Now that I have a real runners’ injury. You followers might remember me posting a while back about signing up for the Twin Cities Marathon. Well, my training had been going fairly well until this little setback. (Well, I’m praying it’s little, at least.)

A few days ago now my right knee cap felt a little funny — not hurting, really, just a little funny. Well, it felt funnier and funnier and now it almost actually hurts. I did some quick research and it seems to be a classic case of patellofemoral pain syndrome, aka “Runner’s Knee.” At least I’m not alone, I guess.

So I read these here articles at Runner’s World, Web MD , and in my running book and looks like I just have to back off on the training, stretch a bit, and try to strengthen my quads. Of course, this is the same knee that had ACL surgery back in college and I did never feel the leg was back to 100% strength-wise.

This is all fairly annoying, as training had been going well. I recently started doing my long runs not in Montreat, but Asheville, and I found the sidewalks, flatter terrain, and beautiful neighborhoods a joy to run around. So I’m a little stuck, I suppose, since my knee doesn’t hurt too much, but needs its rest. I’m going to take several days off, maybe swim a bit instead, and ice when I can. Huuummphf.

So there’s the marathon training update.  I’ve still got two months until the race, so I’m not too down, but I do want to do all I can not to make this the first in a string of injuries.  As they say, slow and steady wins the race.

image by LesKZN