On Thursday, I went to another sports physio recommended to me by my friend. Yet again, on the day I went, my knee decided to feel much better, but I went along expecting him to confirm the doctor’s diagnosis of an inflamed tendon.
Guess what? The doctor was wrong. This physio seemed to know exactly what I had from my description, even before he examined my knee. When he did, it confirmed it: Chondromalacia Patellae (or Runner’s Knee, if you prefer.) Very common with runners and preventable. He showed me a section in a book which matched my symptoms and even got a model of the knee out to demonstrate how it works and what my knee is currently doing. I was almost expecting an exam at the end.
With the casualness of a man who’s seen and done it all before many times, he stuck four suckers to my knee, connected to a multi-level machine which proceeded to work my muscles for twenty minutes with strange spasmic waves.
Simply put, my inner quad muscles are weaker than the outer ones, and so the imbalance is making my knee go up and down slightly off a vertical path. This is then causing friction, and then pain. As I’m left footed, my left leg is stronger, hence why the problem is just on my right.
So the good news is that he told me exact details of an exercise I have to do for twenty minutes every day that will strengthen these muscles. Hopefully, by the time the marathon comes they’ll be rock hard and ready for anything!
In the meantime, I can start doing a bit of running again. I did a bit on a cross trainer today to see how it went (ok, but a bit of pain) and will try a long walk on the treadmill tomorrow.
I’ll make it. The Force is strong with this one.