Dr. CRAGE makes a house call....

i think you are suffering from a similar issue.

the ligament that runs along the outside (or distal) side of the patella (kneecap) is called the iliotibial band or i.t. band. it runs along the distal side of your leg connecting the upper and lower leg to one another. the pain on the inside would likely be caused by your hamstring, which i think ends somewhere on the proximal side of your patella. of course, i must admit i dropped out of anatomy 4 weeks into the counter out of fear i might fail the midterm--primarily the histology exam.

i've been prescribed to rest and ice, and when i am not icing, i should be thinking about icing. every few days i get to test it by running--yesterday i got about a 1/2 a mile before it hurt. i get to try again on Sunday...the coach is playing DR since i can't afford to see the real one.

what does nurse KO have to say about your injury?

I'll tell you about my pain

First off, let me prepare you by saying that I have not managed in the least to begin grappling with the more technically descriptive side of running and its associated body parts. Thus, in comparison to you, I am liable to sound like a complete doofus. My knee was (and to some extent still is) hurting on the inside and outside laterally speaking of my kneecap (patella!). Most of the pain was/is on the outside. I thought it was all better but as I have ramped my physical activity back up (not so much running) the ache has returned. Please give a diagnosis DR. CRAGE!

tell me about your pain

so for about a week now i've been experiencing some pain on the distal side of my left knee, near the I.T. Band. I hope it is just an I.T.B. issue, and not a knee issue, but I am not sure. Since my doctor sucks, he'll probably just prescribe PT and I know my insurance won't cover that. so i was wondering, what was your pain like, and where did it start?
i was fine until i woke up last wednesday and then the pain began. [prepare yourself for the mother of all run-on sentences] i iced it, then tried to run on thursday, and experienced some pain during my 6 miles. iced and stretched it friday, tried to run saturday but only got about 2-3 miles into my 5-6 mile run, when the pain reduced my to walking, which made me change my route and return home and with this being seattle, it was major hillage that killed it some more, i've been icing it consistently since then (5-6 times a day) and tried to run about 2 miles (20 minutes) on it this AM and experienced some mild pain. needless to say, this sucks and i am getting really antsy (think bus trips to italy antsy) and am hating sitting around.

so what happened to you pre-lethargy?

summer miles challenge

now that you are back running, i am wondering if we should resurrect last summer's miles challenge, however with a reward of sorts. i am not sure what the parameters would be, but i think we should do it. plus, with having an actual goal at the end of the summer you might log more than the few sad miles you produced last season. whatcha think? june 15th to september 15th, or july and august, or another combination of time to be determined. let me know.

also, i ran a sad 4 miles yesterday. i was grumpy and didn't want to do it, but i made it out the door with Jonah (dog), and we busted out a few miles on beach drive...

i ran, i ran, i ran!

No, this is not a post about Amudenenjad. It is a post to say that I ran. That's right. I'm back for the one hundredth time. Last night I hit the rainy road and did 3.1 miles. That was totally coincidental. I ran out of my neighborhood and through the larger one across the street. I started when there was still some light, then it got darker. Now, mind you that I get lost driving in this subdivision, so why I thought that I cold find my way on foot, I do not know. I ended up taking a wrong turn and getting onto a narrow, dark and fairly busy street for the last half-mile. It was like doing wind sprints jetting from one driveway to another dodging insane drivers. Anyhow, I was glad to see that neither my lungs nor my knee exploded. Looks like I'm back in it for now.

right back at 'cha...

Thanks for the encouragement to check in. It's not that I intend to be a bad blogger/bad friend, but the craziness in my life never seems to cease. What's worse is that nothing demonstrable seems to be happening, life just feels busy. Maybe that's just what happens when you become totally suburbanized.
Anyhow, I hope that the mending is complete. This week is supposed to mark my return to physical activity and consequently my departure from fat slobdom. I played some racquetball on Wednesday which felt good and revealed my true out-of-shapeness. The motivation to get back onto running is that I am committed to run the Blue Ridge Relay in early September. I don't think it will require marathon shape, but it should be more demanding than any race I've previously run. Thus, I need to get going. Feel free to give me the verbal push.
My in-laws are here this weekend, and we've been hanging out with them. Last night we had a birthday party for Cana, who will be 1 on Thursday. That is extremely crazy in an of itself. Kristina is enjoying the good times of morning sickness, which I percieve to be a miserable thing to endure. She is going back to school to do the first semester of her RN in August. My love-hate relationship with my job continues. I'll let you know how the running return goes tomorrow.