Everything you want to know about Meniscii
Coyote here, back from an extended tour of Italy, gorgeous country of espresso, prosciutto, mozzerella and gelato.
And also the place that I succumbed to my first crippling injury. Okay, so I'm being melodramatic. I can still walk just fine, but what I did was probably tear my meniscus in my left knee doing a simple 12 mile run around Lucca.
Today I got the MRI's done, and next week the doctor will diagnose. I have them with my right now, fascinating, but hard to diganose without any experience. The web is a wonderful place and there are several good websites all about this particular facet of sports injury, including people posting their MRI pics, but not in large enough detail to be of much use in comparing to mine.
The most positive news is that with a fairly simple surgery removing the torn bit of meniscus, recovery can be as quick as 3-4 weeks. The downside is high probability for future arthritis in the joint, especially with continued high impact. Oh well, some things are worth doing and I'm not going to give up running just yet.
A good site showing a meniscus repairI'll post more next week when I get the final diagnosis. For now its some proactive research for a good surgeon, of which I have several to pick from. I seem to know quite a few people with knee problems :)
The view from the wall around Lucca
Wow, that thing really does lean!
The Spanish steps, a great place to do stadiums, except for the crowd ;)
Mom and me on Capri island
One place to run in Rome, Circo Massimo
Increasing endurance by ...
drinking 4 cups of
green tea per day! In the June/July 2005 issue of
Eating Well, it says that along with its antioxidant duties,
green tea fed mice could swim up to 24% longer than their
tea-totalling buddies after 10 weeks. Ok, so they don't explain why/how but only say that human studies must follow. So let's do our own experiment and see for ourselves.
Last long run before RnR
My last run was Monday night (the 16th). The weekend went by without a long run, and, being as it's time to taper, I had to try for one last long one. Campbell Park as a base was a given, but the concept of those 3 2-mile loops at the end were not being perceived favorably by my psyche, so I did this:1) a "warm-up" 2 mile loop to start things off2) a LGHS 12 mile loop to get it out of the way3) a second 2 mile loop to break up the long loops4) a quick dash to Meridian and back for variety5) had to stop here (i.e. before the final 2 mile loop), due to: coldness (night air on my sweaty clothes), darkness (I'd been running pretty much in the dark since Meridian) and parking lot closure (at 10 pm)But it was good. Time was slower than when influenced by the flying Pegasissie, CT or race day mentality (somehow I managed to take 4.5 hours just for 21 miles), but legs needed to relive the memory of the "long haul" to come in only two more weeks!
Long runs can be normal things
On our second weekend as coaches, Pegasissie and I had another speedy run. Five miles it was, and barely made it over 45 minutes. On the way out, Kenny and I were "drawn" to the Yellow ones; on the return, Pegasissie met and surpassed the challenges (read "egging on") of the lead Yellow twos...
All-in-all, we decided we were up for another long one (Sunday). It was supposed to rain, but of course, we're beyond rain now. Arnon appeared (his "green" running buddies bailing on his planned Alma run due to the inclement weather) and entertained us the first two hours with stories of Big Sur Relay et al races.
This was not a repeat of the 23-miler, but rather more like the ambiance of the 21-miler before it, stopping for "car-support" (food) at the park. Pegasissie and I said good-bye to Arnon after 12 miles, headed out to Meridian and then did a 2.1 (ish) loop. Sissie had new shoes and was pretty bouncy. I was less-bouncy and started fantasizing about new shoes...
On Monday, though, it was no biggy and I was ready to run again. Bottom line: 20 miles can be "normal". To me, it's part of building a "marathon-base" - which means that you can maintain a "marathon-ready" state and therefore decide to run a marathon the day before the event. Take Tom as an example: he ran Big Sur as a "training run" for an ultra the week after.
