Happy Halloween ... and an injury setback?

Photo by Flatbush Gardener

Happy Halloween to all of you, whether you “celebrate it” or not. In our family it is a pretty big event, and we’ve done some decorating to scare the kids away .. but more and more are ringing our bell trick-and-treating. Halloween has gotten quite popular here in Germany, and a lot of kids take the chance to collect some “Naschis” (sweets). As my wife was on a weekend trip with some friends, I was on duty and opening the door for hours.

I had to do some hobbling around as I twisted my knee yesterday. It was the first time we had an indoor session this season. It’s always nice to meet 20 people or so from my tri-club and do some fun stuff .. some little games to warm up, some running drills, some strengthening and stretching. In one of the little games I slipped on the newly done floor in the gymnasium and twisted my left knee. At first it hurt like hell, but it quickly got better and I was able to continue with the session. I had some problems when bending or straightening my knee, but I wasn’t much worried as there was no swelling at all.

This morning I felt a bit stiff, but still not too bad and was thinking of getting a quick bike session in in the afternoon. I spent the morning at the birthday of my godchild, and when I came back home any movement in my knee hurt quite a bit. I also realized that I had a bit of a swelling, so I scratched the bike and probably also the long run I wanted to do tomorrow. Cooling helped a bit ..

I just that it’s not anything serious. I tore a ligament (for those in the know: the ACL) in my left knee in 1998 or so, but never had any problems after that healed up (there was no operation to re-construct the ACL). When I tore that, it hurt a whole lot more, and the swelling was immediate and much worse. So even while something happened when I did the twisting, I hope that a few days of resting will take care of the damage was done.

While I don’t think that my Ratzeburg race in in trouble (after all it’s four full weeks until then), I’ve got to shred the plan I had put together. Not much use in running hard when I can’t move my knee properly. First order now is to be patient while the healing takes place. As I’ve got a little business trip at the end of next week (Thursday/Friday), I’ll take things easy until then. Maybe a little test run on Tuesday if the leg feels better. Now I’ll just go to bed, ice the knee some more and read a bit.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, it would be a real bummer to be injured now that I was getting in shape ..