Training Log Archive: Wyatt

1 strength set per plan, 1 DT/stretch/ice set per plan

Per plan, I did 3x DT/stretch/ice

Walked to/around VFMS track. Unfortunately, my L-knee is mildly annoyed by this. Not much, but this is far from running. I wonder if a 350 cal/hr cycling 20 minutes (per the nice warmup on 2/27) would be better (or if both are just a mild source of knee re-aggravation at this time.)

Back to see Val @ Excel PT, I was considering bailing back to my run-a-few-minutes thing, but a progress test was mixed enough that I decided to stick with her advice, although we modified the plan a bit.

Warmup was 20 minutes of reclined cycling @ 350 cal./hr. Knee a bit sore/stiff coming into the office, but it seemed to warm up after 10-15 minutes of cycling to barely noticable.

C • Modified Plan 1

Knee-test-run. Made it to 3 minutes w/o pain.

C • Mixed test result 1

1-leg squats, 2x10 each
ball-on-wall-at-back, down-on-L-leg-only, up-w/mostly-R-leg (more eccentric) - about 25

Lots of stretching and 'active release technique' (I think?) w/Val.

2 more sets of DT/Stretch/Ice later in the day.

Walked to/around VFMS track.

AM set of DT, stretch, L-knee squats, stretch, ice. Only did the squats through about 60 degrees of knee bed today, vs. trying for 90 (probably 75-90) two days ago. Apparently the latter was too hard.

PM just did DT, stretch, ice, as knee was getting upset again in evening, and again by 10am the next morning (but was zero-pain from wake until 9am)

2x DT/stretch/ice. Mild knee annoyance remained there on/off most the day...

A variety of upper body and core things at the gym, plus AM and PM 2x10 reps of the L-leg squats. Unfortunately, what was a little stiffness in midday, is a little more stiffness and light burning in th evening that 3 rounds of ice hasn't quelled. Tomorrow will be an off day for knee exercises.

Event: DVOA Nolde
 

Event: Western States + Intercollegiate Championships
 

AM set of 2x10 left leg squats. Plus I did the DT/stretch/ice thing midday. And it's not PM yet.

The good news is that my Left knee isn't blowing up with this exercise. Unfortunately, I won't know if I'm making any forward progress until at least next Wed/Thu.

AM set of 2x10 left leg squats. Plus some random sit ups and push ups. Playing Morrowind instead of PM set. (Can somebody hassle me for slacking on my supposed recovery exercises...)

C • Consider this a hassle! 3

AM set of 2x10 left leg squats. Fell asleep before PM set.

Some random walking while swinging some 3lb weights in my arms. I should take the HR monitor next time to see if these even get me to 100bpm...

Noon: 20 left-leg squats (plus 5 min DT, then stretch before, stretch & ice after). No noticable pain while doing this. L-knee not-100% down stairs in the morning, but close enough that I had to think about it to notice.

I should probably add some core strength and/or some swimming to avoid become flabby. PG's record of hitting the gym while injured is putting me to shame... Maybe I should start some today?

PM set of 2x10 L-leg squats

Saw Valerie Brill of Excel Physical Therpay today. Val is still, by far, the most competent physical therapist I've ever met. Probably more competent than the majority of sports med. doc's too. A few questions, a rapidly changing variety of pulls and pushes & even staring at my 2.5 minutes on the treadmill clearly with intense study going on followed detailed observations, good discussion, and, like a prior injury, "does it hurt when I push _here_" nailing a spot that hurts as much or more than anything that I've found myself in dozens of pokes and prods over the past few months. If expert Physical Therapy can fix this, I'm on the right track.

My HHT (hamstring issue solved by pineapple and walking) was _not_ really cured by expert Physical Therapy, and my tendintises (?) tend to be more chronic than most people's, so my self-prognosis isn't optimstic, but we'll do what we can, including, mostly from Val's advice,

At least 8 days of the following, probably modified a bit after that, still with no running until ~3/13, to-be-modified based on progress.

3x/day of

• 5 min. Transverse Deep Tissue Massage right where it hurts, with leg extended
  
• L-Quad stretch, standing, pull back to involve hip flexor
  
• (2x/day) L-leg squats, 2x10 reps. (On declining platform, weight on heel, lower leg vertical.)
  
• L-Quad stretch again if exercised
  
• ice cube, 5 minutes
  

Assessment of progress will be hard, but if I can do this w/o my knee getting worse (e.g. worse than no pain during any normal daily activities), and I can run notably farther before pain on a treadmill test next Wednesday, I'll consider it progress.

Based on past experience, this kind of strength training may have a 24-hour-lag increase-of-inflammation effect, just possibly trashing the leg from what was looking like a maybe, possibly, slow recovery in progress (e.g. the ability to run 10 minutes, ice after, and not get worse the next day.) If this happens, my opinion of traditional physical therapy for my injuries will sour much further.

C • Watching with interest 1

Ran on the treadmill for 3 minutes - no pain at all until 2 minutes, then progressive getting worse. Did this on purpose, at the Phys. Therapy office so I could point really clearly to where it hurts...

20 left-leg squats

Real slow running on pavement. As usual, knee sore after 2 minutes, but not quite as bad at the end of 10 minutes today as it was yesterday. Improving just a bit? Or was it the odd weather and/or the heat-before that I did today.

Saw Dr. McShane today. He listened to the history and did some poking, and a bunch of looking at the tendon with ultrasound imaging.

He says I do have a mild case of Patellar Tendonitis, and it would likely just get worse and chronic if I kept running on it.

He suggests:

• Deep tissue work, esp. ala a professional (although I'm sure to try to imitate this.)
  
• Closed chain Eccentric exercises per Physical Therapist advice (details to come tomorrow)
  
• NO running, or even walking (I think I'll probably do some walking, as that promotes some of the blood flow that he suggests his good...)
  
• NO Ibuprofin - he calls using NSAIDs for Tendonitis the top 1 of his "7 myths of Sports Medicine" in the book he's writing... This apparently slows the healing.
  
• NO heat/ice on/off. That's a waste of time for this. (Although there may be some heat/ice associated with the before/after the eccentric exercises thing. I'm not sure.)

I think I'll try following this advice for the next few weeks (ex. for maybe I'll go for some walks, not sure about that.) I'm a little skeptical about the eccentric strength training part (when that repeatedly failed on my high-hamstring-tendonopathy and walking helped), but I'm willing to try for a few weeks. We'll see.

C • Hmm... 4

Event: Ugly Mudder 7.25 Mile Trail Run
 

Some slow running mostly on sidewalk, and some grass. Knee started getting annoyingly sore around 2 minutes and was pretty uncomfortable by 4 minutes. Didn't get too much worse by the end. Not something I want to persist, but maybe if I can shuffle along like this for 10-20 minutes a day, my knee will get used to it?

On the health front, my cold is still beating me up a lot. Took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon after the running. My right sinus seems to be the source of much of the trouble. Maybe I should have that removed ;) In the meantime, Mucinex and laying on my left side seems reasonably effective at keeping me from significant discomfort...

Several grass loops around the house, racing AJ and/or Oriana, and/or Vadim. AJ was the fastest, Oriana was the slowest. I was just edging out Vadim for 2nd, as he walked painfully fast...

Plus, at the end, I ran 6 minutes in a row, _WITH AJ_ :) That was fun as it was a tough for me to finish even at a slow pace, because my knee was starting to get uncomfortable, and was tough for AJ who was totally winded & tired, saying he needed a nap when he was done :)

I don't know if my knee's even slightly better, or if I'm just running really slow, plus noise. Given the fact that I have a Doc. Appt. on Monday and a PT appt. on Tuesday, I think I need to run enough to give them an accurate assessment of what hurts now, given what effort.

I've also had a nasty cold for a week or so, losing 1-2 days of work last week, sleeping a bunch, coughing a bunch. Yuck. I think that's improving now, albiet still quite slowly.

Mostly flatish, mostly paved. 30-1:00 running swapped with 30-2:00 walking. L-knee definitely sore by the end of later 'intervals'.

10x30 seconds during a 20 minute walk/run thing. Ran slow and easy, mostly on flat stuff, and it got sore a bit, but not as bad as a few days ago. I'm sick this week, so my exercise is light for that reason too. Plus I missed my appt. with the PT on Mon. AM as I was pretty sick. I rescheduled for next Tue. So next Mon. is a doc, and Tue is a PT, and I'll get an update.

C • pace 1

Event: DVOA Nockamixon
 

Event: DVOA Tyler
 

Long slow walk with the kids, doing some mapping

C • How did the visit go? 1

4x2 minutes, with heat before, walking warmup, 2 minute walks between. My L-PT hurt pretty bad at the end of the 3rd 2 minute run, and at 80 seconds into the last two minute run. It was rough finishing that last 2 minute run while trying not to limp, or quit.

I think I'm probably out for the season, as this start in Dec.15th, and the knee continues to degrade despite drastic reductions in training, including 3 weeks with <10 minutes per day, and 1 week totally off, DT, ice, 1200-2400mg of IB per day, etc... I'm not sure what else I can throw at this.

C • I could do a cortisone shot... 8

~3x1:40, on trails, L-knee sore after ~30 second, and worse by the end, but not nearly as bad as the next day

L-knee okay until 40 seconds of running, then sore. Increasingly sore during each running bit and hurt at each step of walking by the end. So a bit worse than yesterday. Was 3x 1-minute runs. Heat before, ice after, and the ice did quell the pain more or less entirely.

C • What is the heat regimen? 2

Before/mid/after runs.

3 sets of 600mg IB & DT (as of 10pm...)
-----------------> AND I found something physically different between the knees. The Left Pat. Tendon seems to have a line of tissue running across it, that's relatively soft & loose (compared to the harder tendon). The R Pat Tendon has a ridgeline there too - basically at the bottom of where it's all tendon to where the bone begins in earnest underneath - but it's much more solid on the R Pat. Tendon. I wonder if that's an inflamed section or a torn up section or my imagination. I think I really must get a doc. appt. now.

C • PT 1

L-PT better than yesterday. Got to end of 1st 30 second running bit w/o pain, and it wasn't as bad by the end - almost recovering at the end of the walk. The 24 hour trend is good. (But is it signal, or noise?)

2 sets of stretch, DT & 600mg IB. - 11am & 2pm (both late a bit)

2 more 600mg/stretch/DT sessions. AJ turned 7 today and we went to one playplace/arcade, that had a fire alarm evac., then another. We raced cars side by side..., did laser tag, did ball shooting air cannon things.

2 600mg/DT sessions. Dropped the stretching as I noticed yesterday PM that my L-Quad is vastly more flexible than my R-Quad at this point, which I imagine may cause problems of it's own. So I'm doing some symmetric DT with a bit roller on both Quads, and a quarter roll on the Pat Tendons. Can't press that hard on the Pat tendons.

Warmed up L-Knee. Walked ~20 minutes with ~ 1 minute of running in three short bits in the middle. L-PatTendon fine until 1st run, then mildly sore to the end. Ice after, and then it didn't hurt any more.

Not great, but if it can hold at this level while I slowly ramp back to normal training, that would be fine.

Seeing a doc might be worthwhile. Probably not, but maybe.

1st AM set: 600mg IB & stretch. No DT.

Completed 3 more sets of stretch, DT & 600mg IB. The DT currently consists of a roll of quarters, rolled into both the L-PT and the Quad, by hand, with sitting. I wonder if the (new) DT of the Quad itself is helpful.

Certainly with the hamstring injury, the point where the pain was felt wasn't always the same as the point that needed DT work (I think.)

A bunch of brisk walking around the house, chasing kids. No heat before, but I did do ice after. One point of mild but sudden pain rebuking my attempt to speed up...

Thus far, 3 sets, same as yesterday. When I think about it, the L-PT is still a little off on downstairs... esp. if I try not to limp.

Late PM Quad stretch & DT with some coins in a roll & 600mg IB - why not the pineapple? Well, it's at Casa Jacaranda, and I'm home...

On a positive note, I haven't really noticed my L-knee hurting at all in the last 3 days (Thu-Sat.) However, I haven't done anything remotely strenuous, so it's not clear whether even the Sayulita level of daily walking (which continued to cause occasional pain) would actually cause pain to recur.

Plan is to take tomorrow off too, and then try a walking->running ramp for the following 2 weeks.

And get back on the bandwagon of stretching, DT, IB & ice, 4x/day.