Thoughts on Today's RUN

Running Again

Tonight was my first run since the Great Injury of 2011.  I opted to run on the treaddy in case my knee completely gave out, or my spirit wimped out, or any other possible contingency that I could dream up.  I decided to get on there and just take it easy.  I wanted to run at a roughly 12:00/mile pace, nice and easy, 0% incline, and I intended to stop at the first sign of pain.  I felt much better than I thought I would and didn't really feel any pain until I hit 1 mile.  At that point I thought "why stop at the FIRST sign of pain...that's for WIMPS..." and I kept going.  Until mile 1.15 where I reminded myself that this was my first time out in 16 days and the whole point was to test out my knee function, not wind up back in bed with my leg propped up on pillows.  So, I went on until 1.2 (I like nice even tenths) and then I (very responsibly) stopped.  I ran 1.2 miles in 13:52 with minimal pain. 

I feel confident that if I take it easily and work back up at a reasonable pace that I will be good as new in no time.  I don't seem to have lost too much fitness, my lungs and heart could have kept going.  I actually expected that my first run out would include walk breaks, but it didn't which is great news!  Just have to get the knee conditioned to working out instead of laying down.

Running Scared

There was a degree of fear in the run, twofold:

1. Physical fear: Watching my feet.  Wondering if I would trip and fall again.  Would I step off the side of the treadmill?  Would I re-injure my knee?
2. Mental fear: Was I ready?  Was I still capable of running?  Would I be able to (eventually) hit the pace and distance from before the injury?  I mean, one glance at my recent training log was enough to have me quaking in my Ryka's...

I didn't work out the answers to these tonight, and probably won't until I have several more runs under my belt event-free and confident.

Running Goals Revisited

My half marathon is roughly 5 weeks away.  I was hoping to PR, now I'm hoping to finish without hurting myself.  My new goal is to safely build my training back up, run my half for training purposes, and then have a strong half in June.  The only problem is that I'm not actually registered for a half in June!

So...anyone know of any half marathons within the first two weeks of June that aren't A) sold out, or B) inhumanly hot?  A little heat is okay, too much...not okay.  Flat course and a hotel within walking distance of the start/finish earns you bonus points :-)

P.S. Have you checked out SkinnyRunner's biggest giveaway ever?

Five Things For Friday

Five things I learned from People Magazine today:

1. Constantine Maroulis is apparently still news-worthy?  Who knew?
2. Jennifer Hudson looks A-MAZ-ING!
3. Chris Brown...too much Chris Brown.  Seriously.
4. Brangelina believe in time-outs for discipline.  And they really just live an ordinary life.  I would not have guessed ordinary really.
5. There is a Scream 4.  Which is probably the most shocking thing I learned today.  Apparently I haven't had a very educational day...

And now that I've shared all that nonsense, here's what I really wanted to learn (but not from People Magazine).  Should I give running a try tomorrow?  And how far should I go after a full 2 week layoff?  I'm torn about how much to push.  And still a little in pain.  I don't want to re-hurt myself, but at this point I'm terrified of losing fitness.  My race is only 42 days away.  42 DAYS!  I can't afford to take more time off and I certainly can't afford to lose fitness.  I've already lost time to increase my long run distance to where I want to be pre-race.

I am FREAKING OUT!

Meh, Part 2

Well, my little bit o' positivity from Saturday has come to its merry end.  My left knee is still experiencing tremendous pain.  The longer I'm on it, the worse it hurts.  Yesterday I finally broke down and went to the doctor, where I had x-rays.  I didn't catch everything but some words that stick out are:

"fluid in the joint"

"MRI"

"possibly 3 weeks off or longer"

a.k.a. devastation.

To be fair, I haven't gotten the x-ray results back yet.  But I'm definitely still in pain, I definitely haven't run in 10 days, and I definitely won't be back out there in the foreseeable future.

I miss running!  I miss the endorphins.  The sense of accomplishment.  The weight control even.  I think I've put on 10 pounds in 10 days.  Too much laying around I guess.

Okay, who am I kidding?  Too much of this really:

Keeping my fingers crossed that my x-rays are clean and my pain goes away.  If you have time, send some positivety my way please!  And some Reese's... 

What I've Been Doing

It's been exactly a week since my last run.  It's been almost a week since my last blog post.  In the interest of full disclosure, I've been laying around moping.  And I didn't want to get all down and negative on the blog, because of course the mopey feelings would pass.  And for the most part they have, so let's get down to it.

Here's what I've been doing since injured knees and strep throat have moved into my life.

Eating 10 tons of cookie dough that I made for the specific purpose of being able to eat the dough straight up:

Drinking unbelievable amounts of Hot Chocolate and Milkshakes:

Watching hours and hours of this:



Suzanne Whang was by the far the best host, p.s.



What a week, no?

Today is my scheduled 9 miler and I was (gasp) looking forward to it.  We were going to chart new territory on a brand new paved trail!!  Alas, there will be no long run for me.  In fact, there will be a goose egg for this whole week I'm pretty sure.  I'm still feeling positive though, because today when I got out of bed, I had no pain in my knees.  Now, 30 minutes later that twinge of pain is back.  But I experienced a few minutes of pain free bliss which means I must be on the mend.  And I'm hopeful that I'll be on the roads again in no time. 

Zack, AC, Screech, Suzanne Whang, Sandra Rinomato, Jeff Probst...our time has been special to me, but I think it's about time we all move on.

Meh.

Today can be summed up in two words:

Strep Throat

What a week.

The silver lining?  At least I'm not missing two weeks of training by having hurt knees and THEN getting sick.  Better to get them both out of the way at the same time.  I'm grasping for something positive here...

My First Time

Today I had a first while running.

You might ask: The elusive runner's high?  A new pace or distance?  Conquering an impossible course? 

But you would be wrong.

Because today was the first time...

That while running...

I beefed.


(Warning: blood ahead.  If blood freaks you out, you may want to skip the first picture)

You see, it was 60 degrees this morning.  Our warmest run of the year so far.  I was definitely feeling the heat, and I was very weave-y.  I would alternately run Dave off the sidewalk or nearly fall off the sidewalk myself.  I was thinking, "it will be a miracle if I manage to not fall today".  And, I kid you not, at that exact moment I was no longer upright.  It really was that fast.  One second I was up, and the very next second I was down on the ground.  I was tired, embarrassed, and defeated.  So I did what anyone would do...I think...  I laid my head right on down and cried. 

Dave tried to move me, but I kept saying "No, no, no, no, no" so he assumed it was too painful because I had broken a bone.  Really, my pride was the worst of the pain in that moment.

A nice older gentleman in a truck had apparently witnessed the whole thing.  He parked on the side of the road and ran back to us, cell phone in hand, to make sure I was okay.  Naturally, it only served to embarrass me further that he was a witness.  (In hindsight, I am thankful for him in case something had been terribly wrong.)

His witness of my embarrassing moment prompted me to get up and get ready to finish the run, so I wouldn't continue to be a spectacle for anyone else.  Because, unfortunately, we were still 2 miles from the car.  So...I just got up and started running.

A few minutes later it occured to me that I had never stopped my Garmin when I fell...so when I hit the button to "re-start" it...I had actually stopped it.  Talk about adding insult to injury.  We definitely finished our 8 miles, because we ran all the way back to the car.  But I have no idea how long it took us.  And we were on pace for a great finishing time.

Especially because those last 2 miles we were flying.  Something about having an injury to care for propelled me like nothing ever has.  I didn't feel pain, just an intense desire to be done running and take care of myself.

We went straight to CVS, where we bought some first aid supplies.  I could swear that I bought the non-stinging wound wash spray, but apparently I would be wrong.  That stuff hurts!  I felt much better after I got my knees cleaned and covered.

In the aftermath, I found that I had skinned (as in, no skin left) both knees.  My right knee is bruised and swollen up nice and huge.  The palms of both my hands are skinned and only a little bloody.  It hurts to walk or bend my legs.  And it has probably ruined my weekly mileage.  Pretty sure I won't be able to hobble out my last run tomorrow.

At least this arrived in the mail today:

We are going to go watch Just Go With It and eat copious amounts of popcorn while I also eat that entire chocolate bar. 

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Tonight we had my Grandma Brown's 78th birthday party.  Just a little get together with the family.  A pitch-in dinner, good conversation, and even a game to see just how well we know Grandma.

This is me and Grandma (and my mom) then:

This is me and Grandma now:

I love you Grandma...happy birthday!!