Tag: injury

2 years later…

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Two years ago (technically November 25, 2014, but it was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving), I partially tore my ACL playing soccer. I didn’t get the official diagnosis until late January, but with my huge trip out west in June, I held off officially training for soccer until after I got back and targeted the fall season as my reintroduction to soccer. 8 focused weeks of rehab later, I was cleared to go back to playing full-contact soccer. Three days later, I was playing Sunday pick-up soccer and got a good hour or so in before I re-injured my knee. With just a week and a half before I headed to New Mexico for the Ragnar Trail Angel Fire (and then on to Oregon for the Hardesty Hardcore), I was back in the physical therapist’s office Monday hoping for good news.

Needless to say, the therapists were surprised to see me when I hobbled back in. I spent three days in rehab that week and another the next week. Luckily the injury wasn’t as bad as the first time and with the therapy, I was able to run both races. In the 15 months since I tried going to back to soccer, I definitely miss it. I’m still involved managing the Charlotte Women’s Soccer League, but it’s not the same as being out on the field.

I’ve had a few times when my knee has been sore after running, especially if the road is banked and the right side is higher for long periods of time, but for the most part, the only thing my injury has impacted is my ability to play soccer and my willingness to try things like trampoline dodgeball (where was this before I got injured?!).

I had been starting to do more running prior to my injury, but it has definitely impacted my training schedule. I used to play soccer 4-5 times a week, so I would never do any short “runs” during the week because I was always playing soccer and getting mileage and sprinting in that way. I still haven’t adjusted to not having scheduled games during the week to keep me active, so one of the biggest changes as I start planning for my 2017 races is that I really need to focus on my runs during the week. Just running on the weekends isn’t going to cut it next year.

Most of last year I did half marathons for fun and to explore new places, so I didn’t really push myself hard during the races, but running three marathons this year (especially the last two) showed me that I  need to focus more on my actual training and not just signing up for the fun races! I already know that I’ve got an early-season marathon (Blue Ridge Marathon on April 22) that promises to be even harder than the Grandfather Mountain Marathon I did this year. I’d also like to break the 2 hour mark in the half marathon. I came close when I ran the Scream in 2014, finishing in 2:03 and this year I did the Charlotte half marathon in 2:08. The Charlotte race hurt, but I definitely think if I train for a 2 hour half, breaking that mark is certainly within my reach.

I’m not sure what all will be on tap for 2017, but I’m ready to start planning!

Catching up on August

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It’s been a full month since I last posted and a lot has happened in that time. I just got back from my second Westward Adventure trip, though this time I headed out to New Mexico and Oregon for even more running and hiking fun! In early August I was cleared to start playing pick-up soccer and got put on a 4-week training plan to get me up to full-speed soccer. The goal was to have me ready to play by the beginning of September when the woman’s league started. 

Unfortunately 4 days after I officially graduated my physical therapy training program, I was playing pick-up and felt another pop in my the same knee, just a week and a half before I was scheduled to leave for the Ragnar trail relay in Angel Fire, New Mexico. 24 hours later I was back at the physical therapy office. They used some ultrasound on my knee and got me on the stationary bike trying to work out some of the swelling and get some range of motion back in my knee. When I mentioned I had a race the following weekend, they looked at me like I was crazy and said “we’ll see” at which point I said “did I mention I’m going to New Mexico for this race?!” They were not very encouraging about the race, but told me to come back a few days later and see how I felt then. 

After a few days of rest, I was able to walk normally again and my second appointment went much better. They even let me run on a treadmill at a 12:00 pace and told me to take it easy over the weekend. By early the next week, they were able to fully test my knee and decided I still had enough of an ACL to keep my knee from moving the way it’s not supposed to, so I was cleared to run the two races that I had signed up for, which was good because I was leaving in two days! 

Stay tuned for a full recap of Ragnar Trail Angel Fire, New Mexico, Oregon and the Hardesty Hardcore trail race!

Bumps in the road

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Last week I finally got the verdict on my knee injury that happened the week of Thanksgiving. Officially, I have a partially torn ACL. The good news is that I don’t need to have surgery, but I will have to do some rehab and I got a cortisone shot last Thursday to help with the residual swelling they could see on my MRI. My doctor told me that I should be able to see a difference within a few days from the shot and then the rehab will strengthen my knee / leg to get me back to full strength. I’ve got my next half marathon in 4.5 weeks, so I backtracked into a short training plan and did 8 miles this past weekend. I wasn’t going for any time goal, but I started running and I felt pretty good, so I just ran by feel and tried to keep myself going. I still struggled with motivation a bit, but the weather was awesome (68 degrees!) and I was able to average under an 11 minute pace for the whole 8 miles. My knee felt really good during and after the run, so I definitely can tell a difference since the shot on Thursday. 


So, I’ve hit a couple bumps in the road, but I’m (hopefully) getting back into the swing of training and I’ve already signed up for my next challenge! 



Two weeks is a lot of time off…

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…but, I was able to run last night! I went out for a local group run with no real expectations other than that I wanted to test out my knee to see how it was feeling after two weeks of rest. I went slow and steady and ended up doing 3 miles, with an average pace of 12:53. I was aware of my knee throughout the run, but I anticipate that’s because of some minor residual swelling and mostly because I haven’t been doing anything beyond some walking (average miles per day is 2 miles total, with a maximum of 3.27 miles). 

Other than being a little winded to start the run (combination of uphill & cold air), I felt really good throughout the run and am hopeful that this means I can start moving toward longer distances, which is a good thing since I’ve got a half marathon in a week and a half! While I know that 3 miles is only about a quarter of the race distance, I feel a lot better about it now, knowing that if nothing else I can get a lot of walking in that day. Since the half marathon is actually the shortest distance of the 3 race options that day (50k, full and half), the cut-off time is over 8 hours, so I think I should be safe. I’ll probably try to get a longer run in this weekend to see how that feels and then another 1-2 short runs in next week and then it’s race #19 for the year!