The One Where I Get a Sore Knee and Reveal My New Running Technique

Guess what, dear Readers? I had a bit of tendonitis in my knee at the beginning of this week. I'm just a bit excited because that sort of makes me a runner. And complaining about my tendonitis sounds like something a real marathoner would do. (Except a real marathoner can probably run for more than a couple of minutes which is how I got mine. Which is just a bit sad.)

Fortunately, the lovely Dee is a physiotherapist and has some ultrasound equipment at home so she gave my knee a bit of a going over in her kitchen.  I am laughing in the picture, not because ultrasound is inherently funny, but because the last time I got this close to an ultrasound was shortly after delivering a 4.3kg baby and Dee said something silly (and, frankly, inappropriate) just before this photo was taken. 

The lovely Dee does some ultrasound on my knee. 

In terms of training, I have switched to the Couch Potato to 5kms app, as I said last post. Given the sore knee, I did my first train of the week at Week 2 (which had a maximum of 90 seconds of jogging) just to see how it went. My knee didn't freak out a bit - it kept calm and carried on so I shifted up into Week 3 for the rest of the training week. I thought the three minutes would be hard because I'd only managed it once before but then I got this very helpful advice in an email from the lovely James (yes, I'm calling you lovely, James! Did you ever think that would happen?) about his patented running technique.

"I used to think I could not run continuously but it is because I was doing it wrong.  Technically running occurs when both your feet are off the grounds at regular intervals.  You just need to slow down and do what I like to call the “Nana Shuffle” named primarily after my friend who I run with who is really old (even slightly older than you!) and is therefore referred to as ‘Nana’"

Aaaah, the Nana Shuffle! The secret to jogging success! Somehow calling it the Nana Shuffle took the pressure off - I just imagined myself in sensible shoes and a flowery dress and I managed the three minutes just fine for each training run. I went slowly but I also kept my feet quite low on the ground which made all the difference. Next week, Week 4 of the app, involves a 5 minute jogging period - we'll see how the Nana Shuffle takes me through the hitherto unbroken 5 minute jogging barrier. Thank you James! As a reward I will allow you to donate to WorldVision's SEE project. And hoorah for the Nana Shuffle!

By the way, if you think this sounds like fun and would like to join the New York Marathon team there are still 5 spots left. Registrations for the remaining spots close on Tuesday 8th February. To register interest  visit: www.everydayhero.com.au/event/worldvisionnym2011