7 months and 28 days since my last run.
But today, I'm feeling very upbeat. After almost 8 months, my knee is finally starting to feel normal and for the last couple of weeks I have been going for easy-paced 45 minute walks every other day. This morning, as I was winding up my 45 minute session, I decided to break in to a jog during the last 1 minute. It was a super-short & sweet 150 meters but I can't begin to describe how good it felt! I'm positive that I will be running more by the end of this month. :) (fingers crossed).
The last I checked, (early May) the cyst was gone but it had left behind some mild sprain to the ligament and tissues in its wake. All my research indicated that a grade I injury to the ACL (which does not involve a tear), like in my case, is only a minor stretching of the ligament and would typically get back to normal with adequate rest and wouldn't require surgery. But more information with regards to healing time & exercises or treatments to aid in healing was almost impossible to find. I'm guessing thats how "minor" an injury this is considered to be.
But I persisted, and came across a couple of videos and articles for returning to running of which, I found one video to be the most helpful and I'm linking it up here. The video talks about rehab exercises for a torn acl but works just as well for a less severe sprain like mine. This particular article too I found useful because it explained specifically about sprains as opposed to tears which is what majority of acl injury related articles is all about.
The return to running plan, in brief, talks about walking for 45 minutes at a stretch at a reasonable pace. If you can do this without feeling a strain, you can then slowly progress to running by incorporating small stretches of it at a time. This was my 10 week plan:
But I persisted, and came across a couple of videos and articles for returning to running of which, I found one video to be the most helpful and I'm linking it up here. The video talks about rehab exercises for a torn acl but works just as well for a less severe sprain like mine. This particular article too I found useful because it explained specifically about sprains as opposed to tears which is what majority of acl injury related articles is all about.
The return to running plan, in brief, talks about walking for 45 minutes at a stretch at a reasonable pace. If you can do this without feeling a strain, you can then slowly progress to running by incorporating small stretches of it at a time. This was my 10 week plan:
Week 1: 45 min walk at easy, comfortable pace x 3
Week 2: 45 min walk at medium / brisk pace x 3
Week 3: 450m walk + 50 m run x 8 x 3
Week 4: 400m walk + 100 m run x 8 x 3
Week 5: 350m walk + 150 m run x 8 x 3
Week 6: 2 min walk + 1 min run x for 45 min x 3
Week 7: 1.5 min walk + 1.5 min run x for 45 min x 3
Week 8: 1 min walk + 2 min run x for 45 min x 3
Week 9: 1 min walk + 3 min run for 45 min x 3
Week 10: 1 min walk + 4 min run for 45 min x 3
Week 1 I was walking at a comfortable pace which for me was a speed of 4.7 - 4.8 kmph which meant I was doing about 3.5 - 3.6 km in the 45 minutes.
Week 2 I upped the speed to about 5.1 - 5.3 kmph which meant I was doing about 4 km in the 45 minutes.
From Thursday, I will be beginning Week 3 and I've got my hopes up high for it. And once I'm in the thick of the program, I will know how soon I can transition to non-stop running or if I need to extend the 10 week plan.
Well, here goes...
