Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Round 3

Running.  It is terrible.

Can I admit that I hate it more than anything else in life some days?  (I guess I just did.)

Like...I really really hate it sometimes.

I have discovered that I am an angry runner when I am starting out.  I hate everything and everyone and I want to punch people in the face while I am running and for at least the first 20 minutes after I finish.  Truth!  *Run with me at your own risk.

I have also discovered that once I can get to a point where I can jog/run about 15 minutes consecutively   I am no longer that angry runner.  At that point running is tiring and I have to constantly push myself, but I don't hate it anymore (or want to punch people).

About 2 months ago I could run 25 minutes without stopping.  It felt good.  I felt proud.  I was ahead of schedule to be able to run a 5k by 9/13.  I was thrilled.

Then I got shin splints that lasted all day every day.  It wasn't extremely painful, but I was concerned about injuring myself further, so I took a break from running for about 2 weeks.  I was still working out (walking, cycling, elliptical).  I got back on the treadmill after 14 days telling myself to start out slow and only run 10-15 minutes and see how things felt.

I STRUGGLED for 5 minutes before before slowing down to a walk, and guess what?  I was right smack dab at the beginning of my angry running days.  Only angry and feeling defeated.  Actually, that is not entirely true.  I was an angry runner and I certainly felt defeated, but I was majorly ticked off that running and my body had betrayed me in just a short 14 days.

Nevertheless, I kept running and angrily made my way back up to 12 minutes over the next few weeks.

Then one morning I woke up to my knee swollen.  It wasn't painful, but it did concern me.  Then the clicking and popping began and that was really painful.  I was off the treadmill again for about a week an a half.  My knee was feeling about 95% healed, but I am sure you can guess how far I struggled to run on the treadmill that first time back.

5 minutes.

Fully struggling the whole time.

I was less pissed off this time, since I knew it was coming, but still very irritated.

My knee is not really better.  I have been keeping it at bay while I continue to run.  It doesn't hurt while I run, but swells afterwards.  Every time.  I have a doctors appointment scheduled for 3 days after my 5k.  I think I know what is wrong with it, and we all know I went to med school, so I am sure it's quite an accurate diagnosis.

Either way, my very first 5k I trained the most for, outside of this one.  My time was 47.5 minutes.  Saturday I finished a 5k (on the treadmill) in 48.5 minutes.  I knew I could do it faster, but I was concerned about my knee and pushing too hard, too fast.

Today I completed it in 45 minutes.  I was pretty proud of that.  At the very least, I'll take it.


Here's to my knee holding out for the next 11 days.  I can't take another start over before then.