Cyclocross and another try at running

As I wrote in my last post, I decided my knee needed a break from running, so I haven't run at all since 9/8/11.

I have tried cyclocross racing, and have had fun doing it, although it's been pretty humbling, since I have been at the tail end of the race in all 4 races I have done.  Bike racing is pretty different than running, in that everyone out there is pretty serious.  In truth, my fitness is not very high, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised to be bringing up the rear.  In today's race at Shedd Park in Lowell, I was DFL, although I guess I can say I beat the 7 DNFs.

But I do miss running.  The knee feels OK now, so I think I'm going to again give it a go and see what happens.  Indeed, I entered a Thanksgiving Day race today,  the Fisher Cats 5K in Manchester, NH.   It will no doubt be a bit of a struggle on zero miles of training, but maybe the cycling will help.  I'll post a post-mortum after the race.

MRI result

I finally got a call about my MRI result yesterday (it was 16 days after it was done).  The news wasn't that good, if about what I expected.

It showed that the grafts on my patella and trochlea are intact, but there was a significant amount of edema under the patellar graft.  One would hope not to see that 4 years out from the surgery, since it suggests that the quality of the cartilage in the graft isn't that good.

 I didn't speak to the surgeon himself, but rather his assistant.  She told me they didn't think I should be doing high impact activities, like running.

The plan is to repeat the MRI in 6 months, and if it looks similar, to consider taking a look arthroscopically to see if the graft is soft.  But I'm not really sure what could be done about that - I didn't think to ask.

So, the return to running is on hold.  Maybe permanently.  However, I think I will continue to update the blog with my progress on other activities.  I will concentrate on cycling, and I am now planning to make a serious attempt to improve my cross country skate skiing over this coming winter.

MRI postponed

I was supposed to have my knee MRI last week, but I was postponed, a bit to my surprise.

The week before, we were on vacation in the Canadian Rockies, which was wonderful.  We did a Backroads family multi-sport trip, with cycling, hiking and a little rafting.  My knee actually felt OK, but I would add the qualifier that it wasn't all that rigorous, being a family trip.

 Anyway, on the way home, I tweaked my back lifting luggage.  As a consequence, I was taking some ibuprofen.  The MRI needs to be done with intravenous contrast to get a good look at the cartilage.  Very rarely, intravenous contrast can cause serious kidney problems, although this happens almost exclusively in people who already have serious kidney disease.  Medications like ibuprofen can in theory cause kidney dysfunction, although probably not in reasonably healthy people (I think I am in that category).  At the MRI, I had to fill out a fairly long questionnaire, which includes questions about recent ibuprofen use.  Since I had taken some that morning, they cancelled me.  Kind of ridiculous in my opinion.  Fortunately, it's not exactly urgent that I get the scan, and the facility was right on my way to work, so it wasn't as annoying as it could have been.

The knee feels quite a bit better than it did when I first made the doctor's appointment that led to the MRI, but I will still go ahead with the scan this coming week, since I would like to know what's going on in there.  If it looks good, then I think I will feel I can try to up my mileage & see how it goes.  I only ran 23 miles (but cycled 272).

Update - MRI scheduled

I'm overdue for an update.

I saw my orthopedist in mid July, since I was worried about the knee pain I have been having.

He told me he thought it could be the patch over the cartilage graft having come loose & causing trouble.  Or deterioration of the graft (which would obviously be a bad thing).  So, I'm scheduled for an MRI the week after next; it was delayed because of my vacation plans.

While vacationing in northern Michigan, I was pretty active, and the knee didn't feel too bad, so maybe things aren't too bad after all.  But I am interested to know what the MRI will show.

It's kind of a rainy Sunday morning, not very good for riding the bike, so will probably head out for a short run in a bit.

Schofield school 5K

Contrary to my post earlier today, I didn't jog the race with my son, as he ran with my wife.  I ran it myself, although I hesitate to say I raced it.

Warming up, my knee was sore, and I entertained the idea of not running, but figured it would feel better once I was running, and it did.

I finished in 24:22, not my slowest ever 5K, but pretty slow.  Looking back, I ran the same course in 19:39 in 2002.  I did my typical a-bit-too-fast 1st mile, then ran an 8:03 2nd mile over the hilly mile of the course.  From my Garmin .

It was a nice day to run, and the knee didn't really bother me.  I had an average heart rate of 166, so I wasn't taking it easy; just not in very good shape...

knee pain

I am having some issues with pain/stiffness in the knee.  This past weekend (Memorial Day), I went up to Acadia National Park with my family.  Our activities included some hiking, which did not agree with my knee.  I even had a little swelling.  The trails we hiked were steep & rocky, at least in spots.  It was also damp & foggy, making the footing slick.  The hikes weren't all that long, though; only 4 or 5 miles.

I was definitely aware of the knee on 3 short runs I have done this week.

I am signed up to run a 5K later today, but I think I am going to run it with my 11 year-old son, who hasn't ever run a 5K, so I expect not to run very fast (I imagine we will be doing some walking).  That's just as well, since I am pretty sure I couldn't have run very fast given my limited training.


 

stress fracture update

I had a quick visit with the orthopedist today.  He did locate a very tender spot on my shin which is where I think one of my osteotomy screws was.  He thought it would be very unusual to develop a stress fracture in that part of the tibia, even with a hole there, as the bone is very strong in that location.  But he told me he couldn't really think of another reason for the pain there.  He advised me to stop running until the tenderness is gone.

He thought an x-ray would be reasonable if the pain persists, but we didn't get one today.

So, it looks like I will be sticking to the bike for a little while.