Straytch

Image from Social Petworking

I think I mentioned earlier that I've been going to a physical therapist. See, even before I started running I had pain in my right knee. Just my right knee, a little below the kneecap. I do have arthritis, but since the pain is not symmetrical I was told that it wasn't caused by that. And I agreed because the pain definitely feels different from my arthritis pain and stiffness.
Anyway, after waiting forever to go see a physical therapist (avoiding reality, me?), I finally went in this summer. And? Tendonitis. Nothing elaborate. Basically I was doing absolutely the wrong thing. I leaned to the left to avoid putting pressure on my right leg. This caused my left knee to take more of my weight than my right and may have had something to do with a very bad groin injury I developed last November. And by not putting my weight on my right leg the muscles there were undeveloped. And the way to avoid pain was to have strong thigh muscles.
The end result to the above is that for the last month I have been walking evenly and have found that the pain is mostly gone. When it does come it's very short in duration and I can adjust my leg to the correct position to make it go away.
In addition to walking evenly I'm focusing on stretching. I've never been one to do static stretching; I do dynamic stretching before I run because I can really feel my legs wake up. But slow stretching after? I don't have time for that! Or I didn't used to - now I make the time. And honestly? A good stretch is good for the body and mind. I did a stretching session after a short run this week and I felt so loose, relaxed, and happy.
I might finally get into yoga after thinking about it for a long time. But in the short term, a good stretch is doing me a world of good.