u/mossgreem

After my last run on Wednesday my knees were suddenly very painful and stiff, so much that it was difficult to walk. I was nearly limping on Thursday and decided not to risk starting week 3 as planned yesterday. Luckily I was able to get an appointment with a physio this morning.

So the bad news is she's strongly recommended I take a week off running (pretty much what I expected), but the good news - no real injury, I've just put strain on my muscles and tendons from doing a little too much too fast. I've been given some daily exercises to do this week and hopefully I'll be able to restart soon.

I'm a little disappointed as I was hoping to go straight through the programme and celebrate my C25k graduation the same week as my birthday (love it when dates line up in satisfying ways), but...oh well! I want to do this right and since the physio gave me something else to focus on in the meantime, I feel less like I'm on hiatus and more like I'm doing a bit of extra credit ;D

Just did my second run of week 2 and honestly it was a struggle! Maybe because I took two days' break twice in a row (to shift my schedule to MWF)? Maybe just because I slept terribly last night? Or because it's the warmest day I've run yet? I know I've seen folk here saying sometimes you just have off days and it's something you've got to deal with as a runner.

Trying to reframe and look at the positives though. I didn't make excuses, I still got out there and did it. And, this is a big one — I have a click in my knee that has been getting progressively "crunchier" since my mid-20s (I am 30 now), with occasional pain/discomfort. My GP when asked about this simply shrugged and said "see a physio if you want, but there's not much you can do about it." And yet!! Since I started running, I noticed it clicks less often/loudly, hasn't been hurting, and today I walked back up the stairs to my flat without crunching for the first time in years! I don't expect to see a lot of physical improvements from running right away, but seeing this change so early on in the programme is a great bit of positive reinforcement.

Also, today was my first run where I didn't get precipitated on at any point LOL. I actually kind of missed the excitement of all the random bursts of hail and snow!