FRUSTRATION

This is incredibly frustrating for me...

I went out on Sunday morning for a run at Shelby Farms...Ran one loop of the tour with Daniel in 52 min which is keeping a pretty solid pace...took off on the second loop and met up with Richard about halfway, flipped around and ran the rest with him...still kept a good pace up....on the last mile or so I was really pushing it and my knee was starting to bug me but I didn't thiink anything of it, as some IT pain is normal for me but I usually can stretch it out and be okay...all in all about 12 so nothing too unordinary

I went to work on Sunday and by the time I got home me knee was really hurting...I told Lauren when I got home from work, "My body feels like I ran a 50k today"...I figured it was just IT pain and it would work itself out but when I woke up Monday morning it was still hurting...not like intense pain but a throbbing when it went through a certain range of motion....Continued to bug me all day at work and at this piont I started to get a bit worried as my running pain is usually confined to running...very rarely, if ever do I remember something bugging me more than a day after a run when I'm just walking around(obviously not including muscular soreness from racing)...

No worries, I'll take a few days off from running and spin on my trainer....Sure enough, the same motion that bugs me walking really bugs me when I'm spinning...By Wednesday I'm gettin concerned as I haven't had an injury in this part of my knee before, let alone one that has lasted multiple days....I wanted to make sure that I had not done any real damage to myself so I got an appt. at OrthoMemphis today...

Went in and they took x-rays...all is good with cartiledge/meniscus and the actual knee joint so that was a relief...after some mobility testing by the Doc the diagnosis is that I hyperextended my knee...he gave me some strong anti-inflammatories and told me to lay off running until the pain subsided and then ease back into it...

well as you know, Sylamore is a week from Saturday so easing back into it (if the pain has even subsided by then) was not really going to be an option...but, I got to thinking about things and realized that it is more important to let this heal properly than to go to Sylamore and further aggravate my injury...That would just make me have to take more time off and right now my main goal is to be in really good shape for NOLS in May so I can't really afford that...

So I had to make a tough decision and make it a no go for Sylamore...I feel like a big puss and I wonder if I have made the right decision...but I really don't want to get over there and have to slog through the race and then take more time off because I just made it worse....

So this really sucks...Sylamore is probably my favorite 50k...the whole deal, teh race, the cabin, the post race bonfire...but no longer, at least not this year...

Gonna continue to take it easy...hopefully I will be able to at least get back on the bike soon and ease back into running in a week or so...

For all of you that are going, enjoy it...drink one for me at the fire...

Frusratedly yours,
Chris