My Running IS Over!

Yesterday I ran my 11th run since the 1st of January. After falling foul to degenerative cartilage in August 2011, putting an end to my campaign to run the 2011 Adelaide Marathon, I rested until January 2012.  On the first of January I ran 5 km following it with a bike ride the next day and a rest day after that. Following a similar 3 day cycle I continued to run 1 in 3 days. I increased from 5 km to 7 km and eventually to 10 km. My 9th, 10th and 11th runs were all 10 km’s.  The first of those 10 km runs, left my left hip and right knee a little tight, so I rested an extra couple of days. I was cautious on my 2nd 10 km run keeping my speed down to below 10 kph and felt ok, then on my final 10 km run, I kept my speed down to below 11 kph. This appears to have not been enough as my right knee has blown up like a balloon. I have iced it for hours and have iced gelled it all to what appears to been no help at all.

So, today I went for an easy spin on the bike, no pressure, not a lot of speed and certainly not putting much strain on the knees. Averaging 24 kph, well below what I am capable of, on an undulating ride over 67 km to Willunga Hill and back, with a gentle cadence of around 60 RPM, I would have thought it would not have worried it. Well, maybe it didn’t and maybe it did but my right knee is definitely not reducing its swelling and is painful.   

Its all to hard, I no longer wish to put my body through this just to attempt two arbitrary goals, one to run the City to Bay in under 60 mins and the other to run a full marathon in under 4 hours. I know in my mind, that at one stage last year, I could have done both of these. I have run a training run of marathon distance with 60 seconds to spare from 4 hours and have run a half marathon at better than 12 kph, a speed that would break my lesser distance challenge of completing the City to Bay under 60 mins.  I could have done them both but didn’t, that’s life, and I think its time to move on from those goals. Apart from anything else, I have found that I enjoy cycling, I never actually enjoyed running, it was just something I found I could do when I turned 50. Well, it appears that its not something I can do any more, just 2 years of running has left me with degraded knees, and so, I want to keep what I have left for the cycling that I enjoy.  I will have to be careful not to stress my knees for a little while so that I can fully enjoy cycling pain free for a long time in the future.

Good bye Running, your gone and Hello the wonderful world of Cycling!