Last morning in DC. Off to the memorial end of the mall, then a ride by Arlington and on our way to VA/NC for a rest stop.
Trent, not sure if you are doing OK or not. Have not heard from you in about two weeks. Seriously hope that all is well.
Hey man. Thanks for checking on me. Sorry I've been off the grid for a while. On 7/6/17 I did a quick metcon before jumping on a plane to Boston. When I woke up the next day my knee was hurting. I hobbled around the job site and was luckily done by lunch time and headed back to the airport to fly home. By that time the pain was worse so I stopped in and bought some Advil. I took a few of those and proceeded to the bar in the terminal and slammed a bunch of beer. The pain was pretty minimal by the time I boarded my flight.
I got home OK, but by later that night I was really having trouble walking. The next morning, I woke up and couldn't bend my knee at all or walk on it without excruciating pain, so I hobbled around the house, supporting myself on furniture/walls/counters. I went to a Sports Medicine Urgent Care the following day (Sunday). Had some x-rays and left with a diagnosis from the PA of a sprained lower quadricep. She did give me a nice brace and I wore that for a week.
Gradually, everything has improved. I can now walk with no problem, but climbing ladders and lots of stairs is still painful. My range of motion is almost completely back to normal. I can bend my knee (in a standing quad stretch) and the pain doesn't start until my heal is about 4" from my a$$. I can just barely touch my a$$ with the other heal so I'll say that range of motion is pretty much back. It is still a little stiff and there is a little bit of pain here and there, but for the most part it is getting better.
Not trusting the PA at the Sports Medicine Urgent Care, I went to an orthopedist yesterday and he seemed to think it may be a torn meniscus. He ordered an MRI, which I will have done on Friday morning. That should tell the whole story, as: tendons, cartilage and muscle are not visible on x-rays. He did state, however, that if it is a torn meniscus, that it WILL NOT heal itself with simple rest. That seems to contradict a lot of credible sources online. He also went into plenty of detail about how easy the surgery is and how smooth the recovery is. To me, it seems like he is really looking for a dollar. So if it turns out to be a torn meniscus, I'll likely go and get a second opinion.
Anyway, I have not done squats or deads since the injury, but have been doing some upper body work and walking on an incline on the treadmill for cardio (boring). Work has also gotten a lot more stressful, so I've just been kind of getting off work and tuning out from everything. That's one thing that I really realized on vacation and then again after I hurt my knee. One thing that has been missing in my life is quality time with my family and rest (what's that?).
So I've really been trying to do that. Even if I can get back to full speed on this injury, I still plan to take one day off each weekend and just hang with the family. The Lord called for that from the beginning and I think He's right.
Sorry for the long-winded response, but I wanted to catch you up on what's been going on. I'm glad that you've had a good vacation and have been getting some running in when you can. As far as posting here, I've been thinking about throwing in the towel. I think it's pretty safe to say, at this point, that this site isn't going to turn into what we thought it was going to turn into. Vacation and this injury have really made me want to minimize time online too. I have a
training log over at bodybuilding.com (over 35) and the community over there is pretty cool. It's much more traditional in nature and most of the people do powerlifting as their main focus and only a few of us do metcons or crazy conditioning. Anyway, I'm not ruling out posting here going forward, but honestly, I just post the same thing in two places. If you have any interest in coming over there, go for it. If you want to continue posting here, I'll try to check in, but will likely not post that much here myself. I am thankful that you've stuck around here for so long and have really enjoyed having a virtual training partner.
Enjoy the rest of your vacation and join me over there if you like. If not, I'll catch up with you here.