Last night (20/2/20) was the first net of the season and I didn't really hold back. Batted twice and bowled for the 2 hours. I was surprised a bit at how unfit I felt generally. The knee held out all night, towards the end it felt affected e.g. not 100%, so I mixed coming off a longer run up (12 steps) with my old 2-3 steps approach.
Drove home and half expected to feel worse getting out of the car, but it wasn't too bad. The rest of the evening it stiffened up a bit and I took some Ibuprofen before going to bed.
This morning I've got up and it feels a little sore, but a long way short of being totally crippled as was the case in the last game in September. Today, I've been continuing with my rehab exercises, but nothing that involves impact, just exercises that build the strength in the muscles around the knee.
I'm going to take it easy over the next few days and see how the discomfort continues. If it takes longer than expected to recover, I'll consider not going to nets next week and up the physio regime as well as general fitness, hopefully bringing in some cardio work. Overall though I'm feeling quite positive at the prospect of playing in May at this point.
I'm going to do this Gibbs style from now on...
27/2/20 - What happened? All week I worked on my physio and slowly the soreness dissipated. This Thursday I batted twice and bowled a handful of balls (9) off of a 3 step walk in.
How do i feel it went? It's pretty much gone to plan with regards the idea that I'd do the physio and avoid bowling tonight as there's no increase in lack of mobility or swelling.
What was good/bad? I bowled 9 balls off of a 3 step walk-in bowling leg-breaks and got a wicket or 2 through a clean bowled pitched outside of leg-hitting top of off and another off of a stumping chance. Nothing really bad, just that I'd rather be bowling properly.
Analysis; The theory is if I work on strengthening the muscles around it'll stablise the knee and make it less susceptible to further injury or consistent injury. Having bowled properly on 20/2/20 and then suffering a minor relapse, I've been happy to rest the knee this week. I feel that if I'd taken Ibuprofen I may have been able to bowl off the 14 step run in at full pelt, but the consequence of that would have more than likely been further damage. Instead I bowled using a sidearm and bowled 9 leggies off of a short step in a la Terry Jenner.
I batted twice and that didn't have any adverse affect.
Action plan; I'm looking forward to the weather clearing up and getting slightly warmer as that'll give me an opportunity to get off the train either earlier and walk from the station before my stop. Or get off mid-way on my journey and walk between the two stations with the nicest views (Chalkwell and Leigh-on-Sea. Other than that continue with my warm up and physio exercises this week, trying to stay on track with it, but I have to admit I find it really tedious.
8/3/20
What happened? Sporadic physio with decent amounts of rest. There's no nets for a couple of weeks which mean no real heavy impact on the knee.
How do I feel it's going - Pretty well, there was a point just before writing that it felt normal.
What was good/bad? - The weather has improved and I've discovered a new walking route that I'd never considered before that has a number of benefits.
Analysis - I've not been going at it full-on, with a couple of months till I have to play I'm more inclined to take the bowling easy in the nets and focus on my batting, from what I'm researching there's a tendency to recover and then go backwards by over-exerting yourself and being too optimistic about the recovery process. The focus therefore is to take it easy and very slowly re-introduce the bowling and running with an increase in walking and cycling in order to build up the muscles around the knee.
On the Friday just gone the weather was good and I got out of work at 4.30 and there was plenty of light and I got off at Westcliff and walked to Chalkwell via the beach. This is definitely the way to go, the walk is pleasant and not too long it may even be a little short of the 20 mins that I aim to do each time I go for a walk. One advantage though is there is the option to walk across sand and pebbles meaning there's a different dynamic to the way that the knee has to work in this situation and I can only imagine that's going to help as it's low impact?
It also gives me the option of going at it quite fast to work on cardio as well as a general fitness, so it's a win win situation as far as I can make out.
