TI Chronicles: Injury and Beyond

In the natural history of running injuries, I've now crossed into phase IV - recurrence - also known as the backslide, or using pyschological metrics - despondency (mostly joking; mostly).

After charting some good rebuilding following a largely run-less winter, things descended quickly last week, with my knee turning to stabbing pain sooner and sooner on each successive run.  And while I can't say I'm surprised, since I hadn't really let myself look too far ahead, it was still a jarring turnaround.

The shock has brought some things to light.

• The knee injury is more serious than I'd considered, and it's time for some heroic measures to figure out what it is and to get it fixed if I want to salvage any part of the 2010 season.  
• Western States is almost assuredly out.  If all the time off this winter didn't fix the issue, and the knee is now worse than it was in November, it seems pretty clear that I won't have time to resolve the problem and then build up enough to toe the line come June 26.  It's hard to even put that down on the screen, and I haven't cancelled my hotel reservation yet, but the writing on the wall seems clear barring an otherworldly turnaround.  
• I need to write regularly about my experiences, observations, and possible insights as I work through this injury.  Hence, The Injury Chronicles.  

The goal is not to validate my whining and sniveling by slapping a label on it.  Rather, it is to explore the injury side of my running life (which may have a little whining and sniveling), much like Run Junkie proper is used to explore the running and racing part of my running life.

Stay tuned for more TIC, or avoid it altogether.  You've been warned.