Doctor Sees No Problem

Thursday, May 12, 2016:

The sports doctor examined my knee and had x-rays taken.  He remarked that the knee joints would be the envy of a man ten years younger.  He saw nothing wrong, with a meniscus of sufficient thickness.

Right Knee

X-rays don't show irritation or inflammation in the meniscus or another knee part, of course.  The doc seems to think that something was irritated in the last marathon and hasn't quite recovered yet, though we couldn't find a way to make it hurt today in his office.  Isn't that how it always goes?

I asked about taking a small amount of dexamethasone on the morning of the race, since DEX is a very potent anti-inflammatory and I take it anyway as part of the myeloma regimen.  He nixed that idea but said that an NSAID like ibuprofen might be OK if necessary.

The next day, Friday, we three went to the YMCA indoor track, as the weather was awful, and I stopped after two miles because the knee started to hurt just a little.  No sense annoying it with a marathon only a week away.

Mile splits: 12:45, 13:16, total 26:01, pace about 13 minutes/mile for two miles.

Wednesday, May 11:

Knee Pain Gone   Almost.  I ran (mostly walked) exactly the same hilly route that I had run on Monday, but this time very little pain.  Toward the end of the run I purposely ran downhill, rather than walking, to see if that would make it hurt.  It didn't.

Splits: 28:00, 29:00, total 57:00, pace 14:15.

Monday, May 9:

Oops - the right knee hurt after the first mile of this four-mile run, enough to slow me down. Switching to very long strides seemed to help a little, so I tried to do that toward the end.  But what about a 26 mile run?  Doctor appointment Thursday.

Time might be a little off, because I stopped at SMG for a nature break, and SMG is a little out of the way.

Splits: 27:12, 16:36, 13:41, total 57:31, pace 14:34