Running again: the recovery

The 33 miler in May was very hard work - but I was out running again for short distances just a week later.
I straight away put in some short runs in the Lake District and Highlands (where I was on business), and returned to my usual lunch time course, and later in June added some longer (just 10km or so) runs around the countryside near my parents' place in Northern France.

During the 33 miler, I'd injured my left knee - the ligaments for flexing my knee and to a lesser extent, the ankle, were strained and sore. At times in the 33 miler, in the last few miles, I was limping along in pain - but intermittently I was able to run on it.
After the run, walking was mildly painful. Driving home was horrible - every gear change was painful as I worked the clutch. But after just one day, the pain was low enough to carry on normally, and - as I said - I started running again the following week.

What's caught up with me now however, is that the knee hasn't fully recovered. Those longer runs have fired it off again - it seems that the 5 to 6 km routes were not enough to strain the ligaments, but the increased distances were.

So, I have more short distances planned, and more strengthening exercises for the knee. Something like this happened with my right knee about 18 months ago, and that recovered fine after a few months of relative rest and shorter routes.

What counts most is that I keep exercising somehow.