A setback at New Year’s

Suddenly my training for the GORUCK Challenge has come to a screeching halt. All the optimism, confidence, and positivity I was feeling about my progress so far is gone.

Joy

Before the holidays I ran a personal-best 8-mile long run with a 20-lb pack. I took about a week off from any serious training, and then worked back into running with a 3-miler (no weight), then back-to-back 3-milers with weight a few days later. Then, on New Year's Day, I headed out for my long run, ready to reach for 90 minutes -- about 10 minutes longer than my previous long run.

I knew this would be a stretch, so I planned to take a generous 5+ minute break in the middle to loosen up the legs and scarf an energy bar or something. The first half of the run went pretty well, and started to feel even better after starting the return leg. Even after an hour of running my legs felt powerful and I was maintaining or maybe even increasing my pace. The weather was gorgeous, Lola was behaving herself, and I felt fantastic.

Pain

Then, at about mile 7, I got a dull burning pain on the outside of my left knee. It felt like IT band syndrome, which is something I struggled with in my right knee years ago but hasn't bothered me since. When it first struck my right knee, I didn't know what it was or how to treat it, and it took me months to recover and be able to run pain-free. Every time I thought I had rested and recovered enough, I'd try to run only to have the pain start again.

I knew better than to try to run through it. As I slowed to a walk there on the trail I felt my entire training plan collapsing. If I couldn't keep up the running schedule then I couldn't make it to my preparation goal - a 15-miler - in time for the challenge. I forced myself to walk for about a mile to let the knee calm down. Afterward I was able to jog the final 3/4 of a mile without pain.

Anger

But as I made my way back to the car those last two miles, the frustration just boiled inside me. I'd been careful to specifically do things to avoid this kind of injury (since it happened to me before). I use a foam roller to stretch my IT bands several times a week, built up my pack weight and mileage slowly, switched to a more flat-footed or "minimal" running style to ease the impact on my joints, and even do weekly exercises that are supposed to target knee stabilizer muscles. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!

As soon as I got home I hit the knee with some RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and Aleve to try to keep any inflammation in check. I'm just praying that it doesn't take months to get back to 100% like it did when this happened to my other knee. This has really thrown me for a loop psychologically. To have this happen at a time when I'm focusing so hard on fitness, achieving personal bests every week, and feeling strong just feels like some kind of betrayal.

I'm trying to stay positive, but it's pretty tough right now. To be fair, the pain wasn't bad, and I was able to run for a bit after my walk break without it hurting. Maybe this time the problem will be short lived. It's got to be.

Note: this post was written in mid-January 2012 (when I launched my blog), but is back-dated to reflect the journey I've been on as I train for the GORUCK Challenge.