Run Like a Normal Person

Since my long-ish run last Saturday my knee has been acting up a little. Saturday it was fine, Sunday a little sore, Monday worse. So. I figured I would call my ortho to see what the heck. I'm 12 weeks out of surgery, I feel like I should be totally better by now. Afterall, he did say 6-8 weeks and I'd be running again.

I talked with his nurse first. She asked all the standard questions like "did you start back up too early" "how far are you going" "how fast are you going"? No, I didn't start until 6 weeks post surgery just like a good little girl. I'm going super slow...in fact I don't even know if you can officially call it running. How far? Well, I only did 5ish on Saturday, a few on Monday and 2 days later it's still hurting.

Yeah, she laughed and said "And you consider that not being able to run?"

Um yes. If I can't run 3-4 times a week with a long run on Saturday, I consider that not being able to run. Don't you!?!

Hmmmm. Could you just ask the doctor for me?(obviously she just didn't get it!)

Doctor's assistant called me shortly after with this wonderful news. "Yes, it's normal for it to still be hurting. It could take up to a YEAR before you are 100% if you push it too hard. Everytime you push it to pain, you are going to make it take longer to get to 100%. RICE and you may need to run like a normal person for awhile."

She is a runner herself, so she's automatically cool. I laughed and said, "Run like a normal person? What does that mean?!"

Apparently not everyone expects to be able to run a 10 miler 12 weeks post surgery. Surprising right?! :) Looks like I gotta take it easy. Not the news I wanted, but I'm trying hard to remember this is for the long haul, not just for this year.

I've never claimed to be anything close to 'normal', but I'm going to give it my best shot :)
How to be a Totally Normal Person