Alright, so I just finished telling you how great The Cool Impossible is and how it’s your secret weapon to running injury-free, and here I am with a knee injury. C’est la vie, right? So, three weeks ago I was doing hill repeats in preparation for Denver’s 10th Anniversary of the Colfax Marathon. Just getting some last minute power training in, and I decided to work on speeding up my downhill cadence. I figured a little experimentation with running form couldn’t hurt. Well, it did. Three descents in and felt a twinge in my right knee. And right then I was reminded of the #1 rule in training for a race: DON’T TRY ANYTHING NEW IN YOUR TRAINING WITHIN A FEW WEEKS OF YOUR RACE!
I took it easy the next week or so, but the pain around my knee still got worse and worse. The pain grew from inside of the knee and wrapped around to the front of my knee. Even walking up and down stairs became excruciating. My imagination got the best of me, picturing the worst case scenario of some debilitating knee injury. I’ve put a lot of miles on this body and it’s not difficult to imagine some serious wear and tear.
I decided I better downgrade my marathon entry to the half-marathon. My knee hurt and my IT bands tightened up from poor running form as I tried to land easy on my knee. But, it was still a super fun race. The best part was that my wife joined in and completed her very first half-marathon. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in a couple weeks, so I’ll post pictures of my x-rays when I get them. Stay tuned.
