It’s Baaack!

I ended up heading to the gym yesterday (after a few more moments of indecisiveness) – with water bottle in tow – to get my run in.  30 minutes in I was feeling good and had every intention of getting all 90 minutes in on the treadmill.  But then things took a turn for the worse.  My right knee, which was the same knee I had problems with back in January, started acting up again.  It’s so hard to describe the pain – it’s like every time I step down on that leg, there’s this deep internal knawing pain that is really bothersome.  It almost feels like my knee is giving out (or I just allow it to give out to avoid the pain). 

Last time when I went to the doctor they diagnosed me with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.  You can read about my “adventures” with the doctor back in January here.  It seems that the PFS is back again to rear its ugly head!

FIGURE 1. Stabilizers of the patella on the right knee. Various forces are responsible for patellar movement. The iliotibial band (not shown) has some fibers that attach to the lateral aspect of the patella

So, that means it’s time to get back to the routine or exercises and stretching and relative rest with the running to see if I can ward it off.  This also means I will be replacing a lot of my running workouts with visits to the elliptical for at least a week or so. 

One good thing about yesterday was that I knew how to recognize the pain and I immediately stopped running once I felt it.  I ended up getting 40 minutes in on the treadmill before I stopped, so I almost got half of the run done.  Oh well.  I’ll try again another day!