Am I at the end of my running career or can I reset my training and continue? (Read 441 times)

Arthritis  in left knee. Doctor said I would probably need a need replacement. Did not go back to him. Took 10 weeks off. Running 6- 12 miles a week. May 17 miles,-June  28 miles- July 66 miles. Run 2 miles Wednesday . Did a 7 hour 28.32 miles on Saturday(yesterday) on a trail. Very little knee pain. Pain free today. No swelling. My adjustment will  be more trails / grass. 6- 10 marathons/ultras a year. Down from a high of 18 a year. It is a work in progress..

Congrats, Ron!

Thanks everyone for your replies.  I've decided to continue my training as my knee isn't really hurting much right now and running doesn't make it worse.  I'm going to change my expectations a bit and focus on the 5k this fall.  If the half seems like a real possibility by October then I may consider it.  I'm also going to up my biking and my core and leg stability strength work with the goal of being Colorado mountaineering fit by next spring.

I had knee surgery at 38 and Dr told me no impact sports.  Tried to run for a couple of years, but it didn't work - pain wasn't worth it.  At 49 I read "Born to Run" and decided to try barefoot style in VFFs.  So, at 50 started running again.  Took awhile for achilles and calves to make the adjustments and recovery from multiple injuries, but did do SF marathon this year in 3:58:30 this year.  My knees and back haven't felt this good in LONG time.  If you are a heal striker, changing to fore or mid foot strike will save you knees, hips and back.  You don't have to give up shoes, but you will learn better form faster with less on your feet.  Not for everyone, but something to consider.

For masters runners looking to avoid issues with arthritis, it seems that keeping our weight down is the key factor.  Runners with a healthy weight  have a much lower incidence of arthritis issues than non-runners of the same age.  At least I think that was the gist of a couple of articles I read on the subject a few months ago.

You can always find a doctor who'll tell you to stop running, and you can always find a doctor who'll tell you it's ok to keep running.  Both types are everywhere.

So that is semi-irrelevant.  You'll have to figure out a balance that works for you and achieves your goals.

If you had NO other activities you loved, then running would make sense as a way to keep yourself from becoming one with the couch.  But since you love hiking and other activities, you might want to rethink the balance of running relative to other exercise.  You may even be able to do a pretty good half-marathon time with your training being mostly hiking (low-impact, but great for muscle strength and stabilization exercise) and a bit of running.

I was injured and away from running for a full year about 4 years ago.  When I looked at my own situation, I realized that what I truly *love* is the ability to go out for an easy jog on a beautiful morning.  I decided that was the thing I'd prioritize, rather than a regimented 50-60 miles a week training schedule for another marathon.  (I know many of you run much more than 50-60, but that is the volume where things started clearly wearing on me.)

So now I do a mix of 3-4 days per week of hard swimming (with a masters swim group) and ~3 days a week of modest running.  At the lighter training load, running is now essentially pain free.  I miss being faster---I may never re-qualify for Boston---but c'est la vie.  I still get my beautiful morning jogs, and I am operating at a training level that will be sustainable for a long time.  It's a decision I am really happy with, and it works because i love swimming as much or more than running---so just a shift in time management, rather than giving something up.

 

This statement is something I have observed lately. I always laugh to myself when I hear / see someone say "don't work out without first consulting a doctor". Although, I agree with the advice, I live in a small town where there is only a couple of doctors. EVERY doctor in my town is overweight and out of shape. Last time I went in for an annual exam, I thought my doctor was going to have a heart attack, walking to the exam room. Maybe it is just me, but have others had similar experiences?

Yup, way back in the spring of 1991 I was planning on a cycling tour of France between Paris, the Swiss border near Grenoble, and then down to Aix-en-Provence (where my little brother was going to college for a year).  The plan had been to take a week to make the ride in a relatively casual manner; however, two days before I crossed the pond, he called me and asked when I'd be arriving.  I told him, "Probably the twenty-first, or the twenty-second."

"Oh," he responded, "too bad."

"Why is it too bad?"

"Because I just scored two tickets to see Dizzy Gillespie in Marseille on the seventeenth."

"Ummm, yeah, I'll be there on the seventeenth."

I rerouted my trip down through the Loire Valley, up over the hump to Lyon, and then straight south to Aix, and I made it in three days.  Enroute I was pushing a bit too hard and my knees were getting rather tender, so when I got back to the States, I did some research and found a doctor reputed to be a "Sports Medicine Orthopedic Surgeon" hoping to get a referral for some PT to help my knees recover.  Well, he turned out to be a grossly out of shape individual who's only advice to me was, "You're too old to be riding over 100 miles per day."

"But I'm only 33 years old."

"Yup, definitely too old."

Funny story (to me at least) alert:

When my knees started bugging me on that "sprint" from Paris to Aix, I stopped at a chemist near Nevers to buy some ibuprofen, unfortunately ibuprofen is (or at least was) a prescription drug in France, so I asked for aspirin instead.  When I opened the bottle it was full of wafers which looked like chewable aspiring I'd been given when I was a kid, so I popped a couple in my mouth and started chewing.

I don't speak much French, however, the word "effervescence" is spelled the same in both English and French, and that very word was emblazoned on the side of the aspirin container.  There I was, standing on the sidewalk outside of a pharmacy in that quaint little town with folks walking all around me while I was foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog.

Not one of my more stellar moments.