It's been a couple of months since I've done any real speedwork (shame on me!). What happened was, I went fishing one ill-fated Saturday afternoon. Rather than catching fish, I slipped on a rock getting down to the water and came right down smack dab on my left knee.
That's a sad moment for any runner or triathlete. Although the pain was intense, that wasn't the immediate I focused on. Rather, it was, "Oh no, what are the consequences of this going to be?"
I did have good enough reflexes not to drop my fly rod. Thank God for small favors, eh?
Luckily, it didn't swell. Just a impact lump that lasted for about a week plus some stiffness and limping. Oh, and one hell of a lot of pain every time my wife kicked it in the middle of the night.
"Accidentally," says she.
"Subconscious," says I.
Nevertheless, in about three weeks it felt good enough to tighten up the lacelocks on my running shoes and function test it. Hmm, first run felt fine so I continued to build up the slow mileage. About a week ago, I felt confident enough to try a "mix it up and down" treadmill workout. That went well too.
So late yesterday afternoon, after all the high school kids had gone, I took advantage of the track. I did a nice one mile warm-up and then eased into some mid-range effort 400M repeats. On the last one, I felt a few iliotibial stress twinges on my right knee.
But since I was running the track counter-clockwise, that's to be expected after a lay-off. After all, that wasn't the knee that got used for a shock absorber at the shore.
So today, another easy six or so miles on the Seabrook Trails. And next weekend? Fishing. But this time I'll go out in my Heritage fishing kayak. The water in the bay is very forgiving.
