I’m convinced that physical therapists actually know what they’re doing.  Not that I thought they were useless before, but I’d just never been to one and always tried to treat my injuries myself.  I know, how silly of me.  But when you have awesome medical insurance like we do, I don’t really think twice anymore about going to see a specialist when I know I won’t have to pay anything.

My therapist, whom I shall henceforth call P.T. Joe, has been a huge help in getting my knee rehabilitated while still letting me feed my need for running.  And actually for the injury that I have, P.T. Joe says its best to keep conditioning the knee through running, to keep the tendons regenerating and active.  Or something like that.

I won’t argue with that thought.  He put me on a daily regimen of squatting and hopping drills followed by icing (not the cake frosting, the cold solid water kind).  Basically, I’m going back to my elementary school days and doing hopscotch and standing long jump.  I get some weird looks when I’m at the park, but it seems to be helping, so I keep on hopping. 

We discussed my marathon training, and I love that he encouraged me in continuing my effort, as long as I do a run/walk method.  So that’s what I’ve been doing and it’s worked great. 

Today I did a 20 mile training run like this:

run 3, walk .5, run 3.5, walk .5, run 4, walk .5, run 3.5, walk .5, run 3, walk 1

Not only did my knee hold up well, but it made the distance not seem as far, knowing that I’d get a walk break soon.  This shall be my plan for the marathon.  I’m not worried at all about a finishing time, but at least now I’m optimistic that me knee will be okay.  (Hopefully.) 

I came home from today’s run over 3 hours later and Todd had an ice bath ready for me.  Such a sweetie It sounds torturous, but it’s absolutely necessary after that long of a run and I could not wait to get home and take one.  Oh, it felt so good.  He even had a freshly warmed towel for me when I finished showering.  I couldn’t ask for a more supportive husband. 

So 4 weeks left to go, I think I’m finally ready to do this thing.