Recovery, Part I

Two hours of basketball seems to have derailed my running plans for the rest of the year. The left knee isn't healing as quickly as my doctor suggested it might. "No running for two weeks, stay off your feet as much as you can for the first. Then ease back into running gradually." Two weeks ended a week ago.

That morning I went for a trial two mile run at a purposely slow pace. Of course I had knee braces on, however I noticed neither of them was particularly snug. The run went poorly; the time was about what I wanted in 20:18 but the pain during and afterward was much more than I predicted.

The next run I went on was yesterday morning, almost a week later. The night before I stopped at Kmart on my way home from school to look for new knee braces. I typically use open-patella neoprene braces with no straps as these offer stability without compromising range of motion. Kmart, correctly identified by Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman almost 25 years ago by the word "sucks", only offered knee braces that had three straps each. Range of motion would certainly be sacrificed for stability in these near casts. I had visions of wrapping myself like a mummy during the Halloween season and locking each leg up with these to complete the costume.

Desperate times, desperate measures. I bought a pair and hoped for the best.

To my surprise, the run went rather well yesterday. The knee hurt, but not nearly as much as last week's dream-crushing two mile trial run of over 20 minutes. I finished two in just over 18 minutes yesterday, which is probably a bit faster than I should have. With a manageable level of pain, though, I think that's a good sign. I'm off to try it again shortly.

Months ago I signed up for the Philly half marathon which goes off on 11/20. After losing the last month to this injury and with only six weeks until race day, I doubt I'll be in good enough shape to make it to the starting line. These new braces give me a glimmer of hope, though. If I can hit six miles before the end of this month and ten miles the week before the race, I'll give it a shot.