Knee Woes

Thursday, August 20, 2009
My left knee definitely has something wrong. The knee is stiff and slightly swollen, mostly in the back. Experience with my right knee more than 20 years ago points to an internal knee injury. This feels like an ACL strain. But I can't figure out how I would strain my ACL on a simple 4 mile run. I wonder if my hard bike rides early in the week could have somehow worn me down. But in years of biking, I've never had this type of problem with the inner knee structures. Regardless of how it happened, I need to keep a close eye on this. I'm icing again today, and will watch it to see when I can run again. In my original plan, I wanted to run 8 miles on Saturday, then work up to 10 miles the following weekend. That seems unlikely now. Brenda tells me to cut back those plans, and maybe just run 3 miles a couple times a week. I'll keep tending to the knee and see when and how far I can run.

Recovery Ride
Today, I did a fairly easy ride, despite the left knee problems. I am able to ride with no knee pain, though the slight swelling is annoying. I rode 10 miles with a 670 foot vertical rise, with an average heart rate of 136 BPM, reflecting an easy to moderate effort.

I didn't mention it, but during this 3 week period, I'm being diligent about taking a joint supplement with glucosimine and chondroitin, 1500mg per day. I'm not sure yet if this helps. I've talked to others with knee problems who say it does help them, so I'm giving it a try.