2 days before the Teach First 2012 Challenge 10K I have been kept up all night by an old enemy. After the second time I broke my left knee come winter I would suffer from terrible pain in my medial collateral ligament. How this manifests itself is that, when the weather changes – normally from hot to cold – the interior side of my left knee starts to ache. Now, if I catch this quickly I strap it up with an Ace bandage and then pop some Ibuprofen.

However, this does not always work, and the ligament swells up and the knee stiffens to a point where I cannot bend it without a considerable amount of pain. This is pretty bad and it will stop me from sleeping.

Strapping it up and taking Iburofen here is a little after the horse has bolted and I need to walk off the injury for about half hour.

This again, stops me from sleeping, but is far better than it used to be. Soon after the accident my knee would swell as it does now. Then the bursas around the top of the knee in the quadracep muscle would swell up and try to bend the knee one way. Then a Baker Cyst behing the knee would swell up in response and try to bend it back. This would happen all the time when cold, when sitting, or standing for any lengthy period of time. I am so glad it is a) infrequent and b) just the MCL sprain.