This week started off great as I hit the roads armed with plenty of enthusiasm and with my brand-new fancy watch on my wrist that told me my pace, tracked my distance and calories and timed my intervals – Splendid!  I started off well and managed a five mile circuit of a nice-paced walk (chest out, head up, walking with purpose) and then jogs for two minutes and walks for four (for about 45 minutes)...

I was doing alright and was pretty surprised by my lack of panting - Don’t get me wrong I was breathing pretty heavily but it wasn’t quite as ‘Darth Vader-esque’ as normal.

My jogs were at a pretty good pace, I think that the fact that I was trying to keep up with the super hot guy jogging in front of me definitely helped…So, all was going well and I was feeling good…Until about five minutes before the end of my circuit when my knee gave out on me.  DISASTER!  It felt like it was going to buckle and I literally had to hobble home and was in quite a bit of pain.  Not good.

I’ve always had problems with my knees but having never really done any serious amount of walking / jogging I’ve been able to ignore them quite happily over the years.  However, now that I’m out there and trying to become a ‘runner’ my knees (especially my right one) are really bothering me.

So, I booked an appointment with my doctor straight away and she confirmed that I definitely had something afoot (or aknee – Boom boom) and that my ligaments were swollen, so she referred me to Dr. Amanda Van Dyk at The Davinci Centre.  I had my first appointment with Amanda two days ago and am going back for another ‘torture session’ today (just kidding, she is absolutely lovely but we agreed that she would be pretty aggressive and 'hands on' with me). Amanda gave me a really good going over and poked and prodded and twisted and turned my knee.  Then armed with what looked like a rolling pin she attacked my knee with vigour - Yowza!!!!

I was a bit wrried that I wouldn’t get a diagnosis as the pain was really hard to describe and pin-point but Amanda is excellent and really knows her stuff.  It turns out that I have a Patellar tracking disorder, which in layman’s terms means that the thingie-wotsit that joins my hip to my knee is too tight and it’s pulling my knee-cap to the right, rather than the left and is causing it to feel like its buckling and giving me pain (or something like that).

I’m super frustrated as all I want to do is get out there and really start my training and build up my runs but at the moment my knee is really holding me back.  Amanda tells me that as the marathon is still a good few months away, with proper exercises and physiotherapy I will be able to cross that finish line.  This is music to my ears.  Its frustrating to me that I can’t get out there and build up my intervals but at the same time, I know that I have to take it easy and that I don’t want to damage my knee further.

I have my second appointment today so lets see what Amanda has in store for me…