Weekly Update - February 2, 2009

Happy Days again! Here is a happy recap for my past week.

Monday night was Westport volleyball. My knee felt pretty good for the entire game and afterwards.

Tuesday morning I went for a short run with hopes of increasing my running from 2 days a week to 3 days a week. I ran 5.15 miles and felt pretty good. My knee still didn't feel perfect, but it was more of a slight discomfort than any pain. Tuesday night was Norwalk volleyball. Again, all was well with my knee and we won all 3 games in the match!

Wednesday evening I went to spin class at the gym. The bicycle riding has been hurting my knee more so than running, but in this class I noticed a slight improvement from the past few weeks. As usual, Kellie made sure I worked hard by asking all students to follow my lead in a group sprint. It's hard not to give it 100% when she's telling the class that it's a piece of cake for me since I'm a marathon runner. ;o) After class I did some weight lifting to work on building up my calves, quads, glutes and hips and then finished with some stretching exercises.

Thursday was my mid-week lunch time run that I've just added to my schedule. I started out on a snow covered trail behind my office building and then transitioned to the roads. I didn't realize that the route I picked was almost all uphill for the first 2 miles, but the hills were moderate and it was good to go slow. I misjudged the distance of the loop and had to add on at the end by running a small loop around Wilton center. That ended up being the worst part of the run due to the large puddles at the side of the road and too much ice to run on the sidewalks. However, it was a good 4 mile run that didn't bring about any knee pain.

Friday was a much needed rest day.

Saturday morning was when I had scheduled my long run. My previous long runs had all been about 10 miles so I really needed to get in a longer run this time. The Boston Buildup 20k/12.4 miles is next Sunday so I was hoping to get in at least that distance. I started with my usual route beginning at Fox Run school and headed towards New Canaan. I wanted to change it up a little and get in more miles in this first loop so once I got to the top of Farm Road I continued right on instead of turning left to loop back around. This new route took me around the back of Waveny Park and onto Route 106. Little did I realize that the way back was on Talmadge Hill Road, which was quite a significant hill. However, I managed the hill with no problems and no aches and pains. I continued on to join up with my usual loop and was starting to try to figure out which roads to take once I was back to Fox Run School. I ended up heading to Hunters Lane and then up Ponus Ave to get in another hill. At that point I still had about a mile to go to get to 13 miles so I did a mini loop around the Fox Run area to finish up. In my past runs I had felt some knee and hip pain starting around 7 miles, but in this run I felt almost nothing for the entire 13 miles. In the last mile or two I had the feeling that my knees and knee were getting a little tired and that they might start to ache if I went much further, but that was about it. After the run I went home and did lots of stretching.

Sunday morning I went to the gym for another spin class. I'm not sure if the class was really difficult or if my legs were just tired from running 13 miles the day before. My quads felt pretty tired and I couldn't give it my all. I found myself spinning a little slower and with a little less tension on the bike than usual, but it was all due to fatigue and not pain. This was actually the first spin class in a long time that my knee felt relatively normal. After class I went through my weight lifting and then stretching routine.

It's now Monday morning and all still feels good.