Bashed Knee? No Thank You!

A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop. **Robert Hughes**



       I am definitely a rusty monkey wrench today! It has been one of those weeks were everything hits at once making me fell like the world is out to get in my way.

       Whatever sinus thing has been going on for 2 months is now being treated with big time antibiotics which kill my stomach, my RA has decided to flare up and took one shoulder out of commission for a while, I have had to give up coffee because suddenly it is making my heart race and pound very uncomfortably, and to top it all off, I tripped and fell on my long run and knocked my knee just enough to cause it to stiffen up and hurt. UGH!

       Of all those things, the only one really scaring me is the knee. I didn’t really hit it that hard since I was on soft ground and rolled with the fall fairly well. At the time, it smarted a bit, as did my palms, but once I got up and shook it off all seemed well. I finished my run, and only in the last couple of miles did it start twinging. At that point it didn’t feel any better to walk so I just plodded along, taking care to keep my form very strict, and got home. After stretching and showering I sat down at the computer for a few minutes and then stood up, OUCH! It hadn’t taken long for the knee to stiffen up badly! Walking was painful and going down stairs was worse. Applying ice directly to a joint is excruciatingly painful for me so I settled for rest.

       By Saturday morning it was feeling better, but still tender, so I did not run with my group and instead stayed behind updating computer records. Today it is about 90% better, just an occasional twinge, but no serious pain and not much worse than the rest of my joints which are all complaining about the RA activity. If all goes well, I will head to the gym tomorrow to get on the treadmill so I can stop the minute I feel a twinge. If I have to take the week off from running, it is a good week to miss since it is already a fall back week. I do have a half marathon a week from today, but I don’t need to push it and I think my knee will be fine by then if I behave myself this week. Unlike repetitive use injuries, a mildly banged knee heals quickly with proper care.

       Bottom line here, I’m not looking for sympathy, but to show once again that it is totally normal to have interruptions and hiccups during the training cycle. I’m sure there are people out there that have perfect training records, and probably many more that have the potential for carefree training, but never get off the couch, I’m simply not one of those people. We have to work with what we have and if what I have is an accident prone, 40+ year old body with RA and bad sinuses, then that is what I have to work with. Frankly, I think it is even more important for me to stay strong and maintain every ounce I can muster because the more we have on our plate, the more strength we need to hold it up.

       Oh yes, and the shoulder that was about 90% impaired Saturday morning was down to only about 10% impaired by the end of the run. I know there are plenty of RA sufferers who don’t understand how I can run when I’m in pain from RA, but a run always makes the RA back off. I may still be tired, but my joints are less stiff and sore and I’d rather be tired from a run than RA!

       PS, had a great Interview with Chris from http://www.runrunlive.com/ it is a great website and podcast so please check it out and I will post the link when my interview airs!