After 5 weeks of physical therapy, I am not exactly cured. Instead, I have tools and options to manage my knee pain, which I will likely always have. I have pain-free days, which are magical, but since it’s arthritis up in there, it’s not going away anytime soon, or at all.
Which means: no running. My PT said he reallyreallyREALLY does not recommend running, since that will hurt and cause further damage to my poor knees. Walking, biking, elliptical… all that stuff is fine, but running would be too much.
And that’s a bummer. It means I need to rejigger my Ironman goal – I might yet be able to finish one, but I don’t think it’s going to happen before I turn 40. Perhaps I can push it back to 50, which gives me 13 years to train.
Stranger things have happened, though. As I work on my weight loss and keep up with my physical therapy exercises and weight training, my knees might be able to withstand some running. If I could run/walk a marathon in a reasonable time, I might be able to give a triathlon a shot. I could try, anyway.
I’m being good and doing what I’m supposed to do but not running. 80 pounds from now, we’ll re-assess.