Getting the message, loud and clear

In sticking with the plan to deal with my uncooperative left knee, I scoped out a nice flat course and went for a run on Saturday. Since I normally run on hills, I didn't really know what to expect, but I hoped it wouldn't involve pain. Since I REALLY wanted a convenient answer about my knee, I wore my old running shoes (As Spike Lee used to say, it's gotta be the shoes.)

What happened was I ran pretty fast without too much effort -- or so I thought. It felt so good, I stupidly decided to make my run longer, even after my knee protested.

"Hey, idiot," knee said, "I know you can hear me!" In response, I stuck my index fingers in my ears so as to drown out the noise. That didn't make it any easier to run, by the way. (OK, maybe it happen exactly like that.)

Only after about 3 miles, when I turned back the original direction and into a stiff headwind (probably 20-30 mph) did I learn why the first bit of the run had felt so good. When I tried to sprint the last quarter-mile, I felt it in my knee every time my left foot hit the ground.

This time, I learned my lesson. It's three days after the fact, and my knee feels OK in normal use. But "normal use" is a far cry for running. So I'll take the suggestions I've gotten to do stretches, cross-training and leg strengthening. Then I'll begin to think about something else after at least another week.

(For the record, my splits were 7:58, 7:52, 8:13, 8:32, 9:37 and 9:32 (partial). I liked this course, through an industrial area not too far away. That wind will probably always be there, though.)