Can't Win . . .

Howdy there! It's been a while again, I know. Sadly, this isn't going to be the happy "comeback post" that I was dreaming it would be. Nope. Instead of having great things to report back about my new training plan, I have had another stroke of bad luck. On Tuesday night during--what else?--a soccer game, I suffered a bit of a knee injury. It was really just a bizarre (and admittedly, kind of embarrassing) incident. A girl on the other team went to take a shot, and I lunged sideways in an attempt to block said shot. As I did this, I (unfortunately) managed to get my foot in front of the ball to block the shot, but I somehow DID NOT manage to lock my ankle before doing so. Her rocket of a shot hit my foot, bending my ankle back awkwardly until, all of a sudden, I felt an excruciatingly sharp pain travel up the inside of my knee. I could kind of tell that something was just "not quite right" with my knee, but after talking to my sister, we decided that I probably just freaked out a tendon attaching my ankle to my knee. I opted out of getting it checked out, and instead hopped on the subway to head home. Well, by the time I got home, I was in so much pain, I was in tears. My knee had also swelled up so big that I could not bend my knee, no matter how hard I tried. I knew something was up.

I lay awake all night long in a ridiculous amount pain. I simply could not find a comfortable position to put my leg in. I would move it into a spot that seemed comfortable, but within about 5 seconds of doing so, would feel a huge wave of pain hit my knee. UGH. I knew I had to get to the doctor the next day . . . as hesitant as I usually am to seek medical attention, this simply could not be ignored. So I called up my sports med doctor yesterday and begged to be seen. She agreed to see me despite the fact that she was double- and triple-booked all day long (thank you, Dr. Schneider!!). The verdict? Some kind of MCL sprain/tear. She said she couldn't quite tell how bad it is since the immediate pain and swelling were making it a little difficult to properly examine. Thus, I am being forced to wear a big ol' hinged DonJoy brace for now, and will follow up with her in a few weeks to check my range of motion/stability/etc. and see how the injury is healing. I've also been prescribed at least six weeks of physical therapy--can't wait to fight with insurance over that one!

So . . . I guess Chicago is up in the air at this point. There's a chance I *might* recover in as little as 2-3 weeks, but for some reason, I just don't feel all that optimistic at this point. I guess I'll just have to take things one day at a time, and focus right now on healing the knee. I'm not sure how much I'll be posting in the near future, as I'll be at weddings and moving to a new apartment and working quite a bit . . . but I'll be sure to keep you updated with regards to what's happening in that old gimpy knee of mine. I already miss running so much--I am desperate for a nice slow long run :(

Best of luck to all you racing this weekend!! I'll be thinking about you!!