Injury anxiety

ILikeBoats

Hi,

I'm in the middle of a marathon training plan. My knee started acting up a while back. I went to physio, reduced the mileage, am doing all my physio exercises.

Went for a long run two weeks ago, physio said it was ok to, and it got pretty painful after that. Actually went to the GP to get a referral for a scan, still waiting on that.

Stopped running altogether for a week. Pain subsided. Felt good again. Did the Raheny 5m on Sunday. Some pain after but not as bad as after the previous long run. So seems to be improving.

During running, I can ignore the pain but I know that's not what I should be doing.

I know myself I should probably take another week or two off and continue with my exercises to strengthen the knees and quads. I'm also swimming. I just feel so frustrated and depressed that I can't go out and execute my plan. I'm worried that I won't have enough done for the marathon (start of April) but I guess there's still enough time thankfully to get the mileage in.

Would you try slow short runs? Or just completely rest?

Any words of wisdom?

chabsey

I've been in this situation myself a few times and for me (this is specific to each person so don't take it as advice) I was more paranoid than actually injured. Over multiple trips to the physio through the years I've realised my lower back / glutes tend to act up when the training speed increases. This leads (again, for me specifically) to things like knee pain, IT band pain, hip pain, calf pain, achilles pain, foot arch pain. I've got massages, bought various compression gear and none of it actually made any real difference. I found that if I just did a bunch of glute release exercises (google them) it pretty much sorted all my issues.

The first few times I did the tennis ball exercises I was convinced the pain I felt could only mean I must be dying, it was appalling. But you slowly realise that's just the muscle releasing and it gets better - you're highly unlikely to be able to injure yourself doing the exercises so you push through the pain.

I maybe stopped running for a week total, but probably didn't need to. However, you may actually have a knee injury so treat your own case specifically. I mention this only in case you're finding the knee, lower leg etc also hurt, it might be transferred from elsewhere and not the actual source of the issue.

vswr

do what I did... train through the pain, now I have a blown tendon and haven't ran properly in over a year \o/

Marty Bird

OP I’ve been in your situation a few times over the years with various injuries and it’s frustrating as hell, but one lesson I’ve learnt the hard way is you just need to STOP! and rest it.

Get it checked find the cause and plan from there. You’ll be back in no time, follow the process.

Duanington

The hardest part of this is accepting the reality - you're injured and need to rest, heal, recover.

Funny enough, I find that after 3\4 days of acceptance, I'm fine - I can focus on physio plans, cross training or whatever and start to revisit targets or push them back.

The longer you delay getting a persistent injury right, the longer you're running in pain. You simply won't get the best out of yourself and will most likely end up making things worse\being out for longer than you need to.

Work with your physio on this, if they say short runs are ok, run short runs. The body has an amazing capacity to bounce back once its given the time and space to do so. You may have to adjust your target for the marathon as you recover but you can still cross train etc it seems. I don't know what your ambitions are for the marathon but if you don't get the injury cleared up, you most likely won't be running one

best of luck with it

event

What has your physio recommended?

token56

In my opinion you still have enough time to take the rest you need and get some quality miles in before your marathon. I was in a very similar position last year, late August picked up an injury with my marathon in middle of October. Unfortunately there was no quick fix given the nature of my injury (sciatica) and I just pushed through the pain and discomfort as best I could with the remaining training and I ended up breaking down the last 7K of the marathon and limping home.

Your injury is different and I'm sure the physio is better to advise here but I would say if you are in pain while running then you probably shouldn't be. Do your strength work and cross train as best you can to keep the aerobic engine ticking over. I've had some very bad knee issues in the past and I highly recommend the exercises "knees over toes guys" does. If you are not familiar with him have a quick google, he has paid programs but you can find videos of most the exercises.

ILikeBoats

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm doing the strength work and cross training, not running at all, will probably give it another week and start the plan slowly again depending on the physio advice..

Actually found a very helpful video on youtube too.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698895#Comment_121698895

Well as above, he gave me various exercises but he's been away for the past two weeks so wasn't able to get any further advice. Back in with him on Tuesday.

Still feeling very frustrated but feel I'm doing the right thing.

vswr

I went from marathon distance at the end of 2022, to potentially doing couch to 5k in a month or two....

You caught it early enough that you can hopefully recover in time for the marathon... that's a plus in itself

ILikeBoats

Update on this

I took the couple of weeks out. I went back to the physio, got some shockwave treatment. All was going well, leg was feeling stronger and I thought I was on the mend. I got back into training albeit scaled back a bit.

I had gone to the doctor a while back an gotten a referral for an MRI, just in case. I was called up for that and physio said to go even though I felt it might be unnecessary given I was feeling good.

Results came back last week and I have a fractured tibia up near the MCL ligament. Cease all training immediately. I won't be running the marathon now and it's quite annoying and upsetting! The doc referred me to a ortho guy because she thinks it's unusual that I'm in so little pain so have him in a couple of weeks and will make a plan then.

Heartbreaking but look, could be worse.

marathon2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121795909#Comment_121795909

However disheartened you are it's good to know what the exact nature of the injury is. Best of luck with the recovery.