I’ve been learning about knees today. Specifically, mine and why one of them is crunching like it’s full of gravel.
I’ve had a clicky knee since somewhere around the New Year (happy 2019 to me!) and at the time blamed the very sudden ramp up in miles I’d done in December compared to the previous months. I figured it’d sort itself out with some rest and accordingly gave myself free license to be a lazy bum for January.
I started picking my mileage up again in March but ye olde knee was still crunching away when I went up the stairs. It’s not hurt through any of this, but it’s not a noise knees are supposed to make and when one’s father has very bad arthritis in his knees, one does not want the same! Especially when one has much running to do! As one does…
A friend of mine had recommended a physio in Willington, who to be honest if you check his website (https://www.info-physio.com/) is ridiculously overqualified for sorting my crunchy knees but along I did pootle anyway to see Gordon tonight. I was expecting to be told that my dropping Bounce in November (excellent for core-strength and toning as well as cardio) and too many miles pootling was causing issues and I need to work on my quads to sort it, but apparently not…
My painless crunching is something called Bursitis – an inflammation of the fluid pockets around a joint that probably you and certainly me didn’t know we had called bursae (you can read more here or here – I’m not going to waffle about stuff I clearly don’t understand when someone has already done a better job than me!). It looks like I’m lucky – it can often be quite painful.
What was immediately obvious to Gordon – and me when he pointed it out – is that my left kneecap is swollen while my right one is not – and some of the fluid is actually forming a small pocket behind my knee (Baker’s cyst) as it can’t move around as it should do. This appears to have caused a small sprain on my inner knee ligament – again painless – and is likely to be the cause of my recent backpain; all with the knee itself not mainfesting any pain at all (yet?!).
The long and short of it is – no running for a few weeks. Three weeks of ultrasound treatment – and it was weird how quickly my kneecap definition started to appear after the first treatment today though it’s obviously still crunching as miracles are not common things – and no running or Bounce until it’s sorted out. My plans to restart going to Bounce again on Tuesday next week are going to have to continue on hold, and Washington Trail 10k on Sunday is also out – for exercise type, distance and terrain! I have been generously permitted to cycle in the meantime as long as I keep the high-impact knees stuff off!
Three weeks puts me only 1.5 weeks off Rock and Roll Liverpool weekend – and I really don’t know if I’ll be doing the half marathon as I’m not yet half-marathon fit anyway to try to sustain. I confess to being a touch dejected – especially as I’m definitely missing one of my favourite 10k’s and the Durham Trail 10M I’ve been wanting to do the last two years – but it’s not that long really if I’ve got my sensible head on. I’ve just spent 3 weeks off because of a cold, then being a lazy butt, then my back twanging so it’s the same again, but like a small child we want what we cannot have 🙂 I’d prefer to be fit enough to enjoy the trail races I’ve got booked between June and October, and be able to windsurf without twisting everything this summer than to not do things properly once nad have it take four times as long.
I’ve always been a somewhat reluctant cyclist, but it looks like I’m at least about to become a more practiced one!
Blue Runnings 
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