I went hiking about 10 days ago with some friends, and had a blast! We hiked about 6 miles, uphill for the first half, and had a great view from the top.

The only problem with this hike was the downhill part really hurt my knee. So much so, that I was pretty much unable to walk the remainder of the day.

The good news is this motivated me to finally make an appointment for physical therapy. Ortho gave me a recommendation about 5 weeks ago, but since I was going on three separate trips in July, I thought I’d wait until August to get started.

I’ve only had two appointments so far, but I have tried my best to do the stretches (side-lying quad stretch, supine hamstring stretch, and supine glute stretch: 3x of each for 30 seconds, 2x day minimum) and exercises (hip extension, adduction, abduction, and flexion with resistance: 3 sets of 5 each plus 1-2 sets of 10 wall squats) as prescribed.  Today we added more to the list:  calf stretches, step-ups, and normal squats.  Pretty soon it will feel like I do nothing but stretches and exercises all day long!

So far, I haven’t noticed much improvement, but I also haven’t noticed any further incidences of severe pain. My therapist did say it felt less tight today than it did last week, which is good. She also used a technique called “instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization.”  Let’s just say that it was not fun.

I was in Maui last week on vacation, and I went snorkeling, sailing, swimming, snorkeling some more and attempted to surf. I really wanted to go for a run on the beach, but I’ve been told to take a break from running (boo). Hopefully I’ll be able to start back up again this weekend or next week. I’m leaving for Romania on business tomorrow, and I will be spending the weekend in Munich. I may see if I can do some swimming or a light treadmill run at the hotel this weekend.

It was only on the way home, after sitting in the plane for 5 hours that my knee started hurting.  And actually, the WRONG knee started hurting. I’m not sure if this is a good sign or a very, very, very bad sign.

This knee injury is really putting a wrench in the PR I was hoping to have at the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in 38 days. I am way behind in my training plan, so I guess this means I’ll just have to pick another 1/2 marathon to run next year for my PR. 🙂  Maybe I’ll try Big Sur or go back to Santa Cruz.