doctor or both I guess. The problem is other than another surgery which I don't think is needed, although there is swelling and pain, it hasn't caught or buckled so I think it is minor, just painful at the moment. The main concern, is that I am not sure what they can do except tell me to rest it which doesn't fit my plans. The other problem, we are in vacation next week so getting in to see a doctor isn't real feasible either, so ice, compression and shorter runs are the plan.

Stay tuned...........