Went to see a sports injury specialist today about my knee. Sod’s Law seemed to strike, though, as I realised that today it was better than it had been in ages, and in fact I could feel hardly any pain at all! That’s good in one way, but how would I be able to tell the specialist where it hurt if it didn’t hurt now?! So I ran up and down the stairs a few times to try to get the pain to come back, and it did a little. I thought about cancelling, but I knew the pain might come back later anyway, so I might as well go.
I’m not sure how much I actually got for my 15 minutes and £35, but it was probably worth it. It’s a common injury, I was told. Do these stretches (new ones – quite painful on the quads!) hourly(!) for a week and then twice-daily after that. Do cross training and cycling for a week before running again. He also hinted that people were mad to regularly do marathons as they will hasten joint damage to knees and hips by 10-15 years! So I left with stretching instructions and renewed hope that I’d be back running soon.
I’d taken the day off as a few of us planned to go down to London for the day. There’s not much better than having a few drinks with old friends in the sunshine, chilling out with no worry for time and reminiscing about times gone by.
We got through a lot with little hurry: Irish breakfast, beers, cocktails, Chinese food, double decker bus ride, St. Catherine’s Dock, Covent Garden, Chinatown, Piccadilly as well as the famous sights of the Tower of London, Anteros (it’s not Eros, did you know that?), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, that big gherkin building and Nelson’s Column. I won’t mention the bowling at the Trocadero as, well, let’s just say I didn’t win!!