Dr... Who!?!

Visited the hospital today for an my 3 month check up appointment with Dr Orthotic! This also means it must be 3 months since I went on the trek! Times flies...

"How's your knee?" he asked in a Glasgow drawl.
"still the same pain"
"You been wearing your orthotics?"
"Nah no really. They don't really fit into my trainers and you said not to put them in the boots"
"You got yout trainers there? let me see them"

He inserted the orthotics under the insole of the trainers I've spent £85 on and proceeds to tell me that the shops will sell you 'running shoes with plenty of support' but that they don't actually work that well. He can tell Mr Asics that then cos I ain't!

"There, go and walk up and down the corridor see how that feels..."
"aye, feels ok"
"Ok I want you to try wearing them when you're running or exercising and hopefully you'll wake up one day and the pain will be gone"!!!!! "I'll get you back in another 3 months for a check up"
Does he think he's God or something??

And that was the end of my appointment. I timed it on my watch and the whole thing took around 6 minutes. I've been walking about in my running shoes all day at work to get used to these damn blue orthotics. Heading to the gym tonight to try them out on the treadmill - we'll see what happens then.

I'm beginning to get really frustrated with this pain in the a... knees! The good thing is it's taking less time for it to recover. This time last year it would take a week, now it's taking about a day. Was out hill-walking on Saturday and the pain was gone by Sunday evening - great! I sometimes get the impression people think I'm having phantom pains and making it up as it only comes on when exercising/hill-walking but honestly it is there. I can't really describe it except it's a jagging pain on impact just below the knee on the outside - worse on decents. All down to my tight IT bands!! Does anyone else ever get this problem or has had this problem? If you're out there - HELP!! - let me know cos I'd like to know how you deal with it and if it will ever go away. Give me some good news??

Speaking of running shoes I spent a nice day out with my Dad yesterday on another one of my days off. He was looking for new trainers for his holidays. We went to Go Outdoors as he wanted to get a few bits an bobs for the caravan too (yes, 'tis true, they own a caravan - oh the shame! ha ha). Anyway we were perusing the boots/shoes/gutties and this blue pair just jumped right out at me. I tried them on and they fitted like a glove. A pair of Inov-8 Roclite 305. Very nice indeed. Dead comfortable. Quite light. Dad tried them on too, yes he's the same size as me, a 4 (he's only a wee Dad and actually he takes a 5 now ha ha). They were indeed a fine pair of shoes but I resisted the urge to buy them and he wasn't offering. I'll try to make up my mind soon whether or not they're worth taking a chance on.

But onwards... i'll continue with the stretches the physio gave me last week. I'll keep on trying to run - intervals just now no marathons! I'll continue the hill-walking. I'll keep doing the lunges & squats (helps your knees apparently and *geek alert* the squat is actually beneficial as it's nature's intended sitting position!). I'll hope this thing gets beaten... one day

Ange xx