I Now Know What's Ailing Me...

After Wednesday's run, I awoke to a very sore leg on Thursday. It hurt just to put weight on my right leg... in fact, I limped around all morning long.

I scheduled an appointment with my doctor that afternoon, and met with her to discuss what was going on. She felt around on my lower leg muscles to see if I was feeling pain to determine if I had shin splints. Nope. It wasn't in the muscle.

After going through some X-Rays, she came back with a diagnosis: Nerve Damage.

Uuugh...

It seems I most likely strained a muscle in my lower right leg... one that sits right on top of a nerve that extends from the knee to the ankle. A lot of runners do that if they push too hard...

But, that wasn't all she found.

Have you ever heard me talk about how my knee hurts? It seems my patella (knee cap) has shifted. Most likely this was caused by developing muscles in the thigh area. Doing some research, it appears this is commonly referred to as "Runner's Knee."

So, she prescribed me with prescription strength Aleve and I'm taking a few days off from the pounding. Today is my 3rd day not to run, and I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow as I attempt to run 9. While I'm running on the treadmill due to the rain forecast tomorrow, I think I'd do that anyway even if it was sunny... just a little more cushion.

With all of this, I still want to finish that race on April 26th. I've worked hard for this... and my doctor even said that the benefits are evident in how I look and feel (sans annoying pain!). I don't want to discourage any of you from actually exercising. This is just a part of it... and we all heal.

So after April 26th, I'll ramp it down but continue to exercise and look for ways to be physically fit/make healthy choices. But for now, I am focused on the race...

And the 9 miles I gotta run tomorrow!