It's been an up and down couple of weeks for me in my ACL rehab. Three weeks ago I was advised I could start jogging again, I started out with some gentle 1 mile runs building to 2miles pretty quickly but at a very slow pace. I did this a couple of times in the first week and started to get a sharp pain in my left shin. Pain on the inside edge and close to the ankle. I was gutted as this felt like an old injury that I thought the long lay-off would have resolved.
After the Gloucester Marathon in January 2010 I was unable to run as had really bad pain through my shin and ankle, it basically felt like my left ankle was set in concrete - zero flexibility and give. This was incredibly painful for me to run on.
I started physio which was working but then very quickly ruptured my ACL meaning an enforced lay-off. The silver lining I was expecting was that the 6-9month lay-off would cure me of other issues. Any niggles, my left achilles for example used to get sore would resolve themselves through good old fashioned rest.
You can therefore imagine how I felt when after 1 week back pavement pounding I was seemingly back where I was 9 months earlier. A fixed ACL but the same old injury. I raised it with my physio's who suggested I get a podiatry referral from my GP to have my gait analysed properly. I did this and have an appointment a week today. I also took the decision to rest from jogging for 2 weeks.
The results have been startling! I ran a total of 9 miles last week with the longest run being 2.7 miles. I am looking to build to 5km (sorry to mix my units!) at the end of this week. Importantly I have no knee pain and no shin/ankle/achilles pain. What I have also done in this delayed comeback is concentrate on my form. I am focusing on running straight, as opposed to leading with a strong leg, I am also concentrating on a mid/forefoot strike pattern - both are easy to implement when running slow and also when starting almost from scratch.
I have time to start slow and steady with good technique not worrying about pace and performance. There was a quote I read from one of the guys that founded Cervelo that is "...fast enough to get through the forest, slow enough to see the trees..." that quote brilliantly sums up what I, and many many others, love about running. It's great to be back!
