Continuing to Progress

I"ve continued this week with the same workouts every other day.

At this stage the knee is continuing to feel a bit better. I think I'll try a 30 minute outside walk tomorrow and if that gives no pain it will be time to kick in with the C25K again. I'll probably start around week 3 and take it from there.

Finally Back.

It's been nearly 2 months since I posted. Please forgive me.

I lost the inclination to post as my running was completely on the shelf for a number of months.

The diagnosis I had on my knee way back indicated 3 problems.
Strained MCL
Bone Spurs
A bit of arthritis

The pain a few months ago really meant I had to stop.

I had a visit with a sports medicine doctor, and subsequent visits with his recommended physiotherapist voer about a month

Frankly I wasn't improving a great deal in that timeframe.

There I subsequently joined my local YMCA (not your father's old Y, let me tell you)

I had a fitness assessment and a program worked out for me.

The Oakville YMCA uses equipment called Technogym. http://www.technogym.com/ca/viewdoc.asp?co_id=13&la=2

Check out the video of system that they use. It called the Wellness System.

http://www.technogym.com/ca/viewdoc.asp?co_id=683&target=commercial&video=nN9UrIe4SxY

This gym is absolutely loaded with equipment. I expect there is about $4 million in equipment in this facility. It's absolutely incredible.

Anyway, initially the program worked out for me consisted of a 10 minute bike warmup. Followed by 10 different strengthening exercises on the technogym equipment, followed by another 20 mintes on the bike. The physio advised against leg extensions because of the knee, but said any other leg exercise would be fine.

Initially I did 2 sets of 12 reps of all 10 machines. I've been at it about every other day 2 months and have increased the weight about 10 lbs. across the board and this week swithched over to 3 sets of each. My weight is down 5 lbs., and my BMI down 4.

Gradually the knee started feeling better over the last few months, so I transitioned from bike to bike/treadmill, and this week to 20 minutes treadmill at 4 MPH.

I gradually moved to treadmill so I could eventually work my way into running again. Over the next few weeks I'll move the tempo up to a running pace.

At this point I'm happy to report even with 20 minutes of brisk walking and all the strengthening exercises the leg is nearly pain free. I'd say it's about 85% and it's not getting worse from the exercise.

So, if everything continues to improve as it has so far, I expect I'll be back to running in early January. At that point, I'll probably go back to the C25K program and start in around week 3 or so.

Cheers for now, and I hope all is well.
Batman