We had a great time skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho. Basta skiied me into the ground, which really pointed out the expanding gap between our fitness levels. Must work on that.
He ate plenty of ice cream. A whole lot of calories all around. He was constantly hungry. That's a natural side effect of his big calorie expenditure all at once on race day, plus the appetite stimulation of the sugar. It's ok. He can afford it. He's still skinny and will be back in training soon.
He's been complaining of knee pain around his left knee. As with most of his aches and pains, I assume they will go away on their own soon enough. But just like his shoulder pain, this one hasn't. It's not debilitating, but it's there. Whenever he runs or walks, he feels pain in his left knee.
Not really pain, though. Tightness. Soreness. More of an 'awareness'. Like it might become pain if he continues running on it. Ok.
Can you isolate the pain? Is it on or under the kneecap? No. Behind the leg? Sort of. Does it feel puffy? No. On the side of the knee? No. Outside? Inside? No. No. It's not really 'in' the knee. More 'around' the knee.
Frustrating. Not a knee pain that is normally associated with any of the running injuries or pains. A fairly long research bout led me to the belief that it is his sciatica radiating down to his knee. He has a chronic problem with that. A problem that yoga cures nicely. Yoga that he's not doing.
I finally got it out of him why he's not doing the yoga. He thinks he's so fit now, that his core is so strong, that his sciatica is cured for good and won't come back.
Well. Unfortunately not. I told him the information I'd found on knee pain and sciatica and he agreed that was probably what was going on. And he agreed that yoga was the answer. AND, he's now actually doing yoga. He's committed to doing it every day, and he's done it 3 days in a row now. Hooray. His pain is starting to diminish. I hope he actually makes this a part of his life now. He'll be a much happier athlete for it. He'll be more limber, have less pain, and less injuries.
We have a few more days of recovery. He's going to swim tomorrow. Easy, gentle swim. He wants me to show him what I mean by 'reaching long.' I hope I can find a good video on that. No running or biking this week to give the legs a rest. Skiing was enough for them.
3 comments:
Hej!
Amazing to read! Good to understand that you have been able to tame the v/d Capellens - it is not easy! And to change the behaviours into the good ones! - I personally think that having a person helping you with advise has golden value. You do the different disiplines (spelling?) yourself and have a good understanding and from yoga experience you are able to add in alternatives for the body management. It is very important to hold one back after such a depletion of body energy and I think the timing is good to try alternatives for the knee. I would assume you have already been to a napraphat to check that no muscle is cramped and now you are trying the yoga. I myself had pains in both knees before some running races and have problems to walk but the napraphat fixed it. My knees had different cramps. But each person is an individual and good to try different things. Hope this half was a good prep for the full (and easy one in Sweden)/Crister
Hi there!
My name is Therese Melander and I´m the daughter of Crister Melander. My dad asked me to let you know that he thinks that Ad might have the same problem as the Swedish football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has a jumpers knee.
If you google you can find out what to about it!
Best regards
Therese Melander
Hello Crister and daughter Therese! It's so nice of you to read of our adventures and take the time to leave comments. Great to see yo uhere.
I looked up naprapat -- we don't call them them here, apparently that's a Swedish creation. I learned it is a blend of massage and physical therapy. Either and both combine would be very good for him, for sure. Unfortunately, he won't do it. He says that he hates massage. He is nuts, but I can't seem to do anything about that.
I looked up Jumper's Knee, too. Learned that the clinical name is Patellar tendonitis. He doesn't really have the symptoms of that, either. His pain is more focused on the back of his knee & upper calf, not the lower kneecap. He can climb stairs without pain, so I don't think that's it.
In fact, he continues to do the yoga and it is really helping. The knee pain is almost gone. The pain is travelling up his leg and is becoming isolated in his right hip, which is classic sciatica behavior. In another week or so of daily yoga specific to lower back relief that pain will be gone. He was laid out flat on his back unable to move with sciatica pain about two years ago and yoga cured him, so he knows this process. He'll be fine soon.
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