Tuesday, January 22, 2013

And We're Off!!

Getting back into the habit of training has always been a bit hard. I believe it takes around 21 successful consecutive occurrences to make something a new habit, so it's no wonder many people fail at establishing new good habits like working out (failed resolutions anyone?). So Monday meant that I just kicked my own butt. I ran 5 miles (ran 4, walked a quarter, then ran the rest). How did it go? Not bad! Let me go over the details....

I kept it slow. Like tortoise slow at around a 13 minute mile. The key was to stay steady since pacing is so hard this early in the game. What caused me to walk that small bit was my knee. My right knee got achy and forced me to stop at mile four. It was a little concerning since my knees never gave me problems in the past. I've had all kinds of other running-related aches and pains mostly from my own stupidity, but my knees always escaped that fate. I limped the rest of the day, so I was very concerned. Many Aleve and a little rest over night and....

Mostly better! The plan for today was to run two miles then strength train, but I nixed the strength training. My heart needs the workout, two miles is not too much, and I can do strength training later this week. The run went pretty well. At first the knee was a little achy but not too bad. As I warmed up, it got much better. Now that the run is over it gives no trouble at all. Phew!! I'm sure most of you can sympathize - as runners we are very attuned to our bodies and the slightest hint of something wrong can make us very concerned. 

On a separate note about my run, I wore my new running capris. They're the CW-X brand, and I happened to get a couple pairs on Amazon for cheap (cheap for this brand anyway). I can't say how much I really liked them. They're super compressiony (yes I made that up) and don't move at all as you run. The only downside (and it may have caused some of my knee problem) is that I'm short in the legs so the knee on the pants didn't align perfectly with my knees. Perhaps the compression put just enough pressure on my knee in the wrong way that it cause some pain? I don't know. I'll have to try them out again, but I won't take them on another long run until I figure it out. I'll see if I can pull them up at the thigh to keep the knee area aligned correctly. 

So that's about it - it feels great to be back in training mode, even if it's still not as consistent as I'd like it to be. Baby steps!!

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