So, it's been several weeks since my last post. 

Bad News: My knee is still causing me problems. I am now contemplating going to a doctor and getting it checked out. My knee is better, but every once and a while, my knee flares up and aches slightly. This tells me that I shouldn't be running on it!

So, I won't be running a marathon and I don't think I will be continuing on this 3000km journey for a long time. I am sorry if I have let you down... I feel very bummed out about it all! But in the long run, this whole process was to get fit and healthy, and if I do my knee in- I won't be healthy and it jeopardises my archaeological career.

So I am sorry folks... I hope to maybe one day either re-start this process or continue it- but for now, I will say goodbye!

Just remember this is all for charity so if you have some money to spare, remember to donate!

I hope to see you all soon!

Hi Guys,

Quick post today. It has been several days since my last run and the news is not good. I still have pain in my knee. I want to be pain free ATLEAST several days before trying to run again(if not a week or more).

 It sucks…

One thing I have noticed is that I am full of energy. Normally, I’d be gearing up to go for a run in the next few hours but at best I’ll manage a small 10 minute walk with the puppy I am currently house sitting. It means I literally feel like I am buzzing with energy. Also, it has been raining the last two days and today it is beautiful and crisp, perfect running weather. I’d love to just shove on the shoes and do a quick 5km run along the water… but instead I am sitting inside trying not to exacerbate my problem.

Ultimately, I am giving it till next Monday before I start looking at booking a doctors appointment. No significant improvement and I will go and see what the issue is. But, as I sit here staring out the window and wishing I was running, I can see my chances of being ready for my marathon quickly slipping away. If I was in much better shape, it wouldn’t matter but ultimately I needed all the weeks I could get to be ready and it just isn’t happening… Also if the doctor says I need to stop running, I will stop. Which means goodbye to the 3000km idea as well. WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Never realised I would get this upset about being forced to be lazy…

I’d like to thank everyone who has posted in the comments. I’d respond by for some reason, Weebly isn’t allowing me. Just know, I love reading the comments and tweets…

So…. When I last left you I had been on a long run(well started one) and my left knee had began to hurt. I was unsure if it was bad or not or if the pain would disappear that night. So I took Monday off as I wanted it to get better.

Tuesday- I decided to head up to the gym and give it a very light workout. I jumped up onto the running machine and set it to 7.2km an hour, basically a very light jog. At the beginning it felt ok. A little tender compared to my right knee but otherwise pretty good.

But around 7 minutes in, it began to tingle and then get a little painful. Distressed, I stopped running and headed over to the exercise bike thinking it would be low impact. I lasted 2 minutes before I stopped. I iced the knee when I got home but I noticed during the night that when I rolled over, it’d hurt a bit now and then.

The problem is not the pain. Out of a scale of 1-10(10 being childbirth) it’s like a 1 or 2. It’s there but its not making me grimace in pain or anything. But the issue is, they always say when running you need to stop if you have any pain in your knee. The reason is, if you mess up your knee, your stuffed. Snap a ligament in your knee and you might/probably will have to have surgery. It is then weaker and you are more likely to get things like arthritis etc.

This is a significant problem for me. The archaeological site I am digging at in October is a 30-45 minute walk along rough dirt tracks going up and down hills. I will be squatting down as I dig(as any archaeologist has to do most of the day).  Stuff up your knees, and digging becomes hell!

But what does this mean for me and not only my 3000km but also my plans for a marathon. There are three options.

1)      Run through the pain and risk permanent injury

2)      Take a week off or so, let it rest and then try run again

3)      Go to the doctor who will tell me to atleast do number (2) and might tell me to stop running altogether.

For the reasons above, I don’t feel like doing number (1). Number (2) is a good option. However, I am planning to run a marathon in about 7 weeks. A week or two off now spells doom. If I take a week off and can’t begin to run long distances straight away, I will not be ready for the marathon. Also, I don’t want to run a marathon unless my knee is healthy. What would happen if I got 22km down and was 7km away from the starting point and then my knee gave out. It’d ruin my run and also the run of others whom I’d hope would stop to help me.

Ultimately, the next week will lead to a lot of soul searching and a lot of praying that my knee heals up. I may ultimately have to stop running…. But fingers crossed my knee heals up over the next week and then I can build it up again.

Until then, I am actually quite distressed about it. This is by far the worst injury I have had and the one I am most nervous about. I so wanted to run a marathon but unless it heals and then never pops up again in the next week, then I won’t be able to run it. I just won’t be ready. Let alone what I’ll do if it gets worse and my whole excavation plans for the next 6 months go to hell… shite!

Has anyone who has read this had knee injuries like this? Please tell me your stories…

Sunday… as with most marathon training plans, Sunday is the day to run a big distance. Yesterday, I had set my sights on the magical 20km mark. Basically, a half marathon of running my local streets.

As I ran, things started going wrong from as soon as I set out. My GPS in my Iphone told me after 6 minutes that I had run 2km…. I have gotten faster but this was a little crazy. My shins were also hurting for the first time in a long time etc etc.

But as I hit around the 2-3km mark something happened… something bad. I began to notice that with each step, my left kneecap hurt just a little bit. I slowed to a walk to let it chill out for 20 seconds and then started to jog again. Again, the area around the top of my kneecap hurt. It wasn’t enough to make me wince with pain, but it was very much noticeable. After testing it out a few more times, I decided I’d be stupid to try run another 15km on it. So I walked home, occasionally breaking into a jog to see if it still hurt. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t.

Instead of going home, I went to the gym and got on the exercise bike. I said to myself that I needed to do more exercise in order to maintain my training. About 10 minutes in, my left knee just felt weird. By 20 minutes, I had to stop as it was just feeling a bit too funky. It was only when I walked home that I realised I was massively favouring my right leg when I walked. In fact, when walking I seemed to be subconsciously not bending it much. I realised that I had been doing this for a week or two now, but I had thought it was a hamstring strain rather than a knee problem. As I walked up a small hill, I realised I was taking much smaller steps with my left leg and lunging more with my right. In fact, my right knee felt a lot more powerful than my left.

So now I am sitting here in this interesting little dilemma. Something is obviously wrong with my knee. It didn’t happen yesterday, in fact it’s happened for a while, yesterday it just manifested itself in a painful way. Several weeks ago when I did PUMP, I noticed my knees always seem to hurt a bit as I did lunges, but the pain went away once I had moved onto another set. Problem is, I have no idea what it is or whether it is something that if I took a few days off it might go away, or is it something more serious? As much as I love running, I love walking and moving more.

My friend Ash, who has had ACL surgery before mentioned to me that when he talked to his doc, the doc had said many people tear or break the ligaments in their knees and they never realise. I am now wondering if I have done a small tear or something. Problem is, I am not a very big ‘DOCTOR’ person. I am also wondering if it’s time for new shoes, it it’s because I am getting older or a multitude of other things. All I know is I will test it out over the next few days, but I am praying that it’s ok.