KNEE TENDONITIS UPDATE:

Today brings up the 2 month mark since the last time I was able to run. 61 days without being able to run! Just typing that out makes me feel sad. In case you missed my ANOTHER INJURY post, the short of it is, I have tendonitis in my left knee.

It has been a difficult 2 months trying to adapt to not getting out for a run every day of the week. Initially, we thought it was fine to carry on with cycling and in the first few weeks, I was on the bike indoors and outdoors covering 200+ miles per week. Then my physio and I changed tact and decided to drop the cycling and give the knee 100% recovery from all forms of exercise.

The pain subsided slightly during the first two weeks then stabilised at that pain level for the next month. From week 7 things started to improve again and that brings us up to date.

Currently, I am still not experiencing any pain whilst moving around but that has never been the problem with this injury. I was able to run pain-free for weeks in August, September and early October. The issue has been walking up and down stairs or in that squatting action where you are putting load through the knee-tendon.

Now we are into week 9, I am still experiencing pain when moving up and downstairs, although that pain level has decreased from say a 7 in the early days to a 4 now.

My physio said that this recovery will take as long as it takes, it is difficult to put a time frame on it but to expect somewhere between 3 to 6 months of recovery before moving on to the rehab and strengthening of the tendon.

I feel like I am progressing okay through the first 2 months, a further month of recovery could see the pain decrease further, maybe even clear completely or this pain level could stabilise at this level again as it did early on. It is just a matter of staying patient and not forcing it too soon. I have no intentions of just “trying a run to see how it feels”, which will only risk damaging the tendon again and putting me right back at step 1.

For now, I am going to bring in more stretching and core, hips & glutes strength work to improve my strength and flexibility. This can only be a good thing when I get back to running and hopefully help to prevent this injury from coming back.

I am also going to get back into the pool, it has been 9 months since my last pool swim, it is about time I got back to it. Swimming is my least favourite of the three triathlon disciplines but only because I am not that good at it. Now is the time to make some progress on that weakness.

Upcoming Races?

Race wise, I had to transfer the Tatton Park 10k which was held on the 5th December. The RunThroughUK team were extremely helpful and said that I could transfer to either their January or February race. I have moved this to the 13th February but fully aware that it will be a challenge to get back to running by then but it is only a 10k so if I was able to start running in January, I will be able to run 10k come mid-Feb. It will be far from a 10k PB race but it will give me a baseline on how much fitness and speed has been lost and something to compare back to.

The New York City Half in March has now been cancelled and my entry transferred to 2022, so I don’t need to worry about that one.

Newport Marathon on the 18th April but there is no way I can get marathon ready in that time. The 25th January is 12 weeks before race day and if I am lucky, I will just be starting back with 1 or 2 mile runs around that time. To go from a 1 mile week to marathon ready in 10 weeks + 2 week taper would be expecting too much and putting too much pressure on me and my knee. I have checked the race T&C’s and I am not able to cancel my entry for a refund, obviously, I can just not show up and lose my money or if I can find someone else who is looking to register for that race, I am able to transfer my entry to them and I receive the race fee back.

Next up is Ironman 70.3 Mallorca, with this only being a 70.3 I think I can get fit enough to complete the race with at least 10 weeks of training. With the race being in May, I am hoping to have a lot more than 10 weeks to get ready but I know I can get fit enough to cycle 56 miles pretty quickly and the run is only a half marathon. Again, we are talking fit enough to finish rather than push for a time. That is where I am at right now, just hoping to get fit enough to finish these early season races…… assuming the races go ahead.

COVID-19 UPDATE:

The COVID side of things has been much easier to get over.

After testing positive on the 3rd December and showing mild symptoms from the 2nd – 5th December. The headache and temperature cleared after those first three days. I did have a tight chest which made breathing feel tricky during the 5th and 6th December but that had cleared when I woke up on the 7th.

From the 7th onward I showed and felt mostly ok, I have just had a lack of energy and feeling tired despite getting over an hour of extra sleep each night. Then there is the loss of smell and taste. The NHS people tell me that this can take a number of weeks to return, it’s not the end of the world and I feel very lucky and thankful to have got off this lightly.

Hopefully, the lack of energy will improve as the days go by and then when I am fit enough to get back running and cycling, hopefully, the heart rate and breathing aren’t too badly affected.