Patella collapso ...

As the GRW-ers know, I've had a week off from running this week for the sake of my knee (sorry Jantastic). I've been good, and trying to rest it, although I had to take the bandage off after a day or so because it was annoying me!

Buggered knee! This was the Sunday ...

My long run last weekend around the Isle of Cumbrae started well, even if I did have to head out in the dark at 7.30 to get it in before my big day of singing. Quite happily ran the first three miles, including some wee hills, and then paused briefly to remove a layer (at which point I was quite glad of the low population of the island, and the early start, because I had to strip right down to my sports-bra to get my long-sleeved top off!).  For no reason in particular that I could tell, when I started running again, my knee was niggling me a wee bit.

I should explain at this juncture that I damaged my left knee with a wonky triple-jump when I was at high school (no posh surfaces for us - rock hard field doesn't do a good job as a shock-absorber) and it's come back to haunt me every now and again ever since.  Usually when it starts niggling on a run, it does it for about half a mile, and then behaves itself again - so I really thought nothing too much of it and carried on. Paused again for a comfort break (not really needed but an excuse to stop an assess the knee) and with a bit of patella wiggling it seemed to be fine.

Alas - that wasn't the end of it - after about another 5 mins it started hurting properly! So I stopped - gave kneecap another wiggle and a bit of a massage and then plodded off again. It was going in spates of fine-painful-fine (especially painful when the camber of the road meant my left leg was lower than my right - something I have noticed to affect it before).  

When I finally got to the point of thinking I might just have to give up and hobble back,  I had a slight issue - I was halfway round. Now much as I enjoyed the views from running around a sparsely inhabited island, it did mean that there was no hope of public transport the way I had come - although a (very) slim chance of catching the ferry slip-Millport bus if I carried on my planned route.  I had my phone with me, but my host didn't have a car (and was unlikely to be awake). I'm not sure if the island has a taxi service or not, but I didn't have enough cash to pay them anyway.

I made the decision to carry on with my run-hobble-pause on the original route I had planned, and actually made decent time considering ... a couple of the middle miles are painfully slow (emphasis on the painful) and I have to say that the descent into Millport itself hurt quite a lot.  But having returned to my host's flat and climbed the 3 flights of stairs my knee felt stupidly ok. Not as it turned out completely better but more of that anon.

After this I decided to take at least a couple of days off running (even if it was going to mess up Jantastic) as I figured I'd started the marathon training so early that hopefully I wouldn't lose too much fitness and better to have my knee in good form rather than missing VLM ... especially as I've now admitted to relevant people for whom I'm planning to fund raise. A couple of days off has turned into pretty much a week - although I'm now beginning to miss it, so may run tonight or tomorrow if I can fit a short one in to test how my knee is going. It seemed fine this morning: it's been stiff or noticeably annoying the rest of the week, so fingers crossed it's back to normal for now. 

I also have to make the decision for Febulous as to how long my long-runs are going to be: I was (if you remember) planning to reconsider my training plan and maybe follow the RW one from now on ... I'll have to have a look at that and see how it fits into my planned races for the next couple of months.  Can't quite believe how far I've got with this whole training plan - even with the week of rest for my knee!

Route around Cumbrae here, with crazy stats (especially the very last 3/4 mile!). It is a beautiful island, and I would definitely recommend running around it if anyone gets the chance.

Panoramic view - must have taken it when I was de-layering at about 7.45 ...