Knee Dislocation_Total Recovery

Slope downwards

2011-02-27T23:04:00.003Z

Nearly two months has passed with my new scale (BMI, fat and lean mass, weight) and the result is - 3 kg and 2% less fat. I think the speed of declination is appropriate, to me it shows that this will be a long-term effect? Anyway, I will try to establish this and keep up for the next coming months. The change in diet has been minimal, slightly smaller portions and care with carbohydrate intake. The training in the gym and outdoor running is regular but could certainly be increased. When spring arrives, I am quite certain that running will become more regular (3 x a week is a good measure).

During the running exercise today I got thinking that I'm such a lucky bastard! Since I'm closing in on the inevitable half-century celebration of my time on Mother Earth (less than two years from now) and as many other males in this age the body constitution have changed. Imagine that I would have been any other guy with no other experience from exercise than graduate school or military service, what a mountain to climb it would have been to start exercise today! Although the initial exercises (after a periods of no activity) for me produce aching muscles and slow progress - I still feel enough well-being and mental strength to get me keep on going. I am very thankful to previous years of running and gym exercises since my major driving force today is the JOY! I enjoy the mental prepare before exercise, I enjoy during performance, and last but not least, I enjoy the endorphines and muscle tiredness after heavy exercise.

Monitoring will push improvements

2011-01-14T18:50:00.002Z

I've recently purchased a new gadget, a WiFi-scale, that hopefully will enable further improvements regarding my body compostion. The scale measures weight and body mass (fat percent) and each measurement is transferred instantly and wireless to a personal web page. Since my gym exercises don't really show steady weight improvements I am also interested in my body composition as well. I am a strong believer of the good old quality assurance approach where all measurements are of use. If you can display your numbers of relevant parameters, everybody will understand (intuitively) when a diagram show slopes or changes. This is called "the data will show in your face". I like this way of working with myself, and the real advantage with the automatic monitoring and documentation is that you will never get tired of this, neither will you try to manually adjust any figures.

I also do some parallell monitoring (manually) of waist and blood pressure/pulse at rest. These are true health parameters, especially in my age, being male and having a stressful work. I will report back in this blog the rate of improvement in all these parameters. I will not change diet or exercise in any dramatic way, rather try to find a steady slope, rate of change. I believe that slow change will be much more longlasting and the overall goal is to find a balance where I can find healthy figures and a nice way of living. I will try to level out in a number of years and never really quit doing this. Improvement is a constant joy!

New injuries - in my other knee

2010-08-15T18:33:00.003+01:00

Before summer I was travelling in my work and during a flight change at Arlanda, Sweden, I had to run between two gates. I carried my backpack and another bag, and during the run the bags started to swing, making my running unstable. I was of course aware about my unstable knee (right) and trying to avoid to much rotational stress on that one I probably forced more into the left knee. I could just feel a twitch or so during the run and no sense of that something was wrong later in the plane. 1 ½ hour later after arrival to Skellefteå and in the transfer bus, I experienced pain. The pain accelerated and a short walk late that night in the city was a real challenge. Next morning was awful, I hade severe difficulties in walking. I visited a pharmaceut, buying some anti-inflammatory gel (Ipren 5%) and some support for the knee. The best I could do was rest, but it wasn't compatible with my duties at that time. Although I was lucky having a "private" driver during several hundreds of miles driving those days in the northern parts of Sweden.

A couple of weeks later - pain was still there at exercise, so I visited a doctor. He said that it probably wasn't any alarming injury, more of a lightly torn cross ligament or so. He prescribed Voltaren as a patent solution, not really my favourite (I didn't either bother to get it at pharmacy). My plans for summer exercises and running was now far away, I had to focus on recovery and continued my gym exercises.

New decade - new challenges

2010-01-12T21:00:00.003Z

Restart at the gym between holidays and all the X-mas food. I tried the running belt - and it felt just OK! No sense of stiffness from my knees, so this will become a slow rehab into a possible running outdoors in early spring. I hope the belt with it's built-in cushion will enable this recovery. Last winter's experience with a possible injury of my left knee wasn't very encouraging. I'm now also fighting a weight increase due to the loss of calorie burning exercises. The gym training doesn't really help in this - muscle mass is heavier than fat! I decided instead to use the tape measure. Waist and breast, biceps and forearm. I won't reveal my measures yet, but one target is to reach 40 cm for biceps - which may happen soon.

I came across an interesting diet during a work mission a couple of weeks ago. My colleague was caught and also bought the cook book, LCHF by Annika Dahlqvist. It is a form of an extreme GI-diet with focus on very low carbohydrate intake. All carbohydrate food exceeding 10 grams per 100 g is not allowed or should be minimised. But it's recommended to eat high protein and high fat, in this way you will be encouraged by more tasty food and also to feel satisfied or done after a meal. The fat should preferrably be based on pure butter or organic rapeseed oil or olive oil. I'll try to gradually transfer to this diet. I took one step in mid-September, by omitting candy and sweets from my intake. The reason then was tooth ache and although the tooth is fixed now, I lost my taste for sweets. The LCHF diet is supported in parts by a well-known Swedish physician, Martin Ingvar, who recently published a book about brain function and food intake in different popular weight loss diets. Martin, who is neurologist, discussed the LCHF diet in an interview in a Swedish news paper, explaning that fat is essential for body functions and that carbohydrates are playing a major role in welfare diseases.

Recapture

2009-10-08T21:26:00.002+01:00

This blog has been down for a rather long time, but since I revoked my other blog (Swedish Fear Culture) I got inspiration to write some in this as well. I have not been able to continue my running exercises the last ½year, I got injured? last winter after a normal exercise. I was running in cold winter up north in Sweden, about -4˚C and some snow on the streets, rather icy conditions. I was very careful because of the slippery track and probably tried to avoid a slide with my recovered knee (my right limb). Getting a slide with a floppy knee with no cross-ligaments to speak about is somewhat a nightmare, and probably something I'm mentally very aware of. After doing my 5 km´s I was back, stretching a little too hard (with such cold limbs) but no sense of that something was wrong. The morning after my left knee! was very stiff, I had to limp the whole day. For several days was this stiffness going on, worsened by sitting. But I had no pain during motion. Walking seemed to ease up a little bit. After two weeks the problem was gone and I tried some running again. No sense of stiffness or pain directly after exercise but next day, now with pain. I had to take some ketuprofen cream on my knee to get some release. Again, walking was alright. Slowly, I tried to get into running again - but the knee was not happy.

My own analyse of this problem is that I have captured a meniscus problem. Something that needs medical treatment. I'd like to visit my old orthopaedics again to discuss this but I haven't really decided yet. This time I must visit a private clinic, i.e. I have to pay the bills myself. My alternative plan is to increase muscle strength in the left knee as well so I've joined a gym club. Three times a week I'll visit the gym with a rather fixed training schedule. I used to do lots of gym in my younger years and I´ve also been back a couple of times the last 25 years so it is a quite well-known activity. The schedule consists of:

- 10 mins of bike exercise, last min sprint to max pulse
- three exercises for abdomen, torso and back, 40-100 reps.
- one exercise for breast muscles ,3o erps.
- one exercise for upper back and lats, 30 reps.
- one exercise for leg (quadriceps), 30-40 reps. per leg
- one exercise biceps, 30 reps.
- one exercise triceps, 30 reps.

I perform this in a rather high tempo, mixing and changing between muscle groups, and it lasts for approx. 40-45 mins. It should be quite similar to a running exercise that long, I expect the average pulse to be at the same level. I've been doing this for 1½ month now or so and it is really nice. My body is responding by swelling, the capillaries in my old muscles increase much faster than any fiber growth and you can see the evidence by looking at your muscles now being a lot more red than a month ago. But you need to be really careful with your ligaments, these are not at all that flexible as they were 20 years ago. I can feel some aching and stiffness in some of them and you have to remind yourself all the time to hold back in weights. We'll see if this will have effect or not on my bad knee (left one).

Progress

2007-09-03T10:13:00.000+01:00

Back home again after an intense weekend in Stockholm. And a new experience from a VERY nicely arranged half marathon. The S:t Eriks-race was beautyfully routed throughout the watersides of Stockholm. And almost all the track was flat asphalt, just the way I prefer. So there was nothing to complain about and the running went quite fine. Here are my results:

10 km 0.52.49

21 km 1.56.18

Speed 5.30/km

The first 10 km was very easy, after 3 km I achieved the "flow" and I really enjoyed everything: the atmosphere, small chats with other runners, body working perfectly, the track and the audience. But then after some water at 13 km I started to feel some nausea, but I tried to endure and at the 16 km water station I was also a little dizzy. I concluded that I underestimated the water and salt loss so I drank a whole cup of sports drink and walked for ½ km. Then I recovered and the rest of the race was OK, I tried to speed up a little bit the last km so that my final time would not exceed 1.56. Although I had some problems in the last third of this race I improved from Göteborgsvarvet with about 8 minutes. But the best of all - I had no bad knee feelings! I think I have planned my training quite well this summer, in order to strenghten the surrounding muscles of the knee, but I have not really achieved any speed improvement. I am happy that I did this race - just to get the feeling that a well performed half marathon is a nice experience. My frustrations from the Göteborgsvarvet have gone now, and I'm still ambivalent if I will register for the 2008 race. But I have no doubts about going for the S:t Eriks race next year (13 sept 2008) again! It would be nice to do it together with someone from the western part of Sweden.

Perceivement

2007-08-14T21:06:00.000+01:00

It became quite a long summer delay in this blog. The normal routines were broken up by family life and many short travels around in southern Sweden. The training has not been very intense, but regular. My previous ambition to increase my rounds to 13 km has not really been successful. Instead I tried to run by the hour. I'm running for 30 mins and then turn back again. I was thinking that you could the "see" your improvements by the extra meters you would gain over time. Well, it doesn't improve that fast any longer. Anyway, I've kept to this training routine just for a change, I think I'll manage something like 11,5 -12,5 km depending on the track profile (and outdoor temperature).

There will be more challenges after this summer. I'm leaving my job position after 12 yrs at the same place. We will do a "total make-over" of our house including tearing down the middle part of the H-shaped house and also add an extra part on the north side. I'll probably be quite occupied by all these changes but I think that the running will be even more essential in order to make place for mental and physical restoration. I will also start regular gym training again, one reason is purely vain. I've noticed that my calfs have increased in size (39 cm in diameter) by the running and that is nice to my leg shapes - but they are now 1 cm larger than my biceps! Personally, I think that could do for female bodies but not for a masculine body sculpture. The other reasons are of course more normal - I need to keep the quadriceps very strong to stabilise my knee. Running helps a lot but not for short, heavy loads. Fx., last weekend I got some help to carry my wooden jetty that the last winter storm brought up on the landside. It was very heavy, I'll guess > 150 kg and we had to carry it over a slope of rock, at least 100 m. I was afraid of course to miss one step and slip away. I almost did, but I "saved" myself by hitting my leg (with the heavy piece) right beneath my bad knee. That has now become a problem during my running, in the last round I felt knee pain after 7 kms. I hope not my plan for the S:t Erik half marathon is in danger.

Pathogens

2007-06-27T21:35:00.000+01:00

Last week, I again caught a virus infection. I think that the explanation for this recurrency is the very narrow relation I have with my 1-year old daughter. I spend full time with her on a parent leave and she has caught, I'm sad to say, numerous bacterial and viral infections in the respiratory tract. Four antibiotic treatments over the last couple of months is a little bit too much, I think? Last thursday I took her to children's department at the hospital and urged for some serious testing, just to rule out other possible causes to her oversensitivity.

As if it wasn't enough with bugs in the family - I discovered an erythem on my right hip two days ago. Uhuh, I immediately recognised that little fellow. First a tick bite and then some transfer of tick saliva or gut content and you encounter Borrelia burgdorferi. It's also called Lyme disease and the more your read about it, the more disgusting you will find this blood infection. I went to the doctor and had the usual 10 days of standard antibiotic treatment (Kåvepenin or phenoxymethylpenicillin). I tried to argue for a longer treatment period, since this bug grows very, very slow. The effect of penicillin is to stop growth and it's only effective in the growth phase. Some expert physicians on Borrelia claim that you need at least 6-8 weeks of treatment! But the physician said the he had to follow their policy. I will probably extend the 10 days to 13-14 days by saving one (of the presrcibed 3 pills every day) pill at irregular intervals. The training has been cancelled for some days now and I will regain very slow due to the infection but I believe that some extra pulse and working muscles = increase of blood flow will help the cure.

Potemkin

2007-06-19T22:45:00.000+01:00

I have to tell about a dèjá vu experience recently. About 25 years ago, I was making my military service in the Swedish infantry. Some of us were visiting the gym at the campus and when my room mates once joined me they exclaimed: "and we just thought you were fat!" The green military dress in those days didn't fit very tight so they judged my body posture from what they actually could see. I had spent the last 6 years in a gym at the time - so I was training with (for them at least) quite large weights. My BMI (Body Mass Index) was 25 then, which is the same today! Now, last week, one of my colleagues exclaimed something like: "and we just thought you were any ordinary middle-age man, not with such talents". It was meant to be a compliment (and comment to this blog) but I was recalling that 25-year old citation.

I am increasing the training dose now. I have extended my 10 km rounds to 13 km and it works out quite well. I may feel a little stiffer after the 13 km than after the 10 but I assume that after a couple of weeks that it will be gone. The goal is to run 42 km per week, so every third round will be only 10 km. The plan is to reach 50 km per week in the end of the summer, and I will then extend to some 16 km rounds.

Perpetual

2007-06-10T22:59:00.000+01:00

The great "climate effect" has struck Sweden. It was above 30ºC today and the sun is shining all day long. No great time for running though, yesterday Stockholm had the same temperature and I followed the marathon on TV. I sent my thoughts to my colleague, who is an experienced marathon runner. I decided to join the brave runner's on TV so I went out for my usual 10 km. It was horrible! The heat is something I'm not very well aquainted with during heavy physical exercise. How do you prepare? (in Sweden) I was thinking of my training runs back in Januar - icy rain at 0ºC...

Nevertheless, I paid the fee to my next half marathon, S:t Eriksloppet (http://www.steriksloppet.se/start/) in Stockholm the 1st of September. I have to get some kind of feeling of how the streets in Stockholm will fit my running style. And if it turns out that they do, then maybe, depending on training dose and my health, I might take into consideration to pay another fee to Stockholm next year...

I have to congratulate Jonathan (blog link to the right) for completing his first marathon! Unfortunately, he will also quit his blog. I enjoyed reading it and I hope that we both can inspire other people to start running, setting new goals, no matter what kind of pain or damage they experience. As you may have understood from above - he inspires me!

Publicity

2007-05-28T13:33:00.000+01:00

Having done two 10 km rounds since the 12th May, this is not a good average. I caught a cold last week however, and I am about to recover now. The last training round presented a new experience - I felt some pain at 9,5 km in the other knee? I think this due to the full concentration I usually make on running smooth with my damaged knee. Maybe I will put the knee support on the other knee just to make sure I won't forget it. My orthopedist answered me "you may as well use a string" upon my question about the function of a knee support. As I learned, it is of a mere psychological function. The knee support keeps reminding you that the particular knee needs some more attention. And it works! Anyway, I don't think that some extra warmth is of any damage either. As a mechanical support however, any extra stability will be negligible. The popularity of these kinds of support (not only knees - arms, wrists, ankles, back) does tell something about their psychological importance during physical activity. I believe that you may be able to increase the healing of your physical damages through mental focus. I know an opposite direction too - people with severe brain damages (strokes or similar) may recover faster if somebody moves their legs, arms etc. The movement of the muscles induce some kind of signals back to the brain that will help it to recover.

Today I discovered that I've been establishing some contact with the only link you'll find at the right. I tried to spur Jonathan in his training and knee pain before the Stockholm Marathon (www.stockholmmarathon.se) next week. Maybe this can attract some more readers (than close friends and colleagues) of this blog?

Postponed

2007-05-18T00:41:00.000+01:00

This blog will probably be a little silent the next few weeks, the reason is that I am very busy in writing a research proposal. Even my training will probably suffer from this. I hope that this "rest" will make good in recovering from the previous more intense training period. It is quite well-known nowadays that elite athlets in the past very often overlooked the importance of resting and let the muscles recover to get a better gain. A couple of days after the 25 km the feeling in my knee is very pleasant, it feels stronger than ever!

I searched the result list of Göteborgsvarvet to see how my colleagues performed, very impressive indeed!

1.28.54 (male computer consultant)
1.42.51 (male younger Ph.D student)
1.43.35 (male older senior consultant)
1.52.50 (female computer consultant)
1.55.57 (male much older consultant)
2.07.57 (female younger marketing assistant, first-timer!)

Preparation miss

2007-05-13T20:58:00.000+01:00

I have now calmed down a little bit after my huge frustration last night. My body is quite OK, a little stiffness in the upper thighs and a little sore feet (knee is alright). And I feel ready for training again already today! All my energy and mental preparation still needs to get off with. I've decided to look for a "smaller" half marathon in Sweden this summer and hopefully be able to get it like I want. I think I need to increase my training dose. I read an interview with the female winner at Göteborgsvarvet, Kirsten Melevik Otterby today in Göteborgs-Posten and she started running only four years ago and her daily training dose is about 50 km!

I actually ran 25 km yesterday, how could that be? I was in due time ready for getting a tram from the place where I parked my car and then I double-checked my bag - no running shoes!!! If there's something that you don't want to leave at home, then it's your shoes. What to do? Options: 1. Buy a new pair at the stadium, 2. Drive fast 45 km home and 45 km back again, 3. Run in my Ecco Receptor walking shoes that I was wearing. I chose 2. and hoped that the police force was engaged in the traffic mess of central Gothenburgh. I was lucky and had about 20 min before my start and I parked the car in an industrial area about 2 km from the start. I was running from there to get in time, then I didn't need any warming up. And after the finish of Varvet I was so frustrated, then I decided to run back to the car just to get that nice feeling of stretching out, finally.

Post Varvet

2007-05-12T23:00:00.000+01:00

I completed the half marathon (Göteborgsvarvet), here are my results:

5 km 27:29 (5:29 min/km)
10 km 55.18 (5:31min/km)
15 km 1:24:45 (5.39 min/km)
21 km 2:04:06 (5.54 min/km)

What happened after the 15km? I had pain in my knee at 20 km! and had to walk for some ½ km. I was lucky because my oldest daughter was positioned right there and she cheered me up a little bit so that I managed to finalise the last km running. Now I can tell you that this half marathon was somewhat a nightmare - to my running style and knee. I love to RUN, I hate jogging, (I've never understood that kind of running, you'd better walk?). Now imagine me, being in the second last starting group (because I registered late) and having approx. 37,000 runners in front of me (about 6 minutes between starting groups) and that you expect yourself to concentrate on your own running. Not possible though, only about 20% of the 21 km allowed some kind of running where I could harmonise my running (step length, speed). The rest was; crowdy, narrow, people walking, people stopping, audience crossing!, >5 types of running ground, a lot of turns etc. In other terms, completely different from my training and preparation. If I decide to make it next year; I now know how to prepare. You pick out that weekend in the end of the month (salary weekend) when the city is crowded with people. Then you start running up and down on the most densely populated pedestrian street (Kungsgatan).

The reason to my frustration is of course that I prefer running at my own speed and on a straight track. Varvet offered me loads of speed changes, track changes in order to keep close to my own speed. And that's the reason why my knee started to pain before finish. I also need to critize the management behind Göteborgsvarvet. They set a new record in numbers of registrations (>40,000) this year but have they taken that into account when designing the track width? I'm not so experienced in other international long distance running events, but can it be as bad as this?

Prior Varvet

2007-05-12T08:56:00.000+01:00

Today is the day of "Varvet" or the Round. About 40,000 runners gather and they estimate about 150,000 as specatators. That's quite an event! The weather is perfect. There will be rain later tonight or tomorrow. I think I've done everything I can in my preparation. Yesterday I managed to stuff myself wiht 840 grams of carbohydrates, puh. The largest single intake was the lunch spaghetti (170 g). My laboratory background helped me in my strategy, I used a scale and read the list of nutrient declaration of everything I ate, then I recorded it in a table with time of intake and grams of carbohydrate. I had everything from toasts, a lot of still drinks (cranberry and lingonberry juice), fruit compote, sandwich cake and finally blueberry pie with ice cream. This part in preparation will be no problem in the future, it was quite enjoyable...

I wish all my colleagues at work luck with their Varvet running today, and for those being "virgin" half marathon runners: - just doing it and finalising it is a great success!

One remarkable thing about runners is their very, very high interest in one single fact. I mean, when somebody (who is running) gets to know that you are about to run a half marathon, what will be their first or second question? "- What time do you expect to achieve?" It is not a competition, and you don't get extra medals for a respectable time. But what is this about? Can it be a substitute for your other shortcomings in life (career, salary, type of car or immaterial status) and that you want to make yourself confident with your own goals? Or is it just a question of trigging the other person you are meeting with, to get behind their shell and and then share this "secret". My evidence for the latter would be that any other people (not being runners) that you meet is interested in this. It is probably a kind of "password" into the runner's silent community, being member of this group of people. A year ago, I noticed something else that gave an indication of this. I had just purchased my first pulse wrist watch and was wearing it daily. I was attending an international conference, and one person I've met in the past approached at the lunch buffet and said: - Are you running? I couldn't understand why he was asking this, and why here at the buffet? He pointed at his watch, and then I understood.

Priorities (III)

2007-05-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

I think I made the last training round tonight before Saturday. I ran the old track that I started with two years ago when I took up running again. It is a very nice track (4-5 km), along the seaside and in a nature reserve with some very nice views. And there is one ascent or climb that used to be really hard, but this time - piece of cake. When I turned back on the track and made it downhill I turned around and did it again! And it was even easier this time! I think this tells me something about my form, physically and mentally. I met a younger runner coming down when I was approaching the top and he looked curiously at me (what do he think he's doing?). The mental preparation shall not be forgotten, no difference what kind of level you are running at. What happened tonight was that my memory (and expectation) told me it's a hard ascent. But after the experience that it wasn't - I started to prepare myself that now I'll make it faster. My problem on Saturday is that I have no previous experience of the track. I can look at maps and topography and I know most of the surroundings and streets at least. Now on Thursday and Friday I think I'll try to ingest some extra carbohydrates (> 800 g). Bananas, porridge, pasta dishes, pan cakes.

Priorities (II)

2007-05-07T18:44:00.000+01:00

It is now time for a soft week with some easy training and recovering (from the previous more intense training). Yesterday during the 9 km round, I recalled that this is not my favourite season for running. I suffer from pollen allergy, in particular tree pollen (hazel, birch, oak etc.). But this year has been quite gentle to us allergic people. My best prevention is to stay indoor, and if I need to get out, I prefer later at dawn. At this time, wind is gone and the moisture in the air is higher. I also use eye drops to prevent any inflammatoric response (I've had it with that). Your immune system will also be affected and that's why it is easier to get the flu (which I did) or something else. The good thing with this season is a nice temperature (10 -15 ºC) so that you avoid too much of sweating during training. I've just watched the weather forecast for the rest of the week and it looks quite promising, 10 -15 ºC and some rain (which will hopefully be gone by saturday).

Priorities

2007-05-04T22:11:00.000+01:00

Today I finished the intense training period with 10 km (or more) every second day. I did the 10 today on 49.30 but that was quite tough. I won´t try to keep that speed on the half marathon... but I will try to aim for 5 min per km since that is easy to follow during the race. I also forgot to wear my knee support today and I didn´t notice until I was finished! I think that means that my strategy for the intense training worked. I assumed that if I forced my knee to withstand the 10 km like any other training round that would both physically and mentally give some result. In fact, the 10 km now feels like any other training round and I feel ready for another 10 km!

Training is one thing but your diet is also very important. I continue my normal diet but stay easy on the alcohol intake. I do feel some urge for carbohydrates but until next week I have stayed low on these as well. There are two reasons for this, I´d like to lose a few kilograms before the race and I want to get the body used to running on other fuels. I think I´ve read that the glycogen depots will not stand for 21 km so you better get used to this change in metabolism. I also use some supplements to my diet, being a blood donor I need extra iron fx. I donated ½ liter about three weeks ago so I hope that I have regained most of these erythrocytes. I prefer 100 mg capsules with ferroglycine sulphate since that won´t make your stomach bad (like cheaper iron supplements). I also take saw palmetto, but that´s another story. In my profession I made a visit about a year ago at the plant where they make Astaxin®. It is a strong antioxidant (astaxanthine) made out of red algae and I´ve used it since then. When I start using these supplements I always make it in "quasi-scientific" way, i.e. I eat the drug for a couple of weeks, stay off for a couple of weeks and then back again trying to evaluate what effect it has on my body. Today I purchased a vitamin+mineral supplement (Mitt Val "My Choice" Sport) with an extra high content of vitamin C and E and the minerals selen and magnesium.

Positive thinking

2007-05-02T10:35:00.000+01:00

The key to good recovering from a bad injury isn´t only due to the skill of the surgeons. You are master of your own body and noone else can make it heal or recover if you don´t believe strongly in it yourself. I use target focussing or target images in the way that many positive coaches call your attention to. In addition to this, you can also get some support from "small revenge" thinking. I have to admit that it would be very nice to race against my orthopedist who said "we´ll never know if you can walk again" or meet him after 21 km!

I was a little stiff yesterday after the 18 km the day before but I felt nothing in the knee area. I will make one or two more 10 km´s and then next week I will try to rest a little (if I can?). One problem with intense training and running is the addiction to endorphines. You will attain abstinence and this will get you more irritated, and you imagine that you have so much energy that needs to be taken care of (with running of course). I haven´t found any good substitution for this, yet. Or you just go on, here I must quote a student that presented himself on the public notice board with "a nice way to start your day is to get your shoes on at 05.30 and run for at least 20 km´s". Maybe that will help?

Present

2007-04-30T22:02:00.000+01:00

As you now may be aware of, I can manage running with my recovered knee. I prefer straight tracks, all kinds of sharp curves or turns will create problems. I´m doing the curves like a F1-car, trying to straighten them out. But what things can´t I do with an unstable knee? Skiing is bad, I can hardly manage cross-country skiing and downhill is worse. In general, any activity where a force will put pressure laterally on your feet is a problem. One, very practical example is to pull the shopping cart at the supermarket. No problem if it is a straight line and no turns plus an even floor without slope. In real life there is no such supermarket or parking lot, and I usually shop for a whole week to my family. I am zick-zacking the cart to get it where I want.

Today I completed an 18 km round. I did it in a slow speed in order to get feet and other body parts used to a longer distance. The first 13 km were not so nice but then the endorphins started to pump out so the rest of distance was nothing, really. These endorphins are quite fascinating (that´s probably the main reason why so many people are running) and usually they start to function after 7 km´s. The endorphins are also pain reliefing, so they neutralise any knee pain that may arise after such a distance.

2007-04-29T23:26:00.000+01:00

I have to admit that I´m not any advanced runner (or have been). I am running as an amateur but with a great interest in track & field or similar sports. Actually, I completed a half marathon in 1988 (Malmövarvet) at 1.37. I was really an amateur in those days, no fancy gear or sports wear. I used a pair of Nike Air (bought at reduced price at some outlet) and didn´t really mind about such things. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a pair of New Balance M767SB and last week I got me the latest Craft gear (knickers and a shiny blue t-shirt). I don´t know if these things makes me a better runner, but that´s how it feels. To keep my knee in good shape, I use a Rehband knee support (with a hole for the patella). I have also added silicon cushioning insoles (only heel). This combination make a difference! I also try to run on plain and hard surfaces (mainly asphalt) since I have discovered that this makes me run easier. If I´m running on gravel roads or tracks I need to concentrate much more on how the foot strikes the ground. This in turn make me more tense and less relaxed in other parts of my body.

I started my preparation for Göteborgsvarvet in Januar this year. I began with my standard training round at approx. 6,5 km once a week. In februar I tried to increase to 8,5 km and sometimes twice a week and this went on until March (I caught the flu in mid March). In April I managed to increase to a 10 km round and at least twice a week. The last two weeks I´ve been doing 10 km every second day at 52-54 min. (and it is not a plain track!). I ran 15 km last friday and that was very encouraging, no pain or ache in my knee. I begin to feel quite confident about the possible outcome of the half marathon.

Background and inspiration

2007-04-28T13:38:00.000+01:00

This is my first blog ever and today it is two weeks left (www.goteborgsvarvet/goteborgsvarvet/en). This is a half marathon that I hope to complete!

But we may need to get back in history, to June 1999. I was at a party (after work) and we were dancing a lot! I probably did overestimate my own capability as a jitterbug dancer because during one of the swings I slipped on the floor and ended up with my female dance partner there including my right leg in an awkard fashion. The music stopped and someone pointed at my leg and shouted - Are you hurt! I said - No, and then immediately I relocated my knee(reflex behaviour ?). For those of you who is more interested in what a knee dislocation is, see http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic145.htm containing photographies (Pic. 3) showing that I suffered a lateral dislocation. Someone called for ambulance and then I left the party. At the hospital they could verify that three ligaments (ACL, PCL and MCL) were torn including total rupture of the knee joint capsule. I was lucky, because at this hospital (Östra hospital, http://sahlgrenska.se/vgrtemplates/Page____27536.aspx) you could find the best Swedish orthopedic surgeons (one of them that were involved in my case was the team physician for England National Soccer team in last year´s World Championship). They put the knife in my knee and put all ligaments back together again and stitched me up. The prognosis was not very good, "we´ll never know if you can walk again". I had external fixation for three months and after this I actually learned to walk again. I was lucky again, because I was sent to Gothenburgh Medical Center (www.medical.se/) for rehab. My physiotherapist cheered me up "we´ll get you back to normal functions again, just do exactly as I say!" So I did - for another six months and found out she was right. I managed to get back to full flexion of my knee but the knee joint was (and still is) quite unstable. My orthopedist convinced me that there was no need to implant or reconstruct my crucial ligaments and if I did then the prognosis may not become any better. My option was to keep on training and exercising, to get knee stability from my muscles, especially the quadriceps (thigh front muscles).

At that time I started running and after one year I was doing 8 km rounds. But then my knee started to pain, so I gave up running. Since this is my favorite exercise (together with weight training at the gym) I started to feel a little pessimistic about my future physical condition. I gained weight and in 2005 I decided to try to start running again (including a weight loss) and I managed to complete the quarter marathon (www.emloppet.se) but I suffered some knee pain. I have kept on running since then and early this year I decided to aim for a half marathon.

I will keep posting the progress of my training until 12 May and then go on with future goals. I hope that this blog will serve as inspiration for other active people with an interest in physical exercises, whether or not you have suffered any knee injury!