Just writing a quick update as I realised we're coming up to a month since my last post and I'm off on holiday at the end of the week (hooray!) so it will be well into the middle of October before I get chance to do so again.
There's not a huge amount to report as I haven't been back in the gym for a couple of weeks, other than for a couple of 30 minute cycling sessions.
There are a couple of reasons for that: the first of which I can't go into at the moment (yes, yes, I know, true social media style, attention-seeking drip feed - I will update in due course, promise, so you don't need to respond with an 'Aw, hun, what's happening / Take care babe / Hugs / DM me' or similar!); and the second being because I've been having a few knee niggles when I have been in so taking some down time is probably not a bad thing for a few weeks anyway.
In terms of the niggles, these have been four-fold:
1) I'm getting a weird sensation of something on the outside of my knee sliding back and forward when I do hamstring curls. I'm guessing IT band, which could be tight and rubbing (and if you think I'm foam rollering it after the mac procedure, you have another thing coming!), or maybe it's the mac structure itself? It doesn't hurt, just doesn't feel particularly pleasant as it shifts from front the front of the knee to the back as I do the 'curl'. It could be just a niggle from ramping up the weights a fraction too quickly so I'll reassess when I get back into it all properly again.
2) I've also been getting some pain (intermittent) at the top of my lower leg (anterior) - quite sharp when I get up to walk (although less so since I haven't been in the gym) so hopefully that will right itself in due course too.
3) Having stopped the running in favour of cycling while I was getting the nighttime searing pain (which is still happening a couple of times a week), last time I went in, the knee started grumping the moment I started cycling too, leading to a 'FFS' from me.
4) Finally, I can feel something shifting in my knee/lower leg when I swing my leg across in front of my body, from the outside in e.g. if trying to kick my daughter's toddler step out of the way in the kitchen. It feels as though the muscle/soft tissue on the inside of the knee isn't supporting it properly so again, hopefully some down time (and continuing quad setting if nothing else) will let that all settle down again.
You're probably thinking, why doesn't she just go and get it looked at but with other things going on there's really not much point at the moment, plus I really am beginning to feel like a raging hypochondriac where this is concerned and I do have some pride!
Anyway, in the absence of live updates, I have realised that I haven't updated people on the Running Down Dementia challenge I was doing for Alzheimer's Research (running 100k by the end of the summer). Having been back through the photos of my cardio session summaries, I can confirm that I've actually covered 170km, although only about 70km of that was running, with the rest being bike sessions when I was giving the knee a break. I'm not sure if that counts or not but the target was still to raise £100 and I've been monumentally rubbish (polite version) at promoting it this time so if anyone's reading this and would like to help me towards the total, it's a great cause, run, walk or pedal!