As we get older body parts complain more often

Yesterday morning (Tuesday) I woke up with my right knee feeling a little ‘thicker’ than it should be…I’ve had a lingering issue with that knee for the past 3 years…torn medial meniscus…although generally it just gets a bit sore and a bit swollen from time to time, particularly after long runs.

I had planned to do a long run for 1:30, _could_ have done nothing, but by the end of the day, decided to ‘test’ it out to see how bad it was…took a little jog for 35 minutes, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, although something going on, so kept it short.

I was trying to think about what might have flared it up, since I haven’t been doing much running in the past week…at least compared to where it’s been.

On Monday, my wife had surgery, so I was sitting around most of the day, took out the mountain bike late in the day for an hour, playing around jumping logs for practise…so maybe a bit more knee pressure, although it’s not really pounding like running…or carrying my wife into the house from the surgery…although nothing that felt like it was being bothered…so who knows…something though.

It reminds me that the Masters athlete, in our quest for fitness, glory, or whatever drives us faces the additional challenge of improving fitness in the face of increased recovery times and body parts that need more TLC to keep them going, and more down time when they’re complaining.

…and of course, always the option of surgical solutions that often promise a lot, but come with an inherent risk that it may just not work out like it says in the brochure…a 90% success rate, means that 10% are probably _very_ cranky with the outcome.

Of course, sometimes the decision is clear…my wife decided to have knee surgery because it was becoming painful to walk, and workout at the gym.  Today her knee is still sore…2 days after surgery…but at least on the mend, with the expectation to be ‘back to normal’ in  couple of weeks…so that’s good.

This week therefore, I’m once again in the role of nurse…not a particularly good role for me…my wife is a poor patient, and I’m a lousy nurse, so a bit of added tension as she’s on the mend.

…so I also know from experience that ‘life stress’ has a negative impact on my workouts and recovery, so I need to factor that in so that I don’t overtax my body and brain

..and then get sick, which is how my body has been known to react when I push the total stress ‘number’ past the limits.

So for the knee thing, for me…for now…I’ll pull back on the log jumping for a while, pull back the running mileage for a week, add ice, and see how it goes 🙂

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