Injured Again

I don't know when it happened or how it happened, but I can tell you why it happened.  Once again, my pattelar tendon on my right knee is acting up.  The last time this happened was early 2015.  I can pinpoint exactly when it happened by looking at my yearly mileage progression charts.

Yea, that looks like an injury

That was when I was ramping up for my first marathon.  I had laid down the base mileage as part of my training plan and was getting into the speed/strength workouts.  I had just completed my first interval training session on a treadmill and when I got off I knew something was wrong - my knee felt alien.  I thought I could run through it (a couple of times, as you can tell from the chart) but I eventually went to a physical therapist for it and sidelined myself for essentially five months.

My pain this time is not nearly as bad as it was back then, and the onset of the pain was not nearly as sudden, so I'm hoping for a quicker recovery time.  After realizing that I wasn't going to be able to just run through the discomfort, I'm taking running off the training schedule for now.  That means a lot more biking (hello, Zwift!), and a continuation of the strength program I was doing in PT.

The main focus of my PT are twofold - strengthen my leg muscles to help stabilize my knee, and most importantly, to strengthen my hips (and begrudgingly, stretching).

My regime looks something like this:

Calf Raises on Stairs - 3x10
Monster Walk with Resistance Bands - 3x30'
Side Steps with Resistance Bands - 3x30'
Single Leg Decline Squat - 1x10
Stretches

I'm thinking once I'm able to get my Single Leg Decline Squat to three sets instead of just one, my ancillary muscles will have been built up enough for me to begin running again.

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