This site is super-new. I'm still building it and setting it up.
Click here to read URB's first post, which really doesn't tell you too much about me.
But, worry not, all will be revealed in time. And I do mean all. (OK, not really.)

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Glass half-empty or half-full?

Today was the day I've been waiting for. Or at least one of the days I've been waiting for. I went running again. It wasn't the I-kicked-ass-on-my-run-today day, but the other one.

Anyway, my uncharged Garmin didn't even survive the 5-minute drive to my starting point, so there would be no tracking this run. The best I could do is start the stopwatch on my cellphone, which I was leaving in the car. (I like to run as unencumbered as possible.) Having no clock ended up freeing me to run slow, which probably was good for my knee.

How slow did I run? Over 10:00/mile, for sure. Slow enough that I breathed through my nose for the majority of the time.

But what of my knee? And how many paragraphs will I start with questions? Unfortunately, my knee did start to get sore. The good news is this didn't really happen until about 2 miles in -- better than my last few attempts. On the other hand, I was running slowly.

So what did I do? (You knew there would be another question!) I stopped running when the soreness was somewhere between "ever so slight" and "yeah, it's there." On my other recent runs, I kept going another notch or two, until "unmistakable" or "it's gonna get worse if you keep running."

If I want to be optimistic, I can tell myself my knee is getting better. If I don't, my longer distance before the pain was only because I ran so much slower. Hmm. Optimistic, it is.

So now what? I guess I'll hold off on the running another week or two and continue to catch up on TV (but I'm running out of
Hell's Kitchen episodes) and see my doctor again. Maybe he can refer me to an orthopedist (heck, I'd settle for an orthopaedist!) or at least give me a cortisone shot.

I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV, but I've self-diagnosed myself (all by myself, btw) with
runner's knee, based on the location of the pain and the fact that I'm more likely to notice it going down stairs. What I don't like is how vague runner's knee is and how it could be any number of things causing it. Oh, and I don't like the fact that I can't freakin' run. How about that?

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