Specialist required

This is the third year in a row I've had my "A race" early season.  Apart from not enjoying getting up in the pitch black mornings when the ice is on the pavements or the snow, hail or rain is horizontal as it's driven by a howling wind, I miss the company of my fellow athlete's who are now peaking for their Ironman race.  This means we are out of sync as I couldn't go out for a bike ride with them as they are doing 100 miles when I am doing 30 miles.  They are running 16 -20 miles when I am building from 1.2 miles as I come back from an injury.  Back in March I was running 20 miles and they were running 10 miles - you get my drift.
A visit to the physio this week was painful and depending on how my knee reacts in the next two weeks, may require a visit to a specialist to get a scan to see what the damage actually is.  As time has gone on the pain at the back of my knee has decreased but the pain round the side of my knee and the swelling has increased.  My 1.2 mile jog was enjoyable and really only to test the knee.  It felt fine in a straight line but I had to be careful about the length of stride as I could feel the tension at the back of the knee if I over stretched.  My chi running will come in handy here so I will start to slowly increase the distance and see how it reacts.  I'll stay off the trails until it's better as I feel any sideways movement won't be welcome and could set me back.
I've been accepted for the Oceans Floor Race in Egypt in March 2015, 160 miles non-stop in 4 days, but have told the organisers only once my knee is better will I confirm and pay my deposit.  This will give me a focus to my running training and I can't wait to get back to it while there is still some good weather.  I watched in amazement as three of my running pals completed the full West Highland Way, 95 miles, with the best time between them being 19 hours and 2 minutes!  Now that is seriously amazing and shows just how high the bar can be set if you hang around with such bad company! And when I get back from my holiday, where I will still be training, I must get back to my yoga because if anything is going to keep my "old legs" going, it's got to be yoga. 
And finally let's not forget with all this talk about running, I am preparing for a 10km swim in September.  I've got to keep this at the front of my mind as this is a real challenge and one I need to stay focused on and build up the miles.  It's not being made easy with the Commonwealth Games closing the 50m pool and the OW swim venue but I'll just need to improvise.  This morning I completed 2k in another 50 metre pool and I will continue to build on this over the coming weeks.