The Knee Injuries Club

What’s with knee injuries that have been plaguing fellow runner friends? It started with Nadia and Shaqi. Shaqi busted his knees during NB 30km if am not mistaken and Nadya suffered it long before I discovered her blog. Just recently, Yim also succumbed to one, crushing his attempt to do his first full marathon at SCKLM. And today I read about KakJune’s plight on the same injury and about Ziff’s kissing goodbye to his participation in SCKLM for the very same reason.

Truth is, I am also nursing one. I contracted this injury during an LSD run last Monday night. I did 2 loops of the Masjid Putra-PICC-Masjid Putra route. It was on the 2nd loop that I noticed there was some nagging pain at the back of my right knee joint. I couldn’t seem to stretch my stride bigger. Every time I did, my joint felt strained. And I found that I couldnt run the normal gait that I used to. My cadence were smaller and as a result it took longer time for me to complete the usual 2 loops that I normally did.

Till to date, the pain is still there even when I walk i.e at office, at home. Though it’s not something like major, sharp, stinging pain, I am worried that if I continue exerting my self with strenuous training, it will further deteriorate that I can kiss my FMV attempt bye-bye. Hence, I haven’t been running since then to rest them knees so that they can be back to their normal, natural form. Unlike the rest, I have yet to visit any sport injury specialist. The most that I did to nurse them were icing them and spraying them Salonpas spray (goodies from NB15km race). Alhamdulillah, they are doing okay though the pain is still dangling.

I googled the net and discovered the closest description of my knee injury. Most probably, the situation that I am experiencing now is called Poplietus Injury which may have been caused by overusage of poplietus muscle. It may also have been caused by poor biomechanics or movement patterns. Thank god the remedial measures do not involve operation or long rest from running. The website stated that all that one need to do is to rest from aggravating acticities that involves the affected areas and stretch the hamstrings several times a day.

The Popliteus is a small muscle located at the back of the knee joint. It is responsible for internal (medial) rotation of the Tibia (shin bone) as well as for 'unlocking' the knee joint when bending the knee from a fully extended (straightened) position. Essentially it initiates knee flexion (bending).

So it has been 3 days of non-running which has gotten me restless. The runner inside me badly twitches to sweat myself out and to get the usual dose of endorphine and runner’s high but I guess I will be deprived of those for these few days :( I guess I will only try doing a light run next Monday, hoping by then, my knees are gonna be better like brand new. InsyaAllah.

Akhir kata, Love thy body. Your body is a shrine. Worship it. Take care of it!