3 Months, 10 Days

Tuesday was PT day. I told the physio about the medial patello-femoral pain but he couldn't find anything wrong that would stand out on manual investigation. He approved of my plan to keep cycling with decreased intensity and on platform pedals and see if it improves. After that we did a quite intensive exercise session, the theme being balance and coordination taken up a level. This means all the one-legged exercises (touch the opposite leg, extend the opposite leg in different directions, supermans...) but done on a BOSU and with addition of light dumbbells just to make it even harder. Finally he had me balance on one leg, side jump onto a step on the other leg and jump off back into starting position. The physio was positively impressed with my ability to do all the exercises he came up with, and with very good form too. However, we came to the conclusion that I have noticeably better coordination on my right leg, while the left leg is stronger and has more stamina.

Even though I've been regular with gym work and it has shown during this PT session, I have been lagging on these exercises hitting the side glutes and other hip musculature. I know this because for good two days after the session all those muscles were really fatigued and sore. Luckily I will be away for the next three weeks, so I'll have to do more of these types of exercises instead of gym work anyway.

I went for a short and easy ride this Saturday, around 15 km at an easy tempo. The knee still felt a little strange, almost like there's something in between the patella and the femur head that gets irritated on every flexion and extension. I feel this only on the bike, and even then it's not a constant feeling but sort of comes and goes. Not really stressing about it yet, I will monitor it further and only think about going to the ortho if it doesn't improve by the end of next month or so.

It's funny that the IT band is almost being forgotten, even though that's what I'm supposed to be recovering from. It's doing fine, but still letting itself be heard from time to time. At the moment, some of the ligaments toward the front of the IT band and toward the outside edge of the patella are feeling a little sore, like they are now learning to take the increased loads after the band itself was released. It's a new sensation, unrelated to the tension I used to feel in the same general area - the tension has been gone for at least a couple of weeks now. It doesn't feel worrying, I won't be surprised to still be getting phantom aches in the area months from now.