Snow Days & Knee Procedures

Snowed here in Richmond. Not like it usually "snows" in Richmond,which would be a dusting that people freak out over for no good reason. No this was "real snow", snow a New Englander could understand and appreciate. Snow that people could find impressive, even if they worked for the Weather Channel. Snow - 14 inches at my house, in about 12 hours. Very impressive.

Of course, the bad thing about getting snow on average 3+ inches per year (meaning, 14 inches 1 year and nothing for 4 years) is that we don't really have proper snow removal equipment in Richmond. Additionally, people here don't know how to drive in it. I generally stay home to protect my family and car insurance premiums for days of snowmen, snow angels, snow ball fights, sledding and stuff like that. I am so fortunate to live on a lot that's a hill, because, did I mention that most of Richmond is FLAT?

Snow usually deters all but the craziest runners, so I didn't miss the group run this week. Since I'm not running, I did some cross training instead... sledding. Intense uphill walking in slick conditions are pretty tough on the knee. I asked my Dr., but he laughed about it and said he was cool with the intense uphill walking because any other answer would not be acceptable to my children who were in the room giving him the EYE.

Speaking of my AWESOME DR WHO I LOVE MORE THAN... well, A LOT... I went back to him and he thinks that I might be running again by early January! YEsssssssssssss! While I was there we were discussing other things, and he was causally digging his thumb into my knee so much that I suddenly, in mid sentence, could not speak. No worries, he picked up where I left off. The knee feels pretty good, for a knee that's been seriously abused on a sled & hill at any rate.

Dr. G aka the Witch Dr, said that he would let me start running early Jan IF I promised to stop and stretch after every mile in a specific way. "OK, YES!" Basically he's wondering if some of the other things that lead to my foot injury and ultimately took out my knee are connected to having tight hips.... (Hips Tight= Low Back Pain = adjust stride= Foot Injury= Adjust stride= Hip Pain= Adjust stride= Knee Pain/IT BAND issues/Tight Hamstrings ...which isn't what I have exactly, but I KNOW PEOPLE who do - and you KNOW WHO YOU ARE). It's so funny because a friend of mine said she was just talking to another friend of mine about how women runners with knee issues tend to have OTHER problems that get missed by Dr's because they're not REALLY KNEE ISSUES.

To be honest, the crazy stretch he showed me felt so good that I might have to show Rach & T for SS classes. Seriously. It's such a "mom" stretch.