Matt Keally's Blog

It’s now over ten months since my knee surgery and nearly a year since my knee pain got so unbearable that I was forced to stop running.

I remember thinking last summer that my recovery would be a success if I could run a few miles a day every other day.  I’m now doing that: yesterday I ran 25 minutes at an agonizingly slow 7:00-7:30 pace.  Given my history, that isn’t much at all but I’m glad to be doing it with little or no discomfort.  Supplementing with biking, I feel pretty happy with the way things are going.  A year ago at this point, I felt as if I were doomed.

Occasionally when running, I will feel something down in the joint area on the left (bad) side, but I think it’s mostly IT band.  The IT band on my right side has been tight and nagging at me ever since my left knee blew up a year and a half ago.  The IT band has been the most persistent soft tissue problem I’ve encountered, but I’ve managed to keep it at bay since April 2008 through endless stretching and icing.  It’s probably because I’m still compensating on that side because of the left knee.

The size difference between my left and right leg isn’t noticeable to me anymore.  Following the surgery and being stuck in a brace for 10 weeks, my left leg shrunk down to nothing.  The size difference was incredible, which was what probably contributed to my limp that lasted for several months.  Biking has really helped with regaining strength in my left leg, but it still doesn’t feel quite equal with the right.

Running still feels extremely awkward, but with running more, I’ll adjust and be able to go farther and faster.  The question remains as to how much I can do safely.  The doctor and PT didn’t place too many restrictions on that and even tried to get me back to running faster than I wanted.  Both said that because of the location of the cartilage tear, I would have no difficulty returning to running.  The PT said I shouldn’t do any really hard workouts or compete in races — it seems that those whose microfractures fail occur during really hard efforts.  Of course, my teammate had the same surgery and was able to get through three years without anything going wrong, but I don’t know if that’s a chance I should take.  For now, I’ll gradually add time every week and maybe try longer streaks towards the end of the summer.  Sitting down with my college coach last week, he said I could be in shape to show up to practice and “hammer the freshmen” by the time the fall semester starts.  I don’t know about that.

Interestingly, on my trip back from Rome, I read a novel about a CIA operative that also had to stop running and undergo surgery thanks to missing cartilage.  Like me, he ran until the pain became unbearable.  The author didn’t elaborate as to whether or not the character had microfracture, but it was mentioned that loose pieces were removed.  The surgery was provided as a way for a hit man to try and take out the operative as he recovered at home.  Of course, the character was nearly 40 years old, so at least he had another 15 years of hardcore running under his belt that I won’t ever get.  Not to mention that the whole thing was fictional.