According to the Physio the stripes of tape across the kneecap crinkle the skin when my leg is straight to help the swelling which appeared around it to drain away. Which is nice. Thankfully the swelling has gone but I missed 2 runs and a swim due to all this and the Physio's instructions to lay off the exercise for 3-4 days. I'm very frustrated having trained with a slow build-up since last summer and choosing a training plan that helps minimise overuse injuries by running 3 times per week with 2 cross training sessions. It seems a lifetime's worth of rubbish running technique can't be solved by simply doing lots and lots of running. Arse.
So having completed a triumphant 20-miler a week last Saturday, rightly or wrongly my confidence was dashed in Ryan the Physio's advice to have this knee swelling appear on Sunday so I went to see a group called Six Physio at Monument. I went in with a swollen knee and came out of there feeling utterly wrecked! A seemingly lovely lady called Philippa determined the weaknesses and twistedness of my pelvis that results in the knee being unhappy and then went about destroying the golf-ball sized (maybe a slight exaggeration) muscle knots is my calf and hamstring to the extent that I was sweating with the pain and I left with bruises!!! I have been using Philippa's special instrument of torture namely the common or garden tennis ball to wreak havoc on the knots since and nothing much seems to happen apart from me yelping and inventing new swear words but I shall persist 'cos she said so.
I had my second visit to Six Physio on Tuesday last week and was scrutinised by Jen whilst running, walking and balancing whereupon she proclaimed my power muscles to be good (oh yeah!) but my core muscles to be pathetic (boo!). So all those Pilates-goers were right about something all along! Alongside the stretching and tennis-balling I've now got a daily set of exercises including aforementioned 'Clam' and some that I've chosen to perform using a foam roller. As a household we now have two of these since I had to buy a longer one to lie on but I suppose post-April when I've regained my lazy slouching posture once more we'll at least be able to use them for (rather one-sided) Gladiators-style podium battles instead :)
Trying to remember how to do the exercises in a less-than-optimal environment i.e. having both Iain and our friend Rob laughing at me proved challenging...
Thanks to Iain for taking the opportunity to entertain you once again and apologies for my oh-so-stylish fleece. Please also note that my 'weights' were the first two items of same size that I came across and that we're not total alcoholics, honest.
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