Trail race #2 -or- Flirting with injury

I ran my second run on the Ohio Outside Trail Series this past weekend. Saturday was chilly and my friend Eleanor and I had driven through clouds on the turnpike to get there.

The race itself was better than my first experience with this trail, which had been my first experience with trail running altogether. We walked the hills (super steep) and ran as much as my lungs would allow. The course is two loops and for some reason the second loop was MUCH easier than the first. I actually enjoyed the second loop.

We ended up beating my time (yay!) and that put the rest of the day in a glorious light. We went about our day together, got lunch at Square Cafe (delish!), and even hit the Carnegie Museum. Yes, I was still in running clothes; no, I didn't care that some snobby girl made a comment about my choice of attire. I felt like asking her how many miles she ran that day. :-P

As the day wore on, however, my right knee started bothering me. It was tight, then it popped. Then it was tight, then it wouldn't pop even though it felt like it needed to. When I got home that night, I iced it and elevated it for awhile and went to bed.

The next morning I could hardly bend my knee.

What on earth happened? The worst injuries are the ones you don't remember happening. You can't point at some distinct point in time and say, "Yes, at that time, that thing I did, that is what caused this pain." Worse, it's usually my left knee that bugs me because I smashed it pretty good a few years ago when I fell skiing. (My middle name isn't Grace, okay?)

I did some easy stretching on the floor while my dog kept trying to lick my hands and face alternately, and eventually came to the conclusion that I was going to need R.I.C.E. to get this back into shape. Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Yeah, standards of healing. So good.

I knew it wasn't good when I took my dog outside and could hardly get down the three stairs off of my porch. Yikes. To the couch! I propped myself up and got to knitting and watching a little SVU on Netflix (don't judge me). I took the ice off in intervals of 15-20 minutes.

I didn't feel any relief by late afternoon, so I took some ibuprofen. A little anti-inflammatory action helped me at least rest without as much pain.

I repeated the ice routine the rest of the night, wrapped my knee up with an Ace bandage for sleep, and by some magical healing miracle, my knee felt fine on Monday morning. I'm hesitant to declare myself fixed... especially when it hurt SO badly that day. I was ready to go to urgent care... I'm taking it easy this week, though, just so I don't do anything to make it worse.

No running--elliptical machine and bicycling only. That little flirt with injury was enough to make me hope and pray that I never incur an injury that will land me on the sofa for much longer than a weekend.