Well it had to happen at some point!
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been struggling with a pain in my left knee. This usually flared up after a hard race (Conwy Half caused quite a lot of pain following the race), and after Doncaster 10K, it really started to hurt. I took it easy the following week, with the aim of completing Percy Pud 10K, and then hopefully being able to start taking it easy for the rest of December, and just ticking over.
I went to see my usual physio ( physiohq ), who did some deep tissue massage on my hip, along with testing the range of motion out on my knee. All was looking OK, so could just be an over use injury. I started to really ramp my distance up (compared to what I was used to running), at the start of September:
My annual distance target was always been 1,600KM (1,000 miles), and as of today, I’ve done 2,208KM.
Last week, I managed to do 43K over 6 runs by taking it easy, and last night (Tuesday 10th), I went out with SRC and managed a decent 11K run (pace was lower than most of my previous Tuesday tempo sessions), with almost no pain.
However, waking up today, the pain has come back, and the clicking / flicking of the tendon on the outside of the left knee has come back.
So, the decision has been made to take a step back, have a good 3 weeks off recovery, and focus on a bit of core and strength, plus stretching. During the downtime, I’ll also attempt a couple of shorter runs (3 x 1 mile repeats twice a week, providing there is no knee pain). Starting the recovery today, will mean I can start hopefully training properly again Wednesday 1st January 2020.
