Ok, so when i got home last night, I was feeling like I was ready to try to run. I didn't want to wait til morning--when my knee is generally at its best after a full night's sleep--let's do it now! I was pumped. Got all ready and geared up, put "Go, Diego, Go" on for the girls, rationalizing that with the 25-minute show, I could get in two miles.
And then I ran. And it was killing me! My knee was hurting something fierce. And two miles turned into about 1/10....so I just walked. I walked at the threshold for where my knee felt ok to where my knee was hurting. Just under that pain level, it seemed, and that was 3.8 mph.
And my girls still yelled "Run Mommy Run", sweet gesture. I even put on a second episode so I could walk a little more. So for today, I'm counting a walk...not sure if this will count towards my total at all, I guess it really shouldn't, so here are the stats of Walk #1.
On Friday, June 20, 2008 at about 8:30pm….I broke my 42 days without having had a drop of diet pepsi.Why you ask?My husband couldn’t figure out why I was in such a crabby mood.After all, I’d had the day off.I’d cleaned out my little room in the house and reorganized all of my cookie cutters, supplies and other stuff, and with no 2-year old or 4-year old in the way.I spent the afternoon in front of the tv, watching my beloved White Sox.Watching them lose to the Cubs.I was mad!So Friday evening when hubby and his friend went out to run a quick errand I said, “pick me up a diet pepsi.”Silent pause.“Are you sure?”“Yes I’m sure, just pick me up a diet pepsi.”
He brought back the diet pepsi and they sat down at the table, eating some dinner.I put the diet pepsi on the table and marveled at it for awhile.Soon, the sweat glistened on the bottle.I popped it in the fridge for awhile. And then the moment came……Pop….fizzzzz……Sip.“ok.”Sip“ok, not bad.”And over the next 30 minutes, I drank the whole 20 ounce bottle.My usual drink would last 10 minutes, maximum.
And the Sox lost again on Saturday.So I had another.Stop, hit rewind, play again on Sunday.Oh the horror.But only 1 per day.Not first thing in the morning.Not intermittently throughout the entire day. Just 1.
I don’t even care so much anymore.I don’t know if this means I will stick to 1 a day, or if I will go back to having none at all.But I know that having one at the end of the day calmed my nerves. And there’s another cold one in the fridge at home right now. Sitting for me. Waiting patiently.
On to other news…the knee is still bothering me, but I still want to try and run tomorrow, it’s been OVER A WEEK!I miss running!I’ll be happy to get in just 2 miles.
Ok, so I went to Atheletico where I was so nicely dressed in running shorts...and a button down shirt and casual shoes...nice look. So Aaron tells me I have "Patellofemural pain syndrome." For now I should:
1. Ice and do whatever makes me comfortable
2. Not increase my distance for the time being
3. Talk with my doctor and get a referral
4. Participate in this research study they're doing on this very syndrome, meaning me nor my insurance have to pay a dime.
5. Participate in said program for 6 weeks, with appointments 2 to 3 times per week. Will focus on strengthening my hip flexors, which will help the muscles on the sides of my knees.
(I should note that he DID NOT SUGGEST DEEP KNEE BENDS, thank you very much.)
That is all.
So if I feel up to it, I may run a few miles by the end of the week, and continue at that mileage for awhile. With my long runs, I'll play it by ear. I asked him if this means I should count out the marathon, and he said "No, not necessarily. Not at all, but we should see how it goes."
Thoughts/Comments: So my run started out ok, a little stiff.I was already having a bit of sore knee issues during the week, but everything seemed fine.But around 3.5 miles in, it really started bothering me.So I took a few walking breaks here and there.At our turnaround point, this old man on a bike, one of the “helpers” (I say helper b/c I don’t think he’s a coach) said “you need to strengthen your knee, do some deep knee bends.”I’m like yeah, whatever dude.I mean, maybe the strengthen part is true, but the way my knee felt at that point, deep knee bends weren’t gonna help.After he rode off, my pace leader said to get it checked out before doing anything.
After the turnaround, I ran another solid mile before taking a walking break.This one a little longer.At one point, I walked an entire half mile.UGH!So my time TOTALLY sucked, but that’s why.
Even after icing my knee on Saturday, it still hurt just getting around, and especially getting in and out of the car.I also noticed that holding Zoe made things worse, too…and she must know this because she has been begging me to pick her up a lot of the past few days.
Anyway, I have an appointment tomorrow at Athletico, so stay tuned.Until then, no running.
Thoughts/Comments: Soooo tired this morning. I didn't go to sleep til after 10:30, and spent an hour up in the middle of the night with Zoe. I think she has allergies--but that's another story. So I woke up to my alarm at 5am. Next thing I know it's 5:25am. Finally I drag myself out of bed, get dressed and head over to the lakefront. The first few steps were sore ones, feeling yesterday's run. I really prefer to stagger my mid-week runs to every other day, but that's what I get for not running on Monday. So today's run was slower. Once I finished I stretched by my car. That's when I noticed that MY SHIRT WAS ON BACKWARDS. What a DORK!
Technical note: My training this week calls for 3 runs at 4, 6 and 4 miles. To be honest, I'm just trying to get myself back to running mid-week runs. I'll be on schedule by next week, hopefully. I'm like 45 miles away from the 1000 mile "pacebunny" on the training log website Running Ahead. I'm sure I'll catch up once we really start hitting the miles in marathon training. Anyhoo. Have a great day.
Thoughts/Comments: So I made it up early...at first, for some weird reason, the thought of doing 4 miles seemed unbearable. Rather than rolling over in bed I said to myself "Self, just do 3 miles...do whatever...but you can't just stay in bed." So I got out there and put in a little over 3 miles. I was hurtin. Not in a bad way, just in a "dangit, running isn't easy" kinda way. And 3 miles is better than NONE.
I just realized that later this week I'll hit the 400 mark. Woo-hoo!
Time It Took: 1:44:45 (includes several water stops)
Pace: 13:05
Miles this week: 11.1
Miles this month: 11.1
2008 Goal: 388.67/1000 miles
Thoughts/Comments: Well this run wasn’t so bad, considering my lazy-funk I’ve been in and haven’t run since Monday!Also, it was hottttttt.70 degrees is already pretty warm for running, but that humidity was AWFUL!Anyway, enough about that…it is what it is.
Today was the first time I ran with my new group, even though they've been running for a month or so now.Despite searching for any excuse in the world that would keep me away, I couldn’t find one.Jada and Zoe slept all night and didn’t wake up before I left.It wasn’t pouring down rain.My legs felt fresh…so off I went to meet a new set of running friends.
They were pretty cool.Just about everyone lives on the south side like me…everyone but a few people are black, which in the running world, well sometimes you feel like you’re one of “the few, the proud” when you’re out there running on the north side.We chatted about lots of things, including Obama, what if Chicago gets the Olympics, which races we’re running this year in addition to the marathon, etc…
And the best thing about it is when I got home and took a nice cold shower I thought to myself…”maybe I’ll go out for a quick run tomorrow morning.”I think after two weeks of lackadaisical running, I’m feeling up to it again.
Thoughts/Comments: Well I've learned enough in this running venture of mine to know that the first run after a break, self-imposed or just life getting in the way, pretty much sucks. And this one was no different. Legs felt like lead...walked twice. Man! One of the 10 commandments of running (um the ones that I'm making up starting today) is that "one bad run is simply one bad run, nothing more, nothing less."
Pretty hot out there too. I wanted to run this morning, but that feat was impossible due to the diabolical Jada and Zoe, up from about 3:30am until 5:30am. Don't ask.
Oh...and today officially marks my "marathon training" for the Chicago Marathon. Woo hoo!
