Becoming a wiser runner

As some of you know I have been on an injury break since the Bidor Half Marathon. It has been three weeks and it is an injury born out of my own stubborness. The pain in my medial meniscus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meniscus_(anatomy) started after my whopping 74km week. I ran very hard that week upon my return from Melbourne. I guess I felt I had to make up for lost time. It was five very hard days of running after a 10-day vacation. Surprisingly it felt really good. Speedwork was happening the way I wanted it to and my 30km LSD went down just fine. The next week there was some soreness (or was it pain) but I kept at it. I only really had to stop when I wanted to attempt a 21km LSD on the following Sunday but my right knee just hurt too bad to continue.

From then on I decided to take a break and to see if it would get better. Meanwhile, I saw an orthopaedic surgeon who naturally advised me to stop running. However, against his advice, at the end of that week I ran the Penang Earth Day run. It was a spectacularly bad run for me and the knee didn't hold up too well even though it was only 9km.

I decided to take another week of break but on that Sunday I would run Bidor Half Marathon. I kept it slow and easy at the start but after the 10km mark, my ankle hurt and my knee started to feel pain. I kept it up and finished the race as best as I could.

I was back the my doctor's office post-Bidor. This time I was put through a MRI on my right knee and a full length x-ray. The medial meniscus had some microscopic tears and in the process of healing there was some thickening of the soft tissue. I was advised to be off running completely and sent to physio. My injury became a source of concern for the WWW especially my friends, Siew Swan and Guan Choon. Thank you my dear friends for your unflailing support and concern.

I had a good physiotherapist who helped me massage my soft tissue and analyze my running gait. According to her my knees seem to knock together when I ran. She asked me why I ran with my toes pointing forward. I told it was because I was trying to run with my forefoot (Chi Running style). We arrived at the source of my injury which was a combination of forefoot running, slight bow-leggedness and a tendency to mildly pronate on my right leg. Due to my bow-leggedness when I land on my forefoot, the high impact would be on the top left hand corner of my foot. Couple that with the inward pronation would send the force right up to my meniscus.

Let me share that being out on injury is tough. I spend the 1st week away from running being utterly miserable. I spend the 2nd week hitting the gym and doing circuit training. Reminded me of the good 'ol dragonboat days. It was this week that Lynn came back to Penang and very kindly and patiently taught me how to swim the forward crawl. I have been hitting the pool as much as 3 times a week now to practise. Swimming is a tough activity for me to do because I'm not a strong swimmer and the thought of swimming is daunting. I fear with each stroke that I am just going to sink. Nevertheless, since swimming is the only thing I can do. I now spend an hour in the pool splashing about. Embarrassing!

I hope this injury will make me a wiser runner. I hope I will not follow new running theories blindly but I will strive to find my own sweet spot. I hope I will know how to distinguish soreness from pain. I hope I know how to take a break before it is too late. Ultimately, I hope to emerge out of this situation a stronger runner. All this rest can't be all that bad. I will only need to walk my next race after 2km, that's all!

In any case, I have something to look forward to upon my return from injury. A brand new pair of Asics Gel Kayano 15 from US. Thank you Kevin for carrying it back for me.



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