Guest Spot Regarding Knees

The following is by Jenn Harrison. She belongs to Nik, whom I've hiked Half Dome with. Both are quality people who I like and admire. When Jenn gives advice, I sit up and pay attention.

Gorgeous photo courtesy of Facebook, the bastards.

As a fellow knee surgery survivor, I have been reading your blog on preparing for the Long Beach Marathon. I'll admit that at first, I was very frightened. Having been through my own knee recovery, I thought that trying to run a marathon within the first year of knee surgery was foolish and deserving of a new painful injury. I was seriously worried for you, and thought, "I must convince him to give up. He is going to hurt himself and if I don't tell him, I will be partially to blame."


So I was being a little overdramatic. Over time, I realized that your knee is not my knee, and your injury is not mine. I was fearful that you would, like I did, start running on your knee before it was healthy. That you would also, like I did, injure your knee and other parts of your leg because the rest of your body would try to compensate for your weak knee in ways it wasn't supposed to. I was worried that you push through the pain, thinking no pain, no gain, and foolishly extend the time it took to heal, like me.


However, after reading your blog you seem to have a more mature attitude towards your recovery than I did. My injures will never fully heal. I could never run a marathon. Not because I'm a wuss, or because I don't have a positive enough attitude, or I just won't try hard enough. Running for that long of a distance would just take years off the life of my knee. More than I want to run, I want to be healthy, and running a marathon or playing soccer are both activities that hurt my body in more ways than it can help.


Not that you asked for it, or that you even need it, here is my advice. Listen to your body, and make "preparing for a marathon" your goal, as opposed to "run the Long Beach Marathon this year." Giving yourself a firm date of when your knee should be fully healed may force you to push yourself harder than is necessary or helpful. It is often at that moment when I pushed myself too far, thinking that I "should" be able to do it, that I injured my knee, or hip muscles much worse and more painfully than I thought possible.


Some good advice I have received: "While in recovery, do half of what you think you can do. Then wait 24 hrs and see how you feel. If you feel good, then you know you can do a little more, but our bodies often take that long to fully process the effects of our actions." There is a constant conversation between our bodies and our brain and the more in tune we are the better we can help ourselves. I do yoga for that reason, but whatever you feel helps you the most is what you should do. Don't ignore any pain or weird pops; there is always a reason for why those things happen and ignoring them could cause you more pain later.


As someone who has been where you are, please feel free to reach out and ask me anything about knee therapy. And I thank you for allowing me to send you this email. Really, this email is more for my 16 year old self, dealing with a major knee injuring in the middle of my high school soccer career. If you think I'm totally off base, that fine and I understand. I know that even if my 16 year old self had read this email, I probably wouldn't have done anything different. That's the thing about 16 year olds, they think they are indestructible.


I hope you heal well and quickly and have a healthy knee on which to run.

You see why I think so highly of her? She's great, and Nik's lucky to have her. Now, let's see if I can address some of this.

First, Jenn, you're dead right. If I had hurt myself again, it would be your fault. I would love you significantly less.

But you're right: my injury isn't the same as yours, and I am a bit more mature than you were when you were 16 and injured. Not by much, but every little bit counts. When I was down, it was the worst thing in the world, and I'm determined not to be down again. So I'm back at the gym, doing my exercises. I'm starting out on an elliptical instead of running on a treadmill or track. I feel like a total wimp, but that's because I am a total wimp. Or, rather, my knee is. 

Your advice is really good. Do half. I like that advice. I feel like I've been sort of doing that already, but not on purpose. It's been a lot less formal, and more gut-oriented, but it rings true.

As for going to long, far, and fast, you're dead right there, too. I'm a little paranoid. I just don't want to hurt again. A marathon is a great goal, and it really is what I want to do. But not if it's the last thing I do. 

I sincerely want to run a marathon. My life's resumé sort of demands it. The goal is the Long Beach Marathon. The goal is this marathon because if I aim for 2012, that gives me an entire year to screw off. I'd rather pull out a month ahead of time —while improving my knee at the gym —than allow myself to do nothing for a year and a half. 

I'm pretty sure that makes sense. You'll let me know.

Hey, as long as I'm here, everyone should know that Jenn deserves at least a tiny bit of credit for me starting yoga this weekend with Cassandra.