It's Time to Take a Break

If you’ve read any of my recent race reports, you know that I’ve been coping with a knee injury since August.  Here’s a brief recap.

I first noticed it after falling three times during a trail marathon.  None of them seemed like hard landings, but on the third fall, I scraped my knee badly enough that it was bleeding.  The next day, I had a vague sensation that my right knee didn’t feel right.  It didn’t actually hurt, but something felt like it was off.

Over the next two weeks, I didn’t make any changes to my training.  In retrospect, that was a mistake.  I think I aggravated it doing weight training exercises, which included leg extensions and deadlifts.

It wasn’t until the day after the Millennium Meadows Marathon that I realized the discomfort was getting to be more persistent.  Then I saw a doctor.  The injury wasn’t serious, but I needed to cut back in my training.  The timing was unfortunately.  In less than two weeks, I was scheduled to start a series of 20 marathons on 20 consecutive days.  Before that, I also needed to do my virtual Boston Marathon.

I did my virtual Boston Marathon wearing a knee support, but I still had persistent discomfort in my knee.  Then I took a week off from running to prepare for the 20in20 series.

When I started that series, I fully expected the knee to get worse.  I didn’t know if I could finish all 20 races, but I was determined to try, even if I had to walk most of the way.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well my knee held up during that series.  On the first day, it didn’t bother me nearly as much as I thought it would.  By the end of the series, I had developed other minor injuries, but my knee didn’t feel any worse than it did at the start of the series.

Because I race so frequently, I rarely finish a race without having several others already scheduled.  At the beginning of March, I had races scheduled all the way out to the beginning of November.  Most of those races got cancelled, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I saw the 20in20 series as a way to do something truly memorable, after all my international trips got cancelled.  When I finished that series, I wasn’t registered for any other races.  There were several races I planned to do, but I held off on making any commitments until I knew how I felt after the series.

After the series, I had a rare opportunity to take a break and let my injuries heal.  In addition to my knee, I also had an inflamed tendon at the top of my left leg, and both of my Achilles tendons were acting up.

From March to July, almost all races of any size were cancelled.  Then race directors adapted and found ways to put on races during the pandemic.  To do so, they had to limit the size of the races.  As a result, races filled quickly.  If you wanted to do a race, you couldn’t wait too long to make a commitment.

There were races in October and November that sounded appealing, but I knew I needed more than a few weeks to heal.  At the time, I was actually much more concerned about my left leg than my right knee.  Looking farther ahead, I really wanted to do the Texas Quad over Thanksgiving weekend.

Ideally, I would’ve waited until I was fully recovered before committing to another race.  I didn’t want to risk the Texas Quad filling up, so I signed up for it.  It was still seven weeks away, and I thought that would be enough time to heal.  It probably would’ve been enough if I didn’t need to keep training.

I took one full week off from running.  That helped a lot.  My next two runs were less than two miles.  Then I gradually worked up to running seven miles every other day.  While I limited most of my runs to seven miles or less, I also did a 10-mile run and a 12-mile run.  I don’t like to go too long without a long training run.  The 12-mile run was supposed to be 14 miles, but I started having knee discomfort, so I stopped.

For the first three or four weeks after the 20in20 series, all of my injuries seemed to be healing nicely.  Then I reached a plateau.  I was trying to strike a balance.  On one hand, I wanted to give my legs enough rest so they could heal.  On the other hand, I wanted to retain enough of my fitness that I could still run marathons on four straight days.  I succeeded in retaining enough of my fitness to be ready for the Texas Quad, but I still wasn’t fully healed.

I don’t have any regrets about doing the Texas Quad.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for three or four years, and my results exceeded my expectations.  I placed in the top three all four days and had the fastest combined time for the four races.  I’ve won triples before, but this was the first time I won a quadzilla.

Even before the Texas Quad, I signed up for two other races.  The first was the Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon.  The second was the Big Beach Marathon.  I wanted to do the New Year’s Double too, but I held off on signing up for those races.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon was important because it was my first opportunity to qualify for the 2022 Boston Marathon.  I didn’t know how many other opportunities I would get, so I wanted to knock that off while I was still in good in enough shape.

After that race, I decided not to sign up for the New Year’s Double.  I took another week off from running.  Since then, I’ve been running every two or three days.  Most of those runs were about five miles.  The longest run I did before the Big Beach Marathon was seven miles.

For the first three or four weeks after the Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon, my knee seemed to be improving.  I thought I found the right balance.  The two daily activities that are most apt to cause knee discomfort are stairs and planks.  On my better days, I could sometimes g up and down stairs without discomfort.  On my best days, I was able to do a plank without my knee bothering me.

I thought I was turning a corner.  Then, after one of my runs, my knee felt unusually sore.  The next morning, it still felt sore.  After that, I only did one more training run before the Big Beach Marathon.

I had more knee discomfort during the Big Beach Marathon than I’ve had during any race since September.  I think that’s mostly because of long sections of boardwalk.  The boards may have been a bit springy, causing my knee to absorb more shock with each stride.  I realized even before this race that my knee was no longer improving.  For the first time, I had to acknowledge that it probably wouldn’t get better if I kept running, even at a reduced level.  I had already decided to take a break after this race, but this put an exclamation point on that decision. 

I have a physical therapy appointment next week.  Until then, I won’t run at all.  I’ll continue to go for daily walks with Deb, but I won’t attempt to do any other form of cross-training.  I’m just going to rest.

I’ll seek the advice of my physical therapist about when I should resume running.  I fully expect it’ll be at least a few weeks.  In the past, I was reluctant to stop running completely for more than a week.  I didn’t want to risk losing too much fitness when I still had races on my calendar.  That’s no longer a concern.  I’m not signed up for any races, and I don’t plan to commit to anything until my knee is completely healthy.

When I finished the 20in20 series, it was the first time in many years that I didn’t have another race scheduled.  Now I’m in that some position again.  I know taking a break from running will cause me to lose fitness in the short term.  I know how much work it takes to get back in marathon shape, but I also know I can do it.  It can’t be any harder this year this it was in 2016.  Then, I couldn’t even walk normally.  At least this time, I’m able to walk and run with sound mechanics.  I’ll just have to get back in shape.

That’s the reason it was so important for me to get a Boston qualifier at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon in December.  Now I don’t have to worry about getting back in shape in time to qualify for 2022.  I bought enough time that I can afford to be patient.