stupid knee

Total Distance So Far: 138.5 miles

My legs and feet were in pretty bad shape following that 12 miles. They were VERY sore, regardless of me icing them, and using topical anti-inflamatory/analgesic cream, etc. I did no further training all week besides my indoor soccer double-header on Tuesday evening (won 1 game, lost 1 game). Go Team Brown Dog! ahem.

Friday I went to the fitness center at work to perhaps work on an elliptical trainer for 30-35 minutes or so (any earlier in the week and my feet were too much in pain to even consider standing for very long, let alone exercising on them), but when I arrived both of the elliptical trainers were being used, and I had no idea how long I'd have to wait to use them... so I just left.

Finally on Saturday our next group run rolls around. Once again Val and I carpool to OMSI at 7:20am. We are supposed to go 10 miles. I was thinking, sure, if I can do 12 I can do 10! Right? Wrong. I was noticing even before we stepped off in the mid-60 degree, misty morning that my bad knee was feeling a little suspect. I massaged it a little, and decided to try my best anyway.

The course took us along the esplanade, over the Steele bridge, up towards NW 23rd, and beyond that up Thurston all the way to the gate to Leif Erickson Dr in Forest Park (where we started our first 6 mile run). It is a SERIOUS uphill to that point. And then down hill again back to about 19th and Raleigh. Then south on 18th to Everette, then east to the waterfront park... and then finally over the Hawthorne bridge back to OMSI.

Things were going swimmingly up till we were doing the uphill to Forest Park. Then, out of the blue at 4.56 miles my runners knee froze my knee up again. Val slowed down and walked with me (dealing with a pulled muscle herself, so she wasn't feeling great). We walked to the gate, turned around, walked back down the hill to the aid station. About 1.5 miles total. There were still 4 more miles to go to get back to OMSI though. I really didn't think it was a good idea for me to walk it (plus walking that would take over an hour). The aid station lady started making phone calls to try to get me a ride back.

Val left with the run/walkers (run 3 minutes, walk 1, repeat) to finish the course cause she didn't feel done yet. I hung around at the aid station snacking on jelly beans until my ride showed up.

It was disappointing, but I'm not surprised my body wasn't done "resting" yet after the 12 mile run the weekend before. I stayed off my feet the rest of the day, and iced my knee a couple of times. By Sunday my knee felt fine. Heck, all of me felt fine (ok, feet still a little injurred, but that's normal for me anymore). I felt better Sunday morning than I did Friday morning, so I've decided to focus on the next group run instead of dwelling on the last one. Whether it was the colder/humid weather inflaming scar tissue in my knee, or my still-healing sport injuries, or the fact that I got smacked in my bad knee by a warp-speed soccer ball on Tuesday, who knows?

All I know is that my stupid knee isn't cooperating right now.