Bad News

Yep. No running for a while. Well damn, that puts quite a damper on my "running goals" for this coming year. I guess you could say it's "good timing" (I'm trying to be optimistic here) since I'll be leaving for Mexico in two weeks, so that's an excuse not to run (even though I was planning on bringing my running shoes . . . never mind.)

I was actually going to write about how good I felt for having run a bit over 4 miles last Sunday. The route I took was not ideal (there were two HUGE hills that I didn't know about ahead of time) and there for that probably helped propel my knee pain, but other than that, I did it in 45 minutes, which is more than my usual 10 mile minute, but it was my first time in a long time. Afterward, I planned on driving to my parents' house to do a bit of laundry and cable watching and on my drive there, my knees just throbbed. Omigosh! They hurt so bad! It's about a 15 minute drive and I was dying. Once I got there, I filled up their bathtub and turned on the jets and it made me feel so much better but it definitely worried me about the potential damage I might be doing to my knees. I love running, I really do, but if means future surgeries just so I can have a few years of painful fun, then I probably shouldn't do it. But, most likely against my doctor's orders, I'm still going to run that damned 10k cuz I want to run over the bridges . . . Butthenimdone! Anyway, her recommendation is to start strengthening my inner thigh muscles and my quads and stretch my hip flexors, and my IT band (the muscle on the side of the leg.) But, not only did she have me lay off the running, she's been noticing more things the matter with my skeletal system so basically working out has been reduced to strength training and low impact cardio. For some reason, the right side of my body is out of whack, from my foot all the way up the back to the right side of my neck, the muscles are all tight. After Mexico, I'm going to make an appointment with a podiatrist to see if there is anything I can do about my feet, because haven't I mentioned? One of my toes goes numb if I wear high heals for a long time or work out for more than 20 minutes . . . fun fun stuff.

So basically, I'm trying really hard not to feel sorry for myself and willing myself to do yoga and low impact cardio to keep me moving . . . but it's hard when running has been the one thing I see love to do because it makes me feel like I've accomplished something.