Thank you Craig for your response I'll dance (with one leg straight, of course) a happy dance if all I have to do is wait a year. Its the "forever" and "never" words that scare me the most. I am seeing a physical therapist, and the orders from my doc have been a little convoluted (went to a fantastic surgeon out of state) so I'm only now starting to bend my knee passively (I think I was supposed to start bending from the start). Only one month out shouldn't make a HUGE difference, I don't think.

THe hardest part of the situation is that I was only going in for simple arthoscopic cleanup work (my right knee is back to full motion and runabilty) and the microfracture decision was made while I was actually in the procedure. So it sort of blindsided me when I came out of the surgrey. What? How many weeks on crutches? Huh? (I must admit, though, I have enjoyed having the handicap tag in my car...small joys in wierd situations!)

Anyway. THank you again for your kind (and hope inspring!!!)words and article

Yep....I am completely in love with long, long, long distance running Progressive knee instability (no pain, surprisingly!) and allergies/asthma required me to choose to not do as much long distance as I like recently, but my intention is to be back doing the long distances as soon as I can.

Very inspiring! Thank you!

Honestly, I think a lot of the recovery estimates are made based on the "regular" person...and as athletes, our bodies just simply respond better and more quickly than those who don't put their bodies through what we do. I'm willing to take a year off if that is what's recommended, as long as I can cross train (which I can't do yet as my left knee is not allowed to bend actively or with weight bearing yet...passively (sitting with the leg dangling off the bed and letting it bend is ok though)

I increased my ROM this morning from 30 degrees (at the last measurement) to 50 degrees of bending. My goal is to be at 90 degrees by next week. No pain at all. (Despite the horror stories of pain regarding knee surgeries, I have not had any pain at all so far, and I intend for that to continue :-))

I plan on training for the Boulder 100 in 2009...even if I complete 50 or 75 miles of it, I'm going to consider it a victory

Again. Thank you, thank you, thank you for both of your posts on this. I feel MUCH better about the whole situation

Lisa

crunningman...so you're a crazy ultrarunner too. I trained for LT100, and had to drop out right before the race started as I got strep throat and didn't want to push it. So good luck to you if you run it this year!! 3rd times a charm, ya know.

Boulder 100 looks like a blast, its a very fast course and in a beautiful area. Since its close to home I may crew it this year.

Hardrock is my big goal though. Maybe now, with my new, repaired, happy and strong knees, I'll be able to handle those downhill stretches!!

Lisa

I'm with you there. Any excuse to play in the mountains is good enough for me!! Where do you live? I have the fortune of living here in Colorado....and this is (and has always been) my absolute favorite time of the year to run. I've been out, limping around on my crutches just to enjoy being outside.

Totally off the point, but if you're ever looking for something different (and equally fun) to do in the mountains in winter, there is a 20 mile snowshoe race every early January in Leadville. It goes across Turquoise lake, and oh my...the scenery is amazing, and the race is grueling. I think its even classified as an ultra because its so challenging. I don't know if we can post race info on the boards, but if you google "20 mile snowshoe leadville" it will come up. Its FUN. In a crazy long distance sort of way.