Admitting you have a problem is the first step...

OK sorry about the picture...that was a weak attempt at trying to convince myself that my problem is really nothing.

About a month and a half ago, I was playing softball and, when diving in a fruitless attempt at a fly ball, I banged my knee hard on the outfield turf. It hurt pretty bad when it happened, but I walked it off and didn't think much of it. The next day, my knee continued to hurt, but for whatever reason, running didn't seem to really affect it, so I just continued on my merry way and ignored it. I didn't play softball for a couple of weeks because of a break in the schedule and the knee seemed to improve. The pain slowly went away until I hardly noticed it at all. Then last Tuesday, I played softball again, and the next day, the knee pain was back in full force. I have continued to run on it and even set my half-marathon PR without any real ill effects from it, but it continues to hurt anytime I do anything that isn't straight ahead running or walking. The slightest turn of the knee to the side, and BAM…pain.

So today, I broke down and made an appointment at the orthopedic doctor. I haven't been to any doctor in many years, so just the fact that I made an appointment should tell you that I'm not entirely comfortable with what's going on down there. Hopefully, I'll go in there, the doctor will look at it, tell me to stop playing softball and everything will be fine. Heck, he can even tell me to stop running and I'll be happy. I won't listen to him, but I'll be happy. I'm really just concerned that there's something torn in there. My hope is that if something was torn it would be too painful to allow for any type of running, but I don't know if that's true or not. I guess I'll find out Monday.

Did 9 miles this morning at a relaxed pace. Nothing really to write home about. The plan is to get in a long run of at least 20 miles either late tonight or tomorrow morning. The kids have been waking up at insanely early hours lately, so it would be nice to knock the 20 out tonight, and then be able to get up with the kids in the morning, to allow my pregnant wife some sleeping time. With all the insanity going on lately, sleep is a pretty rare commodity in our household.