Crazy Kate - December 24, 2008

I hadn't run in weeks because of my bad knee, but I just couldn't take it anymore. I signed up for the Christmas T(h)ree miler last Sunday, which would be my first run in weeks. I was prepared for a very slow race with some walking if my knee hurt too much. However, the race was postponed due to weather and the race director, Jim, being sick. The weather was pretty bad. We had lots of snow on Friday, a little more on Saturday and there were flurries when I got up on Sunday morning. Instead of going back to bed I thought this was a perfect opportunity to give running a shot. There was no pressure to race and no pressure to run any specific distance. Also, with the snow on the roads I had the perfect excuse to run really slowly. It's almost 'what the doctor ordered', but not quite since I shouldn't be running at all yet. I headed out the door and set out on an undetermined route, which I could make as short as I wanted or if I made the full loop it would be about 3.5 miles. My knee hurt from the very beginning, but it did not get any worse throughout the run and it felt better for a few moments here and there. Landing on the very thin layer of snow felt really good because it softened the impact. I ended up doing the full loop and taking all the way back to my front door to make it a 4 mile run. Yahoooo!!!! I was thrilled. I did lots of stretching, iced my knee and took Advil. Over the past 3 weeks my knee has ached a lot one day and then been pretty good the next with no real rhyme or reason to which way it would be each day. Although the bad days have been gradually getting better and good days are coming more often. This run did not seem to change that at all so I don't think I did any harm.

I wanted to run this morning since I'm only planning to run about 2 days a week and today fit into my schedule pretty well. I turned on the weather channel to find out that there was freezing rain and that the roads were extremely icy. I knew that running in these conditions wasn't ideal, but I wanted to get in the run before PT and before I headed out to the grocery store. I knew that I would lose my motivation if I waited until afternoon so I proceeded to get my running gear together. Francesco called right before I headed out the door to say that PT had to be cancelled since the parking lot was like a skating rink. Now, I had an excuse to wait a little while before heading out, but I was all ready to go and was looking forward to the challenge of running on ice. Yes, I'm crazy!

I headed out and found the roads in my complex to be extremely icy. I kept going through different scenarios in my head for how to reschedule my day so that I would still get in a run. However, it came down to this being the best time. I figured that the road conditions would be much better once I got out of my complex. The roads were better, but still very slippery and a little scary. The downhill was the worst because I was afraid of picking up speed and not being able to stop. However, I took it really slowly and was enjoying the workout. I could feel my calves working harder from trying to run on the ice and trying to keep from falling. I thought it was very funny when I ran on the uphills because my feet kept sliding backwards as I tried to push off. There was a light rain throughout the entire run and the temperature was rising so I was starting to run on roads with puddles of water instead of ice. This made it safer, but also made my feet wet and my socks soggy. Towards the end I could feel my knee starting to hurt a little more - there was a funny feeling of something tweaking in there which was concerning me. The pain had moved and was getting closer to the outside of my knee when previously it had been on the inside. I was also feeling a little winded from working so hard and being a little out of shape. I decided to bring it to a walk right before I got to my complex, which gave me a 3.5 mile run. My knee hurt significantly when I first started to walk, but it gradually loosen up and felt better. I walked back to my place, stretched out, iced my knee, took a shower and then headed to the grocery store. It is now a few hours later and my knee feel pretty good.

I am planning to run the Christmas tree race, which has been rescheduled for Saturday morning.

Happy Holidays to All!