Snow Day Run

     Well any of you living in the midwest today knows that a huge snow storm is moving through the area and dumping a lot of snow on us.  I was scheduled to work today, but because of the weather we decided to play it safe and close today as several other business did.   After I spent the morning shoveling the first few inches that fell I played with the dogs out in the snow  Our chi-weenie Jedi freaking loves the snow.  It was so funny watching him try and run through the snow.  He had to do more hopping than running really.  The snow was that perfect packing type snow so I made a snowball and we started playing fetch with it.  It was so cute when I would toss it and seeing him run back with a huge snowball in his mouth.

     When we finished I decided to head out for a run sense I hadn't run since Wednesday.  My therapist has given me the go ahead and try a four mile run and see how that goes.  I was able to get the entire four miles in despite the snow coming down.  The parks department plowed the trail just before I headed out so I had a pretty good place to run.  My knee had felt a little tight and stiff the last couple of days and it was definitely there today.  I have been working hard to get my cadence up to 180bpm, but have been struggling to do it with keeping my pace down, but this time, I headed out and seemed to maintain my cadence and kept my pace slower. 

     The entire first three miles was fine despite the snow and worsening conditions out there.  As far as pain goes, the knee was doing well for those first three, but the stiffness was still there.  The last mile was a different story however.  The aching slowly crept in and steadily got worse.  The pain started and got to a one and then to a two on a scale of 1-10 pretty quick.  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but my therapist doesn't want me to run on it if it gets any higher than that.  I posed this question to her as well because this is where I may or may not be making a mistake.  When the pain begins I become so conscious of it I start to mess with my stride thinking that how I was running is the cause.  The pain would then subside for a little bit and then come back so I end up making a change again.  That happened several times over that last mile. 

     At one point with a little less than a quarter mile left, the pain almost got to a three and I was about to stop when I changed my stride again and it fell to a one so I went ahead and finished.  I also noticed over that last mile that my right leg seemed to get tired out way more than the left, which may be because of all the attention I was giving it. 

     

I want to apologize for the lack of posts lately.  The last couple of weeks have been very busy with a lot going on in my personal and professional life.  I sometimes get a little down with this knee situation and wonder if I'll ever be able to run regularly and pain free again.  Plus this cold and snowy weather isn't helping either.  Anyway, they say time heals all wounds so enough boohoo about this I need to remember this injury needs time and patience to correct it.

Enjoy the Super Bowl tonight, and if you don't like football than enjoy the Super Bowl commercials!