Mo' Walking

Daily Quote: "The reason walking is so valuable after an injury is that while you've been recovering the soft tissues surrounding the injured area have tried to mitigate the damage by functioning differently than normal. The muscles surrounding your injury work harder to keep the injured part from going through too much motion. Thus, other muscles are doing their jobs and assisting their injured comrade. Also, when a muscles has been injured your brain doesn't want to move that muscle. So it recruits other muscles to do the work." --From the book, "Running Injury-Free," by Joe Ellis, D.P.M.

I've been walking everyday this week at the airport "pit" as cab business has been extremely slow this month. Walking has definitely been keeping me sane, especially when the urge to run becomes very strong...my knee is in not prepared to run yet.

Allen had send me a suggestion of going to a health food store and get a tube of Arnica gel or cream. Allen states that "Arnica is really great for muscle injuries. It is made from the Arnica flower. Put it on your knee two or three times a day. Roll up your pant leg, rub it in, and let it dry for two or three minutes until it has soaked in. Great stuff!" I'll be picking up Arnica on the way to work this afternoon.

Boscho had posted the following on my last post's comment section:
OK, I don't know are you in the mood to discuss your knee injury at this point? I don't want to push or bother you too much but I think it's not that bad. According to what you said there are a lot of elements for optimism:
-You didn't notice any pain at the moment of injury
-Your knee has no bruises, nor is it swollen
-Your knee has no pain when walking on level ground or uphill
Where exactly did you get a "heavy bag kick"?
What was the location and size of "contact area"?
What was the position of your leg at that moment?
Have you had any problem with that knee before?

The answers to Boscho's questions are:
--The impact was at the lower half portion of the kneecap and upper shins.
--If I recall correctly, I was just turning around from putting a back in the trunk and almost fully standing up with a turning motion when the hit occurred
--I've never had a problem with the right knee before, but my left knee was once bruised from tripping on a cattle guard when I was at the Cal Poly Running Camp several years ago.

I've received many uplifting comments from running friends on facebook, fellow bloggers, and the about.com running forum, which was most welcomed!! Runners are fantastic people!

Today I visited the gym at 9:00 a.m. and did my typical weight circuit routine without the lower body workouts. I have continued to do light weights with higher repetitions as to become stronger without the huge bulk.

I was able to swim for 30 minutes! I mixed up the swimming so it wouldn't be so boring: 10 minutes freestyle, 10 minutes backstroke, and the last 10 minutes was the breast stroke. Swimming is my least favorite exercise activity, although I realize that swimming is a very good overall conditioning exercise as it works my legs as well as my upper body with no impact.