Sunday, July 23, 2006

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.

5 comments:

2P said...

Repeat after me - "I don't get sore knees" - I've used that mantra for years now - you can borrow it for a while if you like.

Seriously mate I hope it is just a minor niggle.

Take care and get it right ;-)

Clairie said...

Congratulations on the beer award, shocker on the knee report though.

Hope it all comes good. I get a similar pain and it is bursitis caused by tight calves that pull on the muscles holding the knee cap in place. A build up of fluid causes the pain so it is more noticeable when the knee is fully flexed or fully bent - which happens a lot in running funninly enough.........

BTW I went to Aya's blog - great photo but couldnt' read anything there.

Rachel said...

Hope your knee sorts itself out with a bit of rest. Sounds like you will be in for a frustrating few weeks, but I'm sure you're doing the right thing or maybe you could find lots of hills to run up :)
Congrats on the beer comp, that's awesome!

Tesso said...

I can't agree more with all those knee comments, especially the bit about how stubborn the inflammation can be. I'm still suffering with it after four long months. And like you I ran forever without the slightest hint of knee pain.

Hope you can get on top of it soon. And if you do find a secret cure please pass it on.

Unknown said...

I hope you rest now; knee pain is a bugger to recover from...& slow! So take all the time you need; you're still a youngster with plenty of running years ahead! Good photo, but no writing comes through. Hope all goes well; keep us posted.