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If you want to torture a runner, just plant a seed into the brain that there is some kind of problem with their legs. So, let me share my torturous experience which has spanned a good month or so until its final culmination yesterday.
I had a slight niggle in my knee in the week preceding the TCS 10k and post the race, it became a saga in itself. I had varying degrees of floating pain at all times in my ankles as well as my knees. Now for a runner, there is nothing more precious than one’s legs. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand why. As I felt the rising degree of pain in my legs, I took the most obvious step, which was to go meet the doctor.
It so happens that the doctor I go to knows me since I was the size of a pea pod and is very aware of my compulsive behavioural patterns when it comes to activities like running and anything related. He did a check-up, gave me a sideways glance, asked me to rest it for a week and then come back if the pain still persisted. Since I have complete and utmost faith in this man, I did not think any more of this meeting and went on my way.
The concept of rest and me do not sit well. I happen to have so much energy that if I do not find a way to vent it out, I usually end up doing something mischievous. So I had to look at an alternative to my running. Around the same time, I met with Nagaraj (last week’s link) and got all inspired. Again, as I have mentioned repeatedly, things kind of just fell into place and I was all set for swimming and cycling as cross training and a substitute for running for the time being.
Now this sounds A-OK in theory, but ask any runner and that runner will tell you, if you do not get your fix of your run, you are an incomplete person. And then you sit and have conversations in your head where you tell yourself that a one week recovery period means that you will emerge stronger at the end of the week with fresh legs to run on, so on and so forth.
Of course, I was being proactive and the RICE concept was in full force at home. For those that are not aware, RICE is what all runners swear by as the most effective recovery plan.
R – Rest
I – Ice
C – Compression
E – Elevation
My mother was having a really hard time with me these last few weeks. As soon as there was any ice formation, it was immediately dunked in some water and essentially for two weeks my entire freezer was spent on icing my feet. I am sure if looks could kill, I would be dead a few times over.
As far as I was concerned I was doing all the right things to improve the condition of my legs – but honestly, I could not feel any improvement – if anything, it was only getting worse. I had a dull throbbing pain all day long. At times, it would increase in intensity as though to mock the frailty of being a mere human. Such was the first week. This was a recovery period where I did not push myself unnecessarily and kept up very minimal exercise which was limited to upper body strength workouts and traipsy bike rides in the fabulous weather that Bangalore has suddenly decided to bestow us with.
With no improvement in the condition of my legs, I decided it may be best to be conservative and give it another week of rest. However, it was not possible for me to continue life at such a leisurely pace anymore. I had to look for an alternative – swimming – hello, how you doing? At the end of week 2, the leg was still not much better and now I was worried. As most of you would know, I am not the kind of person who would get worried quietly – No sir, I will not. If I am worried, most people in my vicinity will be aware of the cause and what the plan of action is.
I made my way back to my doc, who decided it might be worth going in for an MRI just to be sure. MRI was underway, waiting for a couple days; I was in pure mental agony. This agony automatically manifested in the physical form – suddenly there was pain everywhere! Imagine my plight. I have to mention a few conversations I had with some close friends during that period of turmoil I was going through:
Me: Maybe I pushed myself too hard too soon and this is the result of it. My legs are giving up on me. I will never run again.
Friend: What are you talking about? You are awesome. This is all just physical – don’t pay attention to it. You don’t know, the power of running is great. I was in so much pain but the love of running! I once ran with one leg.
Me: What do you mean you ran with one leg?
Friend: My one leg was hurting so much; I had to literally drag it. But I didn’t care, all I wanted to do was run.
Me: You are crazy!
Friend: You will be fine!
Conversation 2:
Me: How was your ride?
Friend: It was superb! 6000 metres of elevation in 2 days, 250 Kms. I feel fresh. Just my backside hurts. How’s your leg?
Me: Same, it hurts. You should use a heating pad to relax your backside.
Friend: I think I might use an Iron box to make it feel better. When the doc says rest, I think he means you shouldn’t cycle or swim either, certainly not time-attacks in the pool.
Me: Sit in a bucket of hot water. That will be nice. Please! Swimming and cycling is low impact, it’s not counted as exercise.
There’s so many more but case in point being, how can one not smile and feel pepped up when surrounded by such lovely, positive and super hilarious people?
Finally yesterday, the doc and me had a sit down, looked at the scans and it was decided that there was actually nothing wrong with my leg. The conversation went like this:
Doc: Where does it hurt?
Me: It hurts everywhere. But the pain in the right knee is so much that I can’t think about anything else.
The doc looks at me, then the scan – Me again.
Doc: Are you sure?
Me: Yes doc, I am sure. This is making me miserable
Doc: Scan says if something is wrong, it’s in your left knee.
(He smirks)
Me: How can that be? Maybe it is. The right knee hurts so much I can’t feel the left knee pain.
Doc: There is nothing wrong with your right knee. Did they put you into the MRI machine the right way?
Me: I think so. My legs went in first. Maybe my knee is overstrained
Doc: Please! If the knee was overstrained it would show some sign. It looks perfectly healthy and happy. You are a strong girl. Go back for a run. You will be fine.
And just like that – I was fine. 3 weeks of pure misery done and dusted within 5 minutes. This incident however, made me realise a few things – how dependent I am on running as a drug of choice for myself, how psychologically we create barriers for ourselves which manifest in a physical manner and how much I like other sports as well.
As a runner, I felt claustrophobic, frustrated and bound by the fact that I did not have the freedom to lace up my shoes and head out as and when I fancied. This made me grumpy, cranky and a generally miserable person to be around. Somewhere I had been injured, yes, but I let that seed grow into a healthy huge tree in my head and that stopped me from realising when I had recovered and objectively looking at my physical condition.
Finally, after maybe a decade or so, I went back into a pool to swim. The first day, I could barely do 30 metres at a stretch. Today, I completed 1.5K in 42mins, in 2 intervals – one of 1K and one of 500mtrs. Damn! I feel strong and can’t wait to go for my trial recovery walk/run tomorrow morning.
