The knee problems that initially plagued me have turned out to be fairly substantial. It's been a constant struggle. For the most part, I'm finding that I can no longer run longer than 6Km without running into serious knee pain on my right side. It seems that a serious layoff (longer than the 1 week stints I've been attempting) is going to be needed.
For the time being, I'm altering my plan. For starters, I'm switching over to swimming as my primary means of fitness training. It's a more aggressive full-body workout. Secondly, it's much easier on the body, overall, in terms of joints and ligaments and all that stuff. I think it's gonna be a great way of keeping my cardio capacity increasing without having to constantly fight a sore knee. Lately, it's been incredibly frustrating to get to where I would run 6Km and have to stop in spite of feeling as though I could do another 10 but for the one knee. Killer!!!
Anyway, I'm hoping that the swimming will keep me active, and then the runs can be more sporadic and less often, giving my legs time to build and heal and all that good stuff.
Also, I'm a terrible swimmer, so I guess the practice will help.
As far as how all of this affects the half-marathon I had planned... I don't know. I mean, I know that it's coming up very soon, and that I still can't run longer than 7Km on any given night.. so that's not very promising.
I have to say, though, that this may be a blessing. I went for a 5Km the other day, and felt fantastic. I ran FAST, and bested my PB time by over 2 minutes. And I wasn't worrying about a sore knee, or how far I could go... it was like it was when I first started running, and I was doing it because I loved it. So... I guess I don't care that much how long it takes me to get where I'm going. I feel great, physically. I'm in great shape (I'm lighter than I've been in... at least 3 years) and I feel strong.
Life's good.
JB
