I had the best post-injury run so far on Saturday, 12 miles in the Timonium Maryland area. The knee was fine for about the first 8 miles, and after that there was some pain and tightness, but not terrible. I felt like my conditioning had suffered a bit from my two light weeks, but overall very happy with it. A friend also shared some techniques for taking pressure off the knees when going uphills (sit back a bit to use the butt muscles -- to use the medical terms -- and take some weight off the knees) as well as some product recommendations that I think will help. The Gatorade "3" tastes gross, but I drank a bottle after the run and felt more alive afterward, and I would recommend "The Stick" to anyone who is having IT Band trouble -- it's like a portable foam roller and it brought me back from "I'm not sure I can make it back out to my car" to "Ok, that's not too bad" in just a minute of use.
Despite "The Stick", stretching, and foam rolling, I was pretty sore Saturday night and Sunday morning, but not only was this twice as far as I'd gone in two full weeks, but I think I underestimated how hard on the knee a couple hours walking around Hershey Chocolate World later in the day would be. I definitely think I'll be ready for 5-6 miles on Monday or Tuesday, 6-7 on Thursday, and 13-15 on Saturday.
A friend and I are planning to run the Inner Harbor on Saturday, and it will be nice to see how the knee holds up on a mostly flat surface. I don't think I have enough weeks to get my mileage up into the 20s, but I think if I can get back up to 17 or 18 that I can do it. There will probably be some "stop at the medical tent and stretch" breaks during the marathon, but after getting back to the double digits with over a month to go I feel like I've got a shot at this thing again.
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