Knee Update

After not running for over two weeks to let my knee heal, I got on the treadmill to test it out. The prognosis: good.

I felt like I had to relearn how to run for the first couple of minutes, but after that I was running normally. None of the strange cadence that was happening the last time I tested the knee out--and wound up reaggravating as a result--was apparent. There was very minor tightness in the area that wasn't painful but was just there. I managed to run a 10 minute pace for 15 minutes (1.5 miles). I could have gone on longer but I didn't want to push it. I jumped off and finished the rest of my workout on the elliptical machine. I did that for 30 minutes.

Most promising of all was the fact that I was able to stretch my left quad with no impingement from my knee. I didn't stretch it too hard, but the range of motion is mostly back. I would say that I'm at 95% and by next week I hope to start running longer miles again and putting more stress on the knee. It felt great to run again, especially after all the food I consumed this weekend.

I'm not out of the woods yet. I'll see how it feels when I wake up tomorrow. If it feels good I'll go for another treadmill run tomorrow. Things are getting better.

Easter weekend was good. Nothing special. On Saturday night a group of us met for a movie night. Wound up watching Talladega Nights, which made it the third go around for me. It's not as funny the third time.

Last night I watched Michael Haneke's Cache. It's a gripping, well-made film but it's also a tad overrated. Haneke doesn't answer all the questions raised by the film, which is fine and good, but the film's plot points probably won't hold up to scrutiny otherwise. A character does something shocking, but at the end you wonder why he did that. Haneke's answer seems to be that it doesn't matter. The character did what he did and the viewer is not owed an explanation. True, but the shocking nature of the act seems made to provoke the viewer rather than illuminate, so that it's not so much a natural act but a directorial ploy to shock the viewer. I recommend the film, though. Its discourse on voyeurism, xenophobia, and the relations between France and Algeria are intriguing and well-rendered, but there is a hint of manipulative filmmaking at work, too.