Martin's Marathon

So much to write about… so little time. I have half an hour to write about the past 48 (or more) hours.

Sunday, Ronan and I went for a walk with Luis and his son Santiago. It was maybe a couple of miles. Between that and some odd jobs I was doing around the house in preparation for a visit from my mother, my knees were pretty sore by Sunday night. Monday, as I wrote last night I had an appointment with Mark Fadil. I learned several things during this time.

1. I was, indeed ALWAYS doing my core strengthen exercises incorrectly. I have no idea how to control my abdominal muscles and controlling them is at the essence of strengthening my core. I still don’t really understand what or where they are. Now I know what the person who wakes up in a hospital bed feels like when they scream “I can’t feel my legs, I can’t feel my legs”, except I was lying there screaming “I can feel my abs, I can’t feel my abs!”. I still have no idea. Yet another thing to work out along this journey.

2. I was also doing my butt strengthening exercises incorrectly. See above.

3. I have set a new bar for the amount of pain I have experienced in my life. As part of the diagnostic process, Mark thought it would be a good idea to bore holes into my back with his fingers. The deepest deep tissue massage I ever experienced. Of course, in reality this really means that my back muscles were REALLY tight and needed to be tenderized, as one would tenderize a big lump of mutton in an attempt to pass it off as lamb.

4. I have a new probable offender for my knee pain. Turns out, I may have had a compressed Peronean nerve in my knee that may have been caused by bad knee joints that may have been as a result of a snowboarding accident I had about five years ago (sounds glamorous, but it wasn’t, believe me!). Mark taped up my leg in various places and my pain subsided considerably!

5. I have very hairy legs. Mark was not happy with his first attempt at taping my legs and had to rip the tape back off. Now, this tape is pretty much the same as duct tape, as far as its adhesive properties are concerned. After he ripped the tape off, the tape was very hairy and the leg was not… any more. How on earth do people do that bikini wax thing? Nut jobs!

Mark suggested that I try a short run today and I did just that this very morning. I finished that three mile run with mixed results. The run went fine. I still had soreness in the area Mark  taped yesterday but it registered at about a 4/10 (compared to an 8/10 before). I also noticed that the soreness would subside if I stopped and stretched my I.T. band... getting worse as I ran again. I also noticed that the soreness was associated with the action of bending knee as I lifted my foot off the ground. I stopped after 3 miles feeling like I could have run four or five... but with increased soreness and maybe even some pain.

Two hours later, I still had pain behind my knee, especially when I bend the leg - perhaps even sorer than when I was running. The tape around my ankle came loose in the shower and I'm not sure if I reapplied it correctly. Already I started second guessing everything. The miracle cure was not as miraculous as I first imagined it might be.

I still have pains in the back of my knee when going up or down stairs or when I bend my knee upwards. Reading some stuff about the Peroneal nerve, many of the symptoms resonated with me and I really think that this is were most of my problems lie. I just don’t understand why I felt so good just after my appointment and have reverted back to such a degree now. I honestly give up trying to figure it all out at this stage. But I will keep trying to improve and I absolutely REFUSE to give up. As the old prayer goes…

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.