Back in the Saddle Again, then Right Back Out

Despite my concerns about my left knee in the days leading up to the marathon, it felt pretty good and has given me little trouble since (although I accidentally knelt on the remaining bump during yoga the other day and had to suppress a yelp). For about 10 days after the marathon, however, my right knee was pretty painful, so much so that I skipped the race I had scheduled two Sundays ago. This past Sunday, however, I decided to go to another race I'd signed up for a few weeks in advance. My knee hadn't hurt at all for the last couple of days, and it was only four miles. And Central Park is lovely in the spring. I was anxious to see how it would hold up, but we pretty confident that I'd take the race pretty easy and all would be well.

I made it through the first 1/3 of a mile with no problems. Then the honeymoon came to an abrupt end. Both knees actually twinged on and off throughout the race, but my right knee was far worse than my left. Every few minutes I'd get a stabbing pain that made me wince. I had to finish, though, because I had a Zipcar reserved for 9:30 and the fastest way to get there without missing my appointment time was to finish the race, grab my stuff, and head for the station... My knee was sore throughout the day, although it got steadily better and by the next day felt pretty normal again. Still, this is a sign that I'm not ready to get back into training mode again. I really want it to heal completely before I start putting strain on it again. The situation is frustrating because the weather is finally starting to sort of improve (by tiny increments) and I'd love to be out in it. But I figure that by taking time off now I'm ensuring that I can have an uninterrupted late spring and summer ahead.