On friday, I went to the doctor for my one week, follow up, post op appointment. He said the knee looks pretty healthy and that he cleaned up the meniscus. He said I could push the recovery hard, if any swelling develops--that means back off.
He said my marathon running days are probably over. Because there's been a change inside the knee, running will be different, and that doing 50-70 miles per week, could have consequences over the next 20 years (knee replacement? who knows). Hey, I was never running that much anyway, 30-40 was my typical week for IM training (obviously why my marathon sucked in my IMs). I wonder if I can get by in 70.3s with only 20-25/week? More quality? That could be worse. I don't know. I'm going to wait a couple of months and get my swimming/cycling back to where it was prior to the surgery on 6/19 (see separate post on pre surgery power #s).
So, I start some physical therapy next week. I can start riding once my knee motion is 105 degrees. The purpose of PT is to get my left heel back to my butt.
In terms of recovery, friday I walked slowly without crutches. Saturday and sunday, I was totally mobile. As I look at my recovery after one week, I can honestly say that once I was post op for 48 hours, I could feel/see marked improvements every 8-10 hours. So, I was only out of commission for about a week. I should be in the pool middle of the 2nd week and on the bike riding flats easy by the 2nd weekend. Not too bad. Not sure when I can run/jog again, but no rush--2009 season is totally blown!
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