Surgery

I'll never forget it. It was February 7, 2011, and I was running on the treadmill at NHHR--a follow-up to a 17-mile long-run in Central Park the previous day--when I started experiencing severe pain on the inside of my right knee. I was tempted to stop, but I stubbornly pushed through the pain.

Fast forward 10 months, and I'm still dealing with the same pain. It has all but shut down my running. I've tried everything from RICE to prolotherapy, but nothing has worked. So, if all goes well with my appointments on December 5th, I'm going under the knife on December 14th. I'm not yet entirely sure what the surgeon has planned, but we'll discuss that on the 5th. All I know at this point is that there are two problems, one with the semimembranosus tendon, and one with the medial plica. Both light up quite well on the enhanced MRI.

What is most unbelievable about this injury--aside from the fact that it has sidelined me for 10 months--is that I pretty much predicted it would come to this back in February. I can remember thinking to myself on the treadmill that night that this is not good. But I just couldn't bring myself to abort the final few weeks of training and forgo running the Austin Marathon. The training went so well that I just couldn't do it, despite realizing that I was headed for trouble.

If the surgery works, which I believe it will, for I would not do it otherwise, I will have to make some major changes in my training. Those changes include, first and foremost, devising and sticking to a stretching routine. I am the world's most inflexible human being, and I believe that this has contributed to my injury. Secondly, cross-training and strength training are a must for me.