Yep, I skipped March since it's already 3/28. Just move right on into April.
My 10 mile race is this coming Sunday 4/2. I've just come back from 10days in Portugal and before that 7 days in Arizona. I didn't run a whole heckuva lot in Portugal as it just wasn't convenient most places we were at. I'm hoping to be able to run about 1:15 for the race. I've gotten in about 10 days of good solid training since Portugal, including a couple long runs and threshold interval workouts. It's definitely 'cramming' training but I'm not hurt, just tired. I'll rest and do nothing but very easy miles until the race.
Jeff, you still on for your 10miler? It must be coming up later in April?
I was just about to put in the discussion thread for April - also realizing we missed March.
My 10 miler is potentially not happening. My daughter just sent me a text the other day that her soccer team is playing in a tournament the same day as my 10 miler. So unless her coach tells her she is not playing in the first game, then I won't be going to my 10 miler. The 10 miler is in Maine at 8am, a couple hours drive and her tournament starts at 9:00. So even if I ran faster than I think I am going to right now I'm looking at finishing at 9:20 and then it would be an hour and a half drive to get to her college where they are playing so I wouldn't be there until 11:00. It's okay, I'll find another race and I have another one scheduled in June anyway.
As far as training, it's been weird lately. I have absolutely no pain when running. This weekend I did a 9 miler and then Monday did another 5 with no issues. But then yesterday my knee was really achy after a relatively long meeting I had in the afternoon. I woke up this morning and it was worse. I went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for a bit and it loosened up a little, and then I ran a mile on the treadmill (no pain at all while running). The weird part is it's not really the knee that hurts, it's the muscle directly behind the knee - feels all swollen and painful.
But it is still achy and tight right now. I'm thinking I might need to adjust my training schedule so that I only do real runs (5+ miles) every other day. Maybe getting a day of rest between runs will help.
The weird part is it's not really the knee that hurts, it's the muscle directly behind the knee - feels all swollen and painful. But it is still achy and tight right now.
The weird part is it's not really the knee that hurts, it's the muscle directly behind the knee - feels all swollen and painful.
But it is still achy and tight right now.
Hi JeffD. You might consider that it might not be your actual knee as the source of the problem. It's likely that it's your hamstring.
Over the last few months, one of my ongoing symptoms has been varying degrees of what you describe, from severe to barely noticeable. Per my physical therapist, it's actually my hamstrings causing it. They can be super-tight and painful. So - check your hamstrings. Roll on a ball to see if you find any knots of tight spots, especially in the belly of the muscle. One way I have done it is to sit on a bench and put a tennis ball under my thigh and move it around to find spots and then press down. Particularly effective is if you can sit on a table or something high enough and with open space under it to dangle your legs. Then: find "the spot" and swing your leg out and back while maintaining pressure.
Of course because I'm overwhelmed with PT exercises these days, I have yet to do a darn thing about my hamstrings/back of knee pain; so I know exactly how your knee feels. I think I need to devise rotating sets of exercises so that over the course of a few days I get everything done.
Don't make excuses for why you can't get it done.
Focus on all the reasons why you must make it happen.
The drawing on the far right shows area of pain in red and areas where tight spots of "knots" marked by X's can be the cause.
What happens is that the tight areas cause the usually stretchy main muscle to shorten/contract and pull on the tendon which is NON-stretchy. That's why you feel the pain in a different location than the source. Then the tendon gets aggravated and you get the pain and swelling. The key to solving is in addressing the source. Hope this makes sense. It may not be your situation, but I've experienced it quite often.
Thanks. I’ll try some hamstring massage
Do you have a percussive massage gun? I find that device to be the most useful therapeutic device I own. It feels wonderful on hamstrings, calves, shoulders, neck, even the soles of my feet. My wife is a tennis player and she's a believer as well.
Kcam I got one of those awhile back when you and someone else were recommending it. My husband uses it every day. It's great to have -- I should use it more!
I do have one - it's not the most powerful one but I do use it on my quads, inner thighs and calves. I do find it a bit tough to maneuver to hit the hamstrings though. I scheduled a massage with an orthopedic/sports massage therapist tomorrow to see if he can look at the hamstrings and see what knots he can find.
Ran the 10 miler this morning in 1:14:52, so hit my goal of 1:15. I am using that massager on my left hip now (left of groin area, almost to the side of the hip but not quite). Have to look up anatomy and see what that is because it's sore. 50 miles for the week including the race.
Kcam - Congrats on surpassing your race goal!
JeffD - What was the outcome of the ortho massage appt? Did you show him the picture?
Great job on the 10 miler - that time is about where I was hoping to come in for mine (now in June).
I didnt show the ortho the picture, no. But I did explain what was going on and holy crap, my hamstrings were super tight - as evidenced by the sheer amount of pain I was in as he dug into them during the massage. I've started using the massage gun each day on it as well as best I can, but as I said its not that powerful and I'm not sure it gets deep enough. I found a tennis ball last night though so today I'll start trying to use that to massage them out as well.
Thanks, Jeff and HappyFeat! My massager came with multiple heads and I do make use of all if them. There is one that is supposed to simulate a thumb and that one seems to get pretty deep into the belly of my hamstring muscles.
Come to think of it, mine did too. I've pretty much just used the large ball, but I'll have to find the other heads as maybe they'll dig in more.
Heh! The large ball is probably the one I use the least. For just general purposes I like to use one that has a two inch diameter rubber head. That one does pretty well for just general massage including when you go near or on bony areas like your knee or ankle. The hard plastic heads seem to bounce and hurt when they hit bone. But for getting deep that thumb dealie really works. Top row, left is the rubber head I use a lot and bottom row middle is the thumb accessory. The bottom row left one I use quite a bit also for big muscles like my hamstring or quad when I don't need to go so deep. The other ones I don't use as much as those three.
JeffD This is the massager that I bought last Fall after you guys were talking about them. I didn't want to spend a lot --- and didn't. Yet we think this is def powerful enough and like it a lot. You could look at the Specs and see how it compares with yours. Maybe it's more powerful than the one you currently have and would be worth getting.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/FitRx-Mini-Pro-Massage-Gun-Handheld-Deep-Tissue-Massager-for-Arms-Shoulders-and-Legs/337484095