Yesterday I received a letter from my health insurance company informing me that after 20 visits to my physical therapist, no, they weren’t going to cover any more. As to whether this prohibition applies to this year or forever, I’m not quite sure yet. But it has me anxious.
In Monday’s post, The Anatomy of Injury Denial, I began detailing my 2009 personal fitness journey. Today I’d like to pick up where I left off.
For two days after the long Saturday run in the Headlands, I ran at my gym on the treadmill, and made the following entries in my training log:
Monday, April 6, 2009
Distance: 3 miles
Notes: slight tenderness in right side of left knee/Achilles tendon/shinTuesday, April 7, 2009
Distance: 4 miles
Notes: [knee] tendon was really weird today – hurt at first when running quickly, did some biking, some pushups, came back, didn’t feel quite normal but could still run 7.5 [treadmill pace] comfortably – odd. hopefully goes away tomorrow
Well, it didn’t go away. In fact, the next day was our Endurables weekly workout (then hosted by Rachel Rodriguez, proprietor of Aim Fitness, who by the way kicks butt). Rachel is an excellent evaluator of running form, and after I made several pained attempts to circle the track around the polo fields at Golden Gate Park, she took a closer look at my left knee. “Something not right is going on there,” she said, and suggested I get in touch with Nicole Haas.
Nicole is a physical therapist with San Francisco Sport and Spine Physical Therapy, whose clinic is housed inside Aim Fitness, Rachel’s gym. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over the past eight months, but before I saw her in April, I had never seen a physical therapist in my life. The worst pain I had ever suffered as a runner was a solid case of runner’s knee as a freshman in high school that I outgrew within a few weeks.
Nicole’s diagnosis: I tore the tendons on the inside of my knee because my hips were weak.
What?
After a few more visits and an injection of patience on my part, this would all start making sense.
April after the injury: April 4
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I think quarter mile lunges will help strengthen your hips when your knee gets better. But beware, first couple of times you won’t be able to walk for a few days
Trust me I really want to do those quarter mile lunges! I can’t wait until my knee is healthy enough to do them.
It is useful to try everything in practice anyway and I like that here it’s always possible to find something new.