Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Don't Call It A Come Back

Don't Call It A Comeback, it may not be very quick but I plan to at least come up with a plane to test this knee out a bit.  As I have hung around the past few months...riding my bike...I've gotten to watch lots of other folks (all of which have been inspiring me- here are a few- thanks to my buddy Eric for putting together a nice recap of achievements this past weekend) run.  If I'm being honest...it's tough man.  To watch others do what you so badly want to, but can't.  Sob stories aside, there are always silver linings, right?  I mean...everything does happen for a reason, right?

Well, maybe someone or something knew a little better then I did and was trying to signal to me to slow down a little bit.  Maybe I ignored the smoke signals.  Certainly, a lot goes on in all of our lives and I really do admire those who know when to give in just a little.  I just don't seem to do that very well and many times a wheel or two has to fall off for me to get the point...yes i can be dense.  So maybe this chronic little ache was that wheel literally falling off!  Who knows?

In any event, it's time to at least set some sort of plan in motion to make an attempt to get moving on two feet again.

Here's the plan so far...

1. Giving myself the rest of September to maintain relatively little stress on the leg.  This means no running... and even means no long or brisk walks, etc.  It does mean I will continue to cycle, walk normal "community distances" (that's one of those PT terms that people always wonder about..."what the heck is a community distance they ask?") and most of all-- Don't do anything stupid.

2. Starting in October I'll begin a progressive walking program (I know it sounds very exciting) and see how I respond.  The key is to very predictably increase the dosage of stress (in this case walking) without overloading the system.  This is what any good training program does, but this will be at a level that should be very easy to follow.  So if you're looking for examples of properly dosing exercise to prevent overuse injuries it should be a good example.  I'll provide the specifics next week.

Until then Here's an awesome race and finish if haven't seen it.  Thanks to Julie Culley for sharing!