Half Way Home

I've never been the smartest person.  I tested my knee out yesterday and all went pretty well.  I was somewhat relieved when I made it back home unscathed.  Today was a slightly different story.  I was hydrated and properly fueled.  I had plenty of sleep and knew I waited long enough the weather was perfect outside.  When I finally started putting my running gear on, my right knee started bugging me.

By far the most frustrating part of this knee issue so far is that nothing about it is predictable.  A few hours will go by and I feel completely normal again.  And then bam, knee pain.  So I figured I would stretch my way through the pain and try to walk it out while getting ready.  It sort of helped and I started on my run.

By the time I hit a quarter of mile I was telling myself I would do 3 miles to take it easy.  I should have listened to myself.  By mile two, I was moving at a slow and steady pace.  I had my breathing down and was hitting a good, somewhat pain free, stride.  I kept on the path and head for my two mile turn around spot.

Once I hit the turn around spot my knee was okay.  Not wonderful but okay.  I kept going.  I hit mile 3 and almost instantly wanted to cut my own leg off.  I stopeed and walked.  Stretched.  Drank some water.  Ate some sport beans.  Walked.  Pain went away.  And I started running again.

As I ran through mile 3 the pain came back with every step, just enough to remind me that it was not at all happy with our arrangement.  I stopped to take a picture and stretch some more.  That's when one of my earphones clogged with sweat and stopped working.  I spent a few minutes trying to clean it off and blow on it to get it working again.

Once I got going again, I found a doable stride and tried my best to focus on my stride and listen to what my body was telling me.  My right leg was burning from compensating.  I knew if I relaxed my leg enough, my foot rolled inward a bit and that pulled on my weaker muscle connected to my knee... the same one that was really screwing with me last week.

I had some good mojo going about mile five.  I think my legs had reached some level of numbness.  I didn't feel shooting pain, just tired and really sore.  I made it to 6.5 miles as was assigned for this week of training.

Once I stopped and walked the little bit back to my house my knee was on fire.  Not pain - just hot, inflamed.  So I hopped in the ice bath.  I've really come to enjoy the ice bath because I know it helps immensely with decreasing inflammation and overall soreness after my longer runs.  After twenty minutes, I hopped out with frozen legs and wrapped myself in a blanket.

And here I sit, wrapped in a blanket reflecting on what was a good run but also possibly a very stupid run.  It's a beautiful Fall day out there and I loved taking in all of the colors.  I loved not sweating my ass off.  And I loved knowing that mentally, I could push through things.  I loved knowing that, after this run, I'm half way home.  I ran half the distance of my half marathon.  And even though I battled an achy knee, it was still very much a piece of cake.

I hated that my body hates me at the moment.  It doesn't feel like I can do anything right.  My eating is crappy.  I've gained a few pounds.  And no matter how many times I tell myself to get back on track, I'm slipping back into old habits.  And as much as I'd like to blame Starbucks for creating such addicting seasonal lattes, I know it's not that simple.  I still have a very rough 2.5 months ahead of me if I'm going to make the most of my second half marathon.


The next two weeks are lighter on the miles.  I don't have another big bump in miles until the 28th.  I'm going to continue to stretch, ice, and elevate multiple times a day.  If I can engage my brain a little bit, maybe I can get my eating back on track too... again.