The Little Things
September 17, 2018

Starting in May, I started to feel that my knee was ready to try out running again. (If you missed out on my knee injury, check out the following posts: My Knee Injury, A Quick Knee Update, A Knee Injury: One Year Later). It had well over a year since I had last run, and I was nervous and excited by the idea. I’d spent a lot of time icing, strengthening, and compressing, and I hoped that my knee would be able to handle some pounding on the pavement. I had a trip planned to Florida at the end of May, and opted to not run before that, as I wanted to make sure nothing got in the way of walking on the beach each day.

SO- that led me to National Running Day, which seemed like a perfect day for a first run back! I nervously tied my shoelaces and tightened my knee brace, and tentatively set off after a solid warm up with walking. When I first started to run (my first bit of running was 20 seconds in length in between walking breaks), it felt SO awkward, sort of like I was a stumbly baby. It felt ridiculous! I ran a few more 20 second segments with walking breaks and called it a day, not wanting to over-do it. I wanted to make sure that I was safe and smart in coming back after such a long time off.

Running after knee injury

Because I have bursitis, my knee still gets oddly swollen from time to time, so I’ve dealt with that on and off all summer. However, I’ve slowly added to my mileage and the length in time I run between walk breaks (the longest I’ve gone is 2 minutes), and this past weekend I ran 2.2 miles!

My runs are nerve-wracking at times, since my injury came while running (real story: not a “real” run- I was chasing a toddler at the park). However, I’m thrilled to be back and able to move. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to run the distances I used to run due to the bursitis, but I’m thrilled to be able to get a short run in every now and then on a Saturday or after a busy day at work!

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