Slowly but Surely

I'm running a little bit every few days. Increasing my distance just a little bit each time. Yesterday I ran 3 miles! Yeah! [It used to be that running 4 miles was a "day off".] I am just happy to be running again -- as slow and awkward as it is.

[Is it just me or is blogger incredibly slow tonight?]

Nothing much else going on (in my running world).

C-Ya

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

Ran a hill workout (treadmill) on Tuesday. It felt really good. It's been so long since I've had a good running workout. Then yesterday, I did weights/circuit training...

The Bad:

For some reason, my left knee just decided to stage a mutiny. I couldn't do even half the weight I was used to doing with that leg. What the hell? The elliptical and the rowing were OK, as were the rest of the weights. But for some reason, my left leg was not cooperating...

The Ugly:

When I woke up this morning, there was this big knot in my left quads. It hurt. I think I overdid something (duh).

So I took the day off. Things feel much better tonight. I should probably take it easy tomorrow as well. We'll see how things go.

C-Ya

Stupid Knee

Well, I did get out yesterday for a run. Hey, it was 51 in Boston. There was no way I wasn't going to at least try running. In shorts and T-shirt. On January 6th.

Unfortunately, the knee -- or rather the meniscus -- was not entirely cooperative. I've been having some occasional twinges since New Year's Day -- when I stepped off the last step of our stairs and torqued the knee a little bit. It felt like a short-term thing, but was still giving me some issues. I didn't get much further that a mile when I decided it wasn't worth pushing it any further. There was some uncomfortable pain on the downhills, and the flat didn't feel that great either.

On the plus side, I discovered that running uphill felt absolutely wonderful. Tomorrow I plan to do one of those hill workouts on the treadmill (along with my other cross training).

Things feel much better today with the knee, though I'll still just do the elliptical and rowing workout, along with some weights.

It's a long term thing.

C-Ya

Worst Injury Ever

OK, well, my worst injury so far.

I mentioned in my last post that this one has gone on for 6 months and it's still not completely normal. I have a small tear in the back of the meniscus on my left knee. I couldn't run for 6 months. For the first 3 months, I would be in pain after walking for 10 minutes. I finally broke down and went to physical therapy.

After about a month, I still couldn't run, though I was strengthening my left leg considerably.

Oddly, right around the time I finally got scheduled for the MRI, it started feeling much better. A few days later, I ran 1 mile. No pain (in the knee). It felt great to run again. And it felt like crap.

It has been so long without running, that I really feel like I'm starting over.

Hopefully, I will improve rapidly.

I've been increasing mileage very slowly. Not running two days in a row. Increasing by a half mile at a time.

On New Years day I ran three miles. Whoo hoo! Tomorrow will be another 3-miler. And I am excited about it -- temperatures in Boston are supposed to get back up close to 50! (It was 7 a couple days ago.) Maybe I'll even push it to 4 miles and run along the Charles River a bit.

That's all for now.

C-Ya

Happy New Year

Well, things could be worse...

More in my next post, but the second half of 2007 was pretty much dominated by my "worst ever injury". Previous record was held by a groin pull back in the early 90's. I was out for 6 months. This time, it's been 6 months, and I'm not out of the woods by any means.

However, the good news is -- I am FINALLY able to run a little bit again. For the first time since last July. I ran 3 miles yesterday. And I consider it quite an accomplishment.

And then I stepped off the bottom stair onto our porch and torqued my knee. No workout today -- it still hurts. But I should be back in the gym tomorrow.

It is amazing how "de-trained" I've become in the last 6 months. I will be starting out 2008 from scratch. Running short distances maybe 3 days per week. Building very slowly (although with plenty of cross-training). But I am optimistic.

My goal for 2008: Tucson Marathon in December -- qualify for Boston and New York.

How will I get there? Three months of slow build-up. Three months of base training. Five months of marathon training. Should be enough cushion for any small set-backs.

So, what have I been doing the past six months while I wasn't doing any heavy duty training?

Songwriting

Also, by next week, I hope to have uploaded all of my (running-related) haiku to my website. You'll be able to find all of them in one place.

And any of you on myspace feel free to link up to my myspace space.

C-Ya