Stay in the groove!

"Patella Tendonosis"

What? I looked at my physio incredulously.
"Basically" he said "The structure of your patella tendon is weak and full of scar tissue, you could have this injury for up to a year"

"No running for a year?" I heard myself almost screaming

"Oh you can run - eventually, but no speed work for a long time, when you are back running you will have to be contented to jog for a while"

I couldn't believe my bad luck, the sub 4 hour marathon was completely out of the question now, even being there at the Chester marathon start line seemed like an impossible dream.
"Oh and whilst you can't run for a while, you can't be inactive either, this type of injury doesn't respond well to complete rest" he said rather matter of fact.

So not to be beaten, I walked five mile a day and I did knee strengthening, loads of it and after 10 weeks I was introducing little minute at a time jogs into my daily walks.

When I was up to two mile jogs I was back at the physios for my usual ongoing treatment. "What's going on?" I said. "My calf is hurting, my other knee is killing and I feel like I am starting with planter fasciitis!!"

Some of my rehab kit!

"You are out of the groove" he said calmly. "You need to get back into the groove" So he dug his fingers into my sore calf and knee and treated my foot with sheer callousness. I wasn't going to argue with him, not only was he a top physio (physio to the GB athletics team) he had also been a top endurance runner in his own right.

Being "in the groove" meant by running regularly, you suffered less issues. Your body got used to the constant impact and adapted to the stress and strains.
And so I continued to increase my "jogging" digging my fingers into tender spots to fight off any other potential injuries and yes, by a miracle, I made it to the start line. My time was a good 36 minutes slower than I had originally intended but I did it, against all odds ran 26 miles on last minute training.

Chester Marathon nailed!

15 months later from start of injury I still get the odd tendonosis twinge but I have since ran a further two marathons, am coping with speed work and sometimes over shorter distances am managing to run at my old speed.
But most importantly I am staying" in the groove".

Karen - @karenvernon8