Blog Posts From Turtle Training Tagged With injuries

Ankle Still Improving - Time for some LSD.

Steve Carton — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:25:54 GMT

It's been 5 weeks since my last LSD or

speed work - letting my ankle get better. And it does seem much improved. I've

now got some reasonable tempo runs and some easy runs in last week and Monday

this week and I feel pretty good. I'm going to try an LSD this afternoon

(targeting 18, but I'll base that on how I feel). 18 is a big increase on the

miles I've been running, so I'm really counting on the large base I've developed

over the past couple of years to get me back to that level quickly. But we'll

see. I'll definitely run slowly. And stay off the hills for now. Just see how it

goes.

Afterall, it's only 13 weeks to the MCM...

Psyched for Frederick

Steve Carton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:03:41 GMT

I've been worried about this race owing to a nagging knee-cap injury. I've had more or less swelling due to water-on-the-knee from an injury back in January where I slipped on a chartered sailboat in the BVIs and whacked my knee. It was swollen but okay when I ran the B&A marathon in March, but has gotten tighter and more sore in training since, especially going down hills. I had gotten to the point of walking downstairs sideways.

So, I went to the orthopod yesterday and got about 6cc of fluid drained (aspirated?) from the outside of my left kneecap. Looked like pee! After that, he injected 2ccs of cortisone. It felt better almost instantly. After I got up this morning, I was bouncing down the stairs to make coffe and was half-way down before I realized it had been at least a month since it had last been that easy. So now I'm all psyched for the marathon on Sunday. No pain, so no worries.

Tapering to the Frederick Marathon, 2007

Steve Carton — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:50:20 GMT

We're now 9 days to the Frederick (locally and affectionately refered to as "Fredneck") marathon (Here). As usual, I don't feel ready. My left knee is swollen (on the outside, water on the knee) and hurts. I went to the Dr. and he said I'm not damaging it. But it aches all the time. And my left ankle hurts too. In fact my left shoulder hurts as well. Maybe this is because I'm not left-leaning enough? And I have trouble breathing this time of year -- allergies of some kind or another.

This will be my fourth marathon, so I guess I no longer worry about finishing. I'm pretty comfortable with that. It's just the manner of the finish. I think my hopes of breaking 4:30 are not realistic this time around. I ran 5 tempo miles Wednesday and 12 easy miles yesterday (Thursday). The easy miles were much harder than they should have been. I'm concerned about how well this marathon will go.

My plan for the next 9 days is to run an easy 5 miles Monday, get the Dr. to look at my knee again Tuesday, run an easy 2 miles Thursday and then do the Marathon on Sunday. I'm hoping the Dr. can drain the fluid and inject something to keep it from bothering me. That was what he indicated when last I saw him, anyway.

Straining onward...

To Run (the B&A) or Not To Run, That is the Question

Steve Carton — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:48:34 GMT

T-Minus 4 days, 15 hours, 25 or so minutes to the Baltimore and Annapolis Marathon, so I'm in my final week of tapering. I really haven't trained as much for this one as I should have, owing partly to this pesky kneecap injury suffered on a boat in the Virgin Islands. I had one 16 mile run at PR speeds and a 17 miler 2 days later, though slower. But I felt fine while running -- it was after that my kneecap hurt. So I took a week off and ran just a few warmup miles on the weekend. Well, my kneecap got all gushy with fluids. It's slowly receding (like my hairline).

So my plan (such as it is) is to start the marathon and check my knee at the half-way point. A cool thing about the B&A is that runners can decide to do the half, at the half-way point -- no earlier. So I really can postpone the decision until the last possible moment. And since I've done many runs further than 13.1 since the injury, I'm pretty confident about finishing that distance.

I've talked to a couple of trainer-types about this and they seem to feel that I probably didn't tear anything inside the knee and that this is more superficial. I hope so. And maybe that's just what I want to believe! So I'll start, maybe finish the half, maybe the whole, take some tylenol.

And then, as Toshi suggested, ice ice baby.

Time Off Heals Heels?

Steve Carton — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:03:14 GMT

Well, it's been 8 days since my last run. My knee was bothering me and so I decided to take time off to let it heal. It's better now, though it is still a little tender on the top of the knee cap (whatever that tendon is called). Interestingly, my heels feel better too. I hadn't really noticed before, but my heels have been aching a bit. I've had an on-and-off problem with plantar faciitis for many years (like 20 or so) and the dull ache is barely above noise level anymore. So it was a surprise that they are feeling better too. It's not like I've done anything to make that problem go away.

I take fish oil capsules every day (y'know -- cause I love the aftertaste). And Glucosamine/Chondroitin. Maybe several years of that regimen has helped. Who knows.

16 days to the B&A marathon -- hope I'm ready...

Late in the Game Injuries?

Steve Carton — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:35:08 GMT

Well, we're now 3 weeks from the B&A marathon and I may have a problem. Two weeks back my wife and I spent a week on a chartered sailboat in the BVIs. I know, it's not a good thing to take a week off training, but sometimes you just have to buck up and do these things. Anyway, during a moment of weakness (not uncommon for me anymore), I mashed my knee into the cockpit coaming. It welled up pretty good, but then was better. Until now anyway. After my final training distance runs last week, my left kneecap is just plain sore. No swelling or anything and it didn't bother me while running at all.

Since this is supposed to be the first week of taper, I think I'll leave off running entirely for the next few days -- maybe until Thursday or Friday. Let it feel better. Then try something short and easy -- maybe 10-12 at a slow, easy pace. Of course my hard pace would seem slow (though maybe not easy) to anyone observing. So I mean true turtle slow. And hope this passes.