Knee trouble

I have run exacty twice over the past week. As I type this I would normally be out there clocking up the weekly long run in Yoyogi, catching up on news of the week with Namban colleagues, or perhaps prising the life story out of some hapless vistor. But after the knee pain and tummy troubles I felt last weekend, I did not run Monday or Tuesday, but then ventured out for a tentative run in the park with Gareth and Jane on Wednesday evening. The knee went alright for a little while, but I could feel it after a few km, and then when we picked the pace up it gradually got worse and I had to pull up after about 9 km and then just jogged slowly back to the sento.

So I didn't attempt to run again on Thurday and Friday, which fortunately coincided with a visit from Australian friends Alastair and Brenda, who had a one-night stopover en-route back to Australia from the UK.

Yesterday our treasured Hong Kong-based Nambanner, Aya, was in town briefly en route to Nagano to celebrate her recent wedding. Satohi organised a chance to run with her around the Imperial Guest House yesterday (Sat) lunchtime, and since I was working at my office only a km away, I decided to join. The first 400 or 500 m were without pain, but it soon set in, especially after a stupid taxi lurched suddenly out of a side street forcing me to pull up hard. I met Aya, Taeko and Shoji as soon as I hit the course (perfect timing) and ran two laps with knee discomfort the whole time, though with the easy pace the pain did not get worse. Satohi eventually found us after being waylaid looking for Rie. The photo on Shoji-san's blog is a nice little record of the pleasant company of the run (L-R: Satohi, Taeko, Aya, me). It was about 8 km all up and the pain was worth it to see Aya again.

In four years of running my knees have been remarkably resilient. But no longer, it seems. The pain is right in the centre of the back of my knee and feels like a pulling sort of pain when my knee is extended for the landing--it hurts a lot less going uphill and is worse at faster pace. It isn't all that deep and seems to extend slightly up into the hamstring area, so it may be related to that long standing hamstring "niggle". It seems to be more like inflammed tendon or ligament than cartilage or other structural damage, so it might be just a case of more rest and ice and self massage and short runs to test it out every few days. The only concern is that these inflammation things can be stubborn to get rid of, and the affected part can become completely pain free (when walking) after just a day or two of rest, but then flare up again within a km or two of starting to run. So I think enforced rest for a longer period than feels necessary is actually what is, well, necessary.