In the past several months Jenna and I have kept quite busy.
- Organized and put on an adventure race for friends and family
- Completed the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon
- Celebrated Jenna's 26th birthday
- Watched my little sister, Abby, graduate high school
- Jenna's wisdom teeth came out
- Competed in (and won!) an adventure race with Jake Grevenstuk
- Took a vacation thru Northern Michigan and the UP
- Watched the Tigers beat the Diamondbacks
- Completed an adventure race with Jenna in GR
And that brings you up to date a far as events and happenings go.
Now, the real reason for titling this blog post 'Running in Place". It describes my current situation.
I have been dealing with a knee issue for the past 2+ months now. It began at the half marathon I ran in May. I took some time off and just did some biking for the next 4 weeks. I then completed the Spring Adventure Challenge Adventure Race. The knee felt good for a while, but was rather sore and painful by the end of the race.
I gave my knee 4 weeks of my self-provided rehab. I also continued to bike, as that was not painful. I then participated in the Grand Rapids Urban Adventure Race with Jenna, my sister Theresa, and my Dad. It was only a 4 hour race, and designed for beginners, so I figured it would be a piece of cake for my knee to handle.
I was wrong. It only took about half a mile for my knee to start screaming at me. Of course, I finished the race, but my knee wasn't happy.
I was quite discouraged. I still had 3 adventure races on my calendar. A 15 hour race in 3 weeks, a 4 hour race in 5 weeks, and a 28 hour race in September.
Now, I love adventure racing, it gives me some excellent goals to train and stay in shape for, so this knee injury presented me with a difficult decision.
I decided that I would need to shutdown things down when it comes to races, and focus on getting my knee back to health. I am not excited about missing races, but I do want to get things right.
One would think I would be able to fix myself, but things have not been quite that easy. I have recruited some help from a friend and colleague to help me rehab. We can't really figure out exactly what is going on (and we have tried a little bit of everything), but just know that there is some sort of patello-femoral dysfunction, or maybe a mild quadriceps muscle tear that I didn't allow to heal appropriately.
So, if anyone actually reads this and wants to throw their two cents in about what they think is wrong , I am currently hearing all theories!
I won't be going to the Doc, because I will just get referred to PT. And I am not going to have imaging done, because I am pretty sure, it would not show anything, and then I would be out $2000.
As of now, I am on the 60-day disabled list, and just trying to stay in shape with any activity that doesn't aggravate the knee.
Hoping that my season of 'running in place' comes to a close soon!
