knee-hab

Submitted by 8r4d on July 18 2022

July 18, 2022

Occasionally, I've found that minor strains and pains work themselves out if one just pushes through.  Sore shoulders, creaky ankles, achy backs have all left me hurting for various stretches of time, and running and exercising through them has meant some discomfort while those things healed but generally and eventually ... healed.

Self diagnosis is not the best approach, but sometimes the cause of pain is pretty obvious. According to Doctor Google, I have a strain at or around my MCL, my medial collateral ligament, a bit of tissue that is an important part of the inner side of my knee.

It feels like any other strain or pain, tender and sore when pressure is put on it in ways that aggravate the injury.

Except.

Except walking on it seems to make it feel better, likely increasing blood flow or otherwise warming it up and relaxing it.

It didn't feel too bad yesterday, and in fact it felt like it was starting to improve, so (silly me) I went for a long morning run.

And it was all fine. It was a bit stiff around lunch, but I walked some more and it felt okay.  By dinner it was stiff, but more walking eased it up.  At bedtime it seemed pretty good, so I dozed off and... woke up an hour later with it hurting more than it had since I could recall it starting in the first place.  

I tossed and turned all night trying to find a comfortable position and slept quite restlessly for the duration.

So.  This turned out to be one of those occasions when a minor strain and pain may not just work itself out and let me run through it.  I've got it braced up this morning and I'm calculating how much rest I'm going to need to heal up completely.

Ugh.

Field Notes

Less running, more rehab this week:

- swim 44 lengths (1.1 km) before Sunday
- rest knee, no really
- 2x (intro to) upper body workouts at the gym
- hydration!