It’s been a while. Not the running, but my desire to write any updates. I felt in the mood today, so jotting thoughts down on the injury that caused the loss of desire. Warning: brain dump.

In August 2023 (yes, three), I was running 120 km per week. In August 2023, I was also doing a trip in Europe that involved a lot of walking. One week was over 80 km of walking and that does not include the walking indoor, such as museums. By the end of August 2023, my left knee hurt. Overuse, probably. Though I would like to add that I also, at some point prior to the left knee pain, went on my knees to look under the bed of a rental apartment before we were leaving, bent down all the way, and thought “that did not feel right”. I still think about that moment.

I gave it a rest and took days to a week off. Things did not get better on their own. Around mid September, I went to the kine (PT) that helped me through my comeback from breaking my ankle. He went with the pain being overuse leading to a badly inflamed patella tendon (a tendon at the front of the knee, just south of the kneecap). I had a bunch of sessions with him, did more elliptical and biking again, followed the strength routine he gave me religiously, as much as I hated it. For the curious: lots of balancing on one leg, squats on one leg, jumping on one leg, …

Things got better, slowly. Things broke down again, rapidly. Few bad nights of sleep? Pain is back. Take an awkward step? Pain is back. Bit too intense knee stretch (that the kine gave me)? Pain is back. It was a lot of overthinking of every niggle in the area.

I was allowed to build up running again pretty swiftly. First run back was 28 September. Rest in-between runs was paramount. Run a day, two days without running, run a day. Oddly enough I was allowed to up the distance every third day of running. By December I was running over 20 km per run, but still taking two off days between every run. By that point the kine had told me I could continue on my own.

In the new year, I switched to three days of running. After three weeks of that, I switched to every other day of running, then quickly switched back to three days of running because I did not like how the knee felt. This was also right after a trip to the USA, so my sleep was entirely messed up around that time. Note that off days I still spent on an elliptical, a bike, or doing a walk. On off days, I also kept up my routine of exercises the kine had given me.

I stayed at three days of running per week for quite some time. Most weeks this totalled up to around 53 km (15, 15, 23). Eventually, I settled on weekends where I would do the long run on Saturday and a sometimes equally long walk on Sunday. I kind of liked that setup, I managed to spend a lot of time in nature that way. I still wished I were running more, but I coped. This continued till the end of April 2024.

New May, new me, I switched to running every other day. I toned down the weekend walking because I did not have the time any more, but kept biking (mostly bike commute) and ellipticaling on the off days. The knee seemed to be holding up, but from what I recall it would still randomly hurt depending on the day.

Besides a transatlantic flight messing up my schedule and my sleep, June and July were pretty consistent in continuing every other day. I was also still doing the kine routine, I had settled on some exercises I did not hate entirely. I also had more free time in those two months, so did more walking again instead of elliptical. Biking was not an option.

August was another Euro trip. A year on from the last one, I played it a lot safer. We did not walk as much and I definitely did not run as much. I toned it down those weeks, squeezing in a recovery jog here-and-there. I averaged around 27 km per week for those three weeks.

The latter half of August I got back into the alternating days of running and things felt fine. Mid September I switched to four days of running, totalling about 60 km per week, and I did not fall apart.

At some point in September and October I think I gave up on the kine routine. I noticed the stretching involved in it would from time to time mess up my patella tendon. I had grown weary of it and that was the drop. I now wonder whether that (sometimes intense) stretching was actually hurting it more. The stretch in question was sitting on your knees and do a controlled descent of your butt towards to heels of your foot. When I started this ordeal, I could not come very close at all. By this point in time, I could easily sit down entirely into the stretch, but sometimes I felt that a tiny niggle in the patella tendon would exacerbate and hurt way more because of this move.

Either way, the running went well enough. I was still worrying about a bad night of sleep or a misstep ruining things (and sometimes it did still create small setbacks in how the knee felt), but by and large the worst seemed finally behind me. I started more properly thinking about my future running again.

In November 2024, I moved to five days of running per week, hitting about 64 km. I also reintroduced doing a workout once a week. I call it Lactate Threshold, but I do not think I am hitting that. I cannot move my legs very fast any more, that will have to improve again over time. Still, it felt good to create a bit of a burning lung feeling again, even if it was not all that special. I reintroduced taking a down week every fourth week, now that it was beginning to feel more again like I could use it.

December saw some more transatlantic travel, but I (and the knee) managed. In January I switched to six days of running a week. 70 km total, three of the days are recovery jogs.

I am just finishing a down week this week (and have reintroduced strides) with my eye on running 75 km the coming weeks. Of course, yesterday I made a misstep in a deeper patch of snow and today my left knee area hurts. Strangely enough it is further south than (the usual pain I felt in) the patella tendon. That will be a day off today and a reevaluation tomorrow.

I have noticed I am more at ease with where I am at. I still want to be fast, I still wish I were running more, I still have hopes of running good races. I will continue working towards those goals. However, making the decision to take that day off today came easy. Easier than it would have before the injury. Yes I am still annoyed with today and the past, but I am more accepting of my situation. I do not have as much free time as I used to. I cannot run as many different routes as I used to (for heatmap purposes, more on that if I feel like writing another post). But I am still running. I do still love it.

I chug on.