42/365 February 11, 2011 Runner

42/365 February 11, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

I am a runner............

For those of you that do not know, I had knee surgery 3 months ago.
I needed an autologous cartilage transplant to repair an osteochondral defect that I most likely sustained from a fall whilst skiing.

Recovery has been a long slow process. The cartilage "plugs" need time to take root and establish themselves, much like a fragile seedling would.
I was not allowed to weight bear for 6 weeks......and then my activity was severely limited. But now I am finally allowed to actively strength train.

The physiotherapist has had me doing lots of work to encourage regrowth of my once powerful quads.
I have been diligent about the rehab, spending 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day on it. My muscle mass is increasing nicely. In light of this my PT decided to let me try running . I was frankly shocked, assuming that we would not give it a go for several more weeks.

I did not think I was ready...........and lo and behold I was not.
The pain prevented me from running for more than a couple of thirty second intervals.
Fail.



This picture describes how I feel.