Discussing my knee issues with my trainer Shannon, I took her advice and booked an appointment with Dr. Cal Melton at Downtown Chiropractic. Both Shannon and Allison went to him for knee issues and are back to working out strong and running pain free. I went to see him right before the Gate River Run 15k and received a serious adjustment - first ever for me and holy heck did it sound terrible and feel terrific.
That weekend I ran the Gate River Run 15k. By mile 2 my knee was stiff and sore, and through the bridge and last two miles I had serious pain in my knee, albeit much less than during the Half. Recovery from this race took longer and the dull pain really never went away. For the first time since August my bootcamp workouts were needing to be modified and it was time to address the issue before I got sidelined for good.
Dr. Cal started me on ARP (Accelerated Recovery Performance) Therapy. Basically its like electrodes in a pad that find your injury (OMG does it EVER find your injury) and with lots of waves it helps breakdown scar tissue and increase blood flow and speed up recovery. I've ahem, Dr. Cal, endured a few more sessions than I'd like. But clearly its working.
Now for those of you who know me, you know I worked for almost a year on the President's re-election campaign in 2012. I basically spent much of that time standing at events, or sitting for long periods of time in my car driving to events. Every time I got out of the car after a long road trip my right hip would twinge something fierce. Usually after a few ginger steps, though, I'd be back to normal. Well turns out this was an old injury that has caused my body to not build muscle in the way it should have during all those months of working out, and the result was a tight glute, resulting in a tight IT band that ended in serious pain in my knee. We all know the song, "the hip bone's connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone's connected to the knee bone.." yeah well isn't that the case? Knee pain = hip problem.
On April 1st Dr. Cal delivered some not so April Fools news: restricted activities for the week. No running, no bootcamp, no stretching, no foam rolling. And every day I got the ARP torture, I mean, therapy. Three days of straight ARP therapy and I was allowed to test run on Sunday. So Shannon met me Sunday am and we both got in some miles. 6 pain free miles for her, and 5.25 nearly pain free for me. I was feeling good up until the very end when I felt some pain in my hip and immediately stopped.
I was instructed by Dr. Cal via check in (yeah my doctor works Sundays for his patients!) to keep test running this week but restricted me from further activities. (This now marks three weeks of being away from the Badass Army). On Tuesday, after a very long, very arduous day at the capitol, I was struggling with the idea of lacing up and running. But I did, and I'm so very thankful I did because I completed 6 miles pain free. I was thrilled. That night I had some stiffness but it was gone by morning.
So here's hoping this is the first signs towards total recovery. Two lessons learned from all of this: 1st - never ignore a reoccurring pain. You never know what its going to wind up impacting nor how long it will take to recover. And for that matter, find an amazing doctor like Dr. Cal Melton to help you through the injury. And 2nd - the recovery after a workout is just as important as the workout itself. I can't forget that and neither should you.
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