In the Dumps

I can’t say anything more.On Saturday I decided to give the trails a short tryout. 3.5 miles or thereabouts. Slower than 14:00 per mile. And by Saturday night my right knee was in a ton of pain and discomfort. I tried to head out mid afternoon Sunday, but was unable to make it more than a few dozen yards before the pain had me throwing in the towel. This does not bode well for my next few planned races. If I can’t do a couple trail miles without pain, how do I tackle 10?

I supposed there’s always a silver lining. From Cool Running:

“The pain often feels worst when running downhill or walking down stairs, and the knee is often stiff and sore after sitting down for long periods. You might hear a crunching or clicking sound when you bend or extend your knee.”

Yup.

“How did your knee get off track? Probably because of relatively weak thigh muscles and a lack of foot support. It's your thigh muscles that hold your kneecap in place, preventing it from trying to jump its track. Running tends to develop the back thigh muscles (hamstrings) more than those in the front (the quadriceps), and the imbalance is sometimes enough to allow the kneecap to pull and twist to the side.”

Okay. How do I fix it?

“Quadriceps
(To treat and prevent runner's knee)

Standing Leg Lifts
Stand with your back against the wall. Lift one leg up as high as you can with the knee straight. Hold for five seconds, then bend your knee to relax, hold for five seconds. Straighten your leg again, and do five of these before switching to the other leg. Over time, see if you can build up to ten seconds.

Foot Turns
Lie down or sit in a chair and stretch both legs out, knees straight and feet pointed up toward the knees. Tighten your thigh muscles and turn your feet out as far as you can, holding for ten seconds. Now turn your feet in as far as you can and hold for ten seconds, keeping your thigh muscles tight for the entire exercise. Do three of these sets.

Foot Press
Either sitting or lying down, put one foot on top of the other and pull up with your lower foot as you push down with the upper foot. Hold that for ten seconds, and then switch feet and repeat. Try five sets of these.”

Which means there is hope. And I should count my blessings that it’s a whole lot better that some of my blogging/running buddies with legitimate injuries.

On tap for this week:

• Monday: Scheduled rest day. I’m going to give my knee one more day of rest. (It’s feeling much better today).
• Tuesday: 5 easy miles. Quad exercises. Core exercises.
• Wednesday: 3 easy miles.
• Thursday: 5 easy miles. Quad exercises. Core exercises.
• Friday: Scheduled rest day.
• Saturday: Schedule calls for 10 miles. I will reassess on Saturday morning. At any rate, if I’m physically okay, I’ll put in at least 6 miles.
• Sunday: 3 easy miles. I’ll need to try the trails again. If this goes better than this past Saturday, then I’ll do my race the following weekend. If not – anyone want a bib to the Crystal Cove Xterra 17K?

New Shoes or Rest?

Okay folks. I need to come clean. I’ve been fighting a nagging – I don’t want to call it an injury, so let’s call it a – “condition” for a couple of weeks now. Yup. Runner’s knee (patellofemoral pain syndrome) is paying me a visit. I’ve been trying the best I can to ignore it. But, after Thursday’s run, not only did my right knee hurt, but my left quad did as well. Which is a sure sign that I’m compensating for the pain in my knee. Not good.

The good news is I can trace this all back to the trails. Before my recent journey off the pavement, I had none of these problems. Right now I’m almost exclusive (okay – that meant only two days last week) on the trails. And the one thing I’ve noticed with my current trail shoes (Asics GT2150 Trail Runners) is that my landing platform going downhill is not very stable at all. My feet slip inside the shoe, and my shoes are slipping on the surface. When you look at the most likely causes of runner’s knee:

“Your foot, meanwhile, may not be giving you the stability you need. It's likely that your feet are making a wrong movement every time they hit the ground, and you're feeling the constant pounding and repetition of this mistake in your knee. Maybe you're overpronating (rolling your foot in) or supinating (turning it out too much) when you run.” (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_5/194.shtml)

The bottom line is I bought my trail shoes back in February in response to a last minute decision to do a trail race. They are not the most technical shoe – really made to run a mix of roads and dirt trails. More and more I find myself running on more technical surfaces – rutted single track, rocky down hills, etc. So yesterday I decided to upgrade my platform:

The only downside to the shoe? I failed my Man Test yesterday. It took almost two hours of trying on this shoe and that shoe, running through the aisles of REI and jumping on a ramp to make a decision. I was waffling between the La Sportiva Wildcat, the Salomon XT Wings 2, and the La Sportiva Raptor. In the end, the Raptors won out. The leather overlays should provide the upper stability I’m looking for, and the tread design should provide the traction I’m hoping for. Al Bundy – where were you when I needed you?

On the running front, even with my knee pain, I had every intention of running this weekend. But, summer appeared in Southern California. I was involved on a conference call Saturday morning. By the time I got off of that, the sun was high in the air and the temps were nearing 90. Then the heat really got turned up yesterday. 96 here at the beach at 5:45 PM. Supposed to get to 100 today. I have no goal race at this point, so there is no need to face the insanity, and frankly, face the dangers that go along with heat and dehydration. Besides – my knee will thank me….

I’ll report after my run Tuesday…..