First run last night since I had my knee trouble and so far all is well. Just went for a gentle 4 miler to see how things have been healing and apart from a bit of mild discomfort at the start I was able to get round without any of the problems I was having before. My knee actually felt better afterwards!
My visit to the physio in the morning was quite enlightening. Basically I had no biomechanical problems that he could diagnose – everything seems to be aligned quite well thankfully. However he did suggest some VMO and glute strengthening excercises to ensure that nothing goes awry in future. As far as the pain was concerned, that was pretty cut & dried as his tests revealed that the back of the patella was roughening up and that was aggrivating the tendons so not a lot we can do about that other than allowing the cartilage to regenerate and zapping it with ultrasound to help it along. The eye opener (and probably a contributor) was the tightness in my calves. Seems like I’ve only been stretching the main calf muscle and not the secondary as I was hopeless at the mobility test for that and it explaines the achillies tightness I get when I wake up! So, lots of new stretches on that one…
Anyway, just need to start building the distance back up over the next couple of weeks – I think speework and hills might have to be neglected for a bit as I try to regain my endurance ready for Edinburgh at the end of the month. Other than that I’m just glad to be back out on the roads again!