The first half of the week I was a little down, I had booked an appointment to see the sports massage guy on Thursday. So untill then I was a bit worried about what he may find and tell me. All sorts were going through my mind, from, "Your running days are over, or, You wont be competing in Ironman this year with knees like that". surgery, six weeks of complete rest.The list goes on. Of course what I wanted to hear was. " Ahh no problem here, I'll just manipulate this muscle here and you'll be back on track in no time". Well I can dream.
Monday I went to the pool and carried out one hour of pull, tough on the arms and sholders but upper body is all I can do at this stage.
Tuesday I spent fourty five minutes in the gym, again working on my upper body, mostly swim specific exercises.
Took Wednesday off to rest the arms which mentaly was the worst thing I could have done because it gave me time to think about what the specialist might say tomorrow.
Thursday came around. I packed a bag to go swimming after. At least if it was bad news I could suburge myself in water after.
So, I'm laying on his table and I'm telling him the story of the knee and what I think the problem may be from things I've read on the web. Internet self diagnosis is a terrible thing. I had just about every knee injury under the sun. He then poked about and rolled a few lumpy ligaments around, asked some more questions then gave his diagnoses. "Nothing too serious" he said. The knee had travelled sidways during my off roading, which knees are not built for and they don't like it.
I have strained the ligament where it attaches to the Tibia. He can't be 100% sure but strongly suspects that to be the case. He gave my knee a really nice massage while he told me how I should be going on it. " Go steady with it" he said, " Keep it moving and try to keep it going in a straight line, ie not twisting to the side".
I can carry on riding, which was my biggest worry. I can even run on a treadmill if I concentrate on the positioning of my leg. the only thing he strongly advised against was strength training for the legs, so no squats or leg presses.
All in all a far better result than I realisticly expected. The running on a treadmill I can live with, I'm just so greatfull that I can run at all. I just need to start low and slowly build up the distance before taking to the road. Swimming and cycling arn't effected at all. BRILLIANT!!!
Even though he hasn't actually fixed anything it feels much better knowing what to do, and that I don't have to rest. If it starts to hurt during exercise, stop.
I went to the pool on the way home and did another hour of pull. I wanted to rest the legs because I had decided on the way back from the specialist that Friday I was going on a long ride to celebrate.
Friday. 3.20 hrs endurance ride. Fortunatly any ride around Pembrokeshire over an hour will consist of different types of training, endurance because of the time spent on the bike, muscular endurance for all the long shallow graidients in a big gear. Strength training for the steep hills of which there are many. Pembrokeshire really is a fantastic bike training ground.
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