Too Many Hills?

In the summer of 2009, I had a great time running on the Appalachian Trail every Friday. I had soccer on Tuesday and Thursday nights and then on Friday morning I would hit the trails. After a few weeks of this pattern of exercise, my left knee started bothering me. If I stayed on top of my stretches, leg lifts, and foam roller, my knee would not feel too bad while running the trails. My knee would never feel bad while playing soccer. Sometimes during a long trail run with lots of up and downs, my knee would start to throb a lot. I continued running and playing soccer because I seemed to be able to manage the pain with the special exercises.

Towards the end of the summer, I had decided I would not be ready for the 50K in September so I decided to try for the Richmond Marathon. Also sometime during the summer, my brother Tom called me and recommended the book, "Born to Run." After speaking with my brother I went out to the bookstore that night. I saw the book, read the jacket, and bought the book. I devoured the book. Without going into too much detail, the author of "Born to Run" is a strong proponent of barefoot running. I was sold. His science was sound and this was not the first time I had heard something about barefoot running. When you learn to run barefoot or with minimalist shoes, you can prevent the injuries that many runners encounter.

While I was sold on barefoot running, my knee throbbing was getting worse. And I was having some other issues with the knee besides when I ran. Taking my shoes and socks off would sometime aggravate my knee. It seems I was a little too late into the game of barefoot running. I decided it was time for one of the D's. Runner try to avoid Drivers, Dogs, and Doctors but I liked my doctor so I decided it was worth a trip.

Dr. Law examined me and told me that I had patellar tendonitis and prescribed no hill running, ibuprofen, glucosamine, and told me to ice immediately after running. I followed his advice for several weeks but my knee was not getting better. So I went back. He decided to send me to physical therapy.

On my first visit to the therapist, the doctor grabbed his video camera and took me outside to record me running. I was very pleased that he was taking this approach. I thought that my issues were biomechanical in nature and when he showed me the video, it proved me right. He put the video into some software on his laptop that allowed him to watch it is super slow motion and draw on the screen. He showed me my terrible running form and explained how it probably lead to my knee pain.

The doctor told me no running, biking, or soccer for 6 weeks. He also gave me some exercises to do. I broke it to my Fall soccer team. We had just started the fall season and I had played in only 3 games. It was a bummer but I was determined to follow the doctors orders.

After 6 weeks and no progress, the doctor told me it might be time for surgical consult. I called Dr. Law's office and let them know. The PT doctor faxed Dr. Law's office his report and they started the ball rolling on an MRI. The MRI is a tool that is used to find out what is really going on inside the body.

Before the company that does the MRI called me to set it up, I had a bizarre thing happen. I was sitting in the garden as I could not squat because of my left knee pain. I had my right knee slightly bent with my foot on the ground. All of the sudden, I felt and heard a pop in my right knee. What made it bizarre was I was I had put my body through some tough challenges and here I get injured doing practically nothing.

This new injury happened on a Saturday and only got worse over the weekend. By Monday, I could hardly walk. Each step was extremely painful. Getting up and sitting down was also painful. I went to my doctor on Monday who examined me and decided he thought I had torn my meniscus. After examining me, I noticed that Dr. Law had a strange look on his face. He was sort of staring off into space trying to figure out how in the world I had done this while sitting in the garden.

Dr. Law's office made sure that my MRI would be on both of my knees and the company called to schedule my MRI. But first we had to go on our Thanksgiving vacation. Each year we go up to the Philadelphia area to spend time with Melissa's family. We always get a good turn out and it is always great to see everyone and catch up. Another thing we do is the Gobble Wobble 5K on Thanksgiving morning. This year, I would watch and take pictures because there was not way I could run as I could barely walk and was in lots of pain.

To be continued.