Knee. Borked Again.

    I am beginning to come to the sad conclusion that running is never going to be my body's sport of choice. I have been plagued with injuries this year, even more so than in past years. For months I have been flirting with a case of Runner's Knee. The Mount Hood Scramble took it from mere flirtation to a full-blown relationship about 4 miles into a 6 mile trail run. I knew right away that I should stop, but what do you do when you are still 2 miles out? You just keep going. There was no option, really. On the plus side, I did place second in my age group. On the negative side, here it is, nearly 3 weeks later, and I am still relying heavily on KT Tape. I didn't even get into my crash near the end that split open my elbow.
    I know I made several critical mistakes on The Scramble: First, I didn't wear my Merrell Trail Glove shoes, since I had not done any training runs in them. Instead, I wore my worn out Saucony running shoes that are my pavement pounders. Second, I did not tape my knee beforehand, even though I knew I was close to a bummer knee. Third, I was not as careful on the descents as I should have been. Downhill, especially as steep as in this race, is much harder on the knees than the ascents. This was a brutal race: steep hills of sand, ash, and rock; boulder fields; a long slog on the soft, dry sand of the river bank that had just enough softball sized rocks in it to make it treacherous; multiple river crossings; and did I mention steep hills? Very. Steep. Hills.
    Last Saturday was the Freedom 5K. A simple run on a relatively flat course, following the parade route for the Buckaroo. Hottest g'damned race I have ever run. I figured my knee would be okay, since I had not been able to run, and could barely cycle on the 2 weeks between it and the Scramble. I had my knee taped within an inch of its life, and felt pretty decent about my chances. I knew I would take it slow and easy. My knee griped a bit the first half mile or so, then settled down just fine, but I was being so careful, and trying to run as gently as possible. And hot. It was so, so very hot. A friend, who ran a great time, had heat exhaustion that had her loopy for a few hours afterwards. Despite the knee, and the heat, I did place first in my age group, to my great surprise. My knee felt fine, until about 2 hours after the race and I had that now all too familiar burning pain under my patella. KT Tape has been my constant companion of late.
    I have another race in 8 days. I had signed up for an easy 10K. Last night I contacted the race coordinator to ask if I could be switched over to the 5K, and even that is very likely pushing my luck.
    What does this all tell me? Do I give up running, which means giving up on triathlon? Oh, hell no. I won't give up on triathlon, and especially the Ironman plan. Maybe back off on the mileage? Yes. I will go back to the drawing board, back to basics, back to building foundation strength. There are a lot of exercises I can and will incorporate into my training in order to improve my muscle balance. I can increase strength, flexibility, and muscle stamina without the knee pounding. Hopefully, anyway. I feel like I am taking a giant leap backwards in my training though. But if I can't run, at least I can try to recover. 8 days until my next race, 3 weeks until my next adventure run. If I'm careful, maybe I won't break myself.