Trying out the knee

I took the knee brace off around 0.75 miles tonight and continued to run another 3.75 miles without it. A slight whisper at the very end, but overall MUCH better than a few months ago. I iced it when I got home just to be safe and I will continue to wear the brace, but it's nice to know it's at least better than it was when the pain started. My hand hurt more from carrying the brace for the rest of the run than my knee did from not wearing it :) Overall it was a great run and my longest since starting back after my little break.

Total: 4.5 miles

1st run of 2009

Well I FINALLY logged my first run of 2009 last night. I would have logged it sooner, but Comcast allegedly had "a server down" which caused all of Middle Tennessee and Central Kentucky to lose internet service for several hours. It's ok though, they gave me a credit of $1.06!

So anyways, after work in what I consider to be perfect running temps (42ish) and not so perfect weather (super windy) I went for my first run of 2009. A drastically different route at the beginning with a lot more elevation for the first .75 mile which helped me not pay attention to the Garmin as much. It also gave me my first slight knee pain in a long time which I'm hoping was just the elevation.

Now I just need to see if L & N finally owned up to their resolution to start running :)

Total: 3 Miles, 28:02 (9:20)

A night of "Firsts"

Tonight I started at Centennial Park, but ran a different route than normal going all the way down to music row by Tin Roof and actually getting lost for probably a mile or 2 before figuring out where I was. I also ran more hills (total Ascent of 1964 feet.. over 500 more than any other run) than I've ever run including the ridiculous hill by Vandy not once, but twice! Tonight's 7.1 mile run gave me these firsts:

- Longest run to date
- Longest run with a pace faster than 9:00 mpm (1:03:45 total which is an 8:59 pace)
- Passed the 100 mile mark on my shoes
- Passed 50 miles for the 2nd month in a row (ok technically that's a "second" not a "first")

I finished with a loop around a dark Centennial Park wishing I could keep going, but it was dark and my knee was starting to bug me.

Last run before the race

Tonight was the last run before my race on Saturday. Another friend joined us tonight so we had 3 people for our 5 mile run to Belmont and back. I didn't realize it until I downloaded the Garmin stats, but there were no positive splits and miles 2, 3 and 4 were all at a 9:24 pace which was also my overall pace. Not too bad considering the number of hills on that route. I even mentioned to one of the guys that the hills that used to seem huge to me a month ago now seem like nothing. I guess the word of the day is consistency!

My knee had the usual twinge for the first .5 mi then it was fine and this time the pain didn't come back around the 4 mile mark like normal which is good. I'm still planning on taking the next 2 days off just to be safe so my next post will be my first 5 mile race report :)

Unofficial 5k

As planned I went for a 3 mile run after work today. My buddy started off at around an 8 minute pace, but I do that half the time anyways until I've settled into a slower pace. Well he didn't slow down much and kept it between 8 and 8:30 until we hit the llllllooooonnnnnngggg steady hill up Hillsboro Pike (even then we kept it under 9:00). But since we were only running 3 miles I figured what the hell, let's see what kind of 5k time I can get. So I kept running until I hit 3.1 miles and ended up with a time of 26:59.. 9 seconds away from beating my 5k PR!

Now anyone who has a Garmin knows that it usually takes a few seconds for it to auto-pause the time if you stop to wait for a light. So technically I think I really did beat my previous time if you take into account the 2 or 3 times we had to stop for a light/traffic, but regardless I'm happy with that time given the number of hills we ran up. My knee has been feeling better the past several days (since I took the insoles out) and it feels better post-run, but it actually hurt just a tad more than normal during the first .5 mile.

I'm planning on a 5 mile run on Wednesday, then my 5 mile race on Saturday followed by a celebratory beer :)

Crazy Map - Part Deux

I met a friend of mine downtown today and we ran around West End. I told him about my plan to create crazy maps with my Garmin (and he just got one too) so we took some random turns and 2 loops through Centennial Park at the end which gave me this:

I also tried something different today in my never ending quest to figure out what's hurting my #$&*(^#( knee. Since day 1 of using my Superfeet insoles I've noticed the arch on my right foot hits me just a little more noticeably than my left. So today I took those out and tried running with the regular insoles that came in the shoes. I ran 4.5 miles total during which my knee felt better at the beginning than usual, then started talking to me around 3.75 and then told me to quit at 4.5. Today may not be a good reference since I don't usually string a 5 miler and a 4.5 miler together with only 1 day inbetween. So I think I'm going to give it another run or 2 to see if it's making any difference.

Definitely no running for the next 2 days and then I'll probably try another 4-5 miles one day this weekend. Also today I registered for the Boulevard Bolt.. the one I said I registered for a week ago and finally got around to doing today!

My Garmin Drawerings

Today was my 2nd day officially working downtown instead of in Cool Springs so I had a lot more options for running (and it's always nice to skip the traffic). I decided to head over to Centennial Park, but since I'm getting more and more bored with greenways/tracks I opted for the streets instead of just running around the park. Back at home I loaded up the Garmin to pull down the stats and realized I almost literally ran all the way around Vanderbilt University, plus partially around Centennial at the end! I think next time I'll try to purposely make a crazy drawing by running weird routes! See Shannan.. you can't do THAT on a treadmill :)

Oh and I ran 5 miles which makes me feel much better about my race in less than 2 weeks. Not only that, but 2 of the splits were negative with a 3rd being 2 seconds away from being negative (all under 10:00) and I can't remember the last time that happened! My knee whispered to me for about the first .5 miles and then it shut up until about the 4.5 mile mark. Post-run it feels about the same as it normally does after a shorter run.

Must.Make.Myself.Stop

Today I decided to take the trail right towards the big winding hill and see how my knee (and the rest of me) fared since I haven't gone that way in a couple of weeks. I'm happy to report that all of me did just fine going up and down the hill twice. The stupid side of me decided to run 3 straight before taking a break today, but it seems to be ok so far. So I ran 3.0 and 0.25 separately with walking in between. It's getting harder and harder to make myself stop and not go for a 4-6 mile run.. hopefully soon.

My knee still has that little twinge every once in a while if I step the wrong way (as if to say "don't forget I can eff you up at any moment"), but so far it has behaved while running. I'm guessing the shorter, slower runs plus my knee brace have probably contributed to that as well.

Tomorrow I will take off and yell at my TV as the Presidential Debate rages on a few miles from me. Then Wednesday the rain moves in.. so I might have a wet run to report later this week.

Easy 3

After taking 2 days off I went for a run at the greenway on Saturday. Yes I'm late in posting because afterwards I went downtown to watch Vandy beat Auburn! After recent runs in 65-70 degree temps it was back to a nice humid 80 degrees which sucked. Overall though I covered 4 miles, but was smart about it splitting up the running into intervals of 2 miles, 0.75 miles and 0.25 miles with walking in between so I wouldn't overwork my knee. Special thanks to the woman in the yellow top that motivated me near the end :) So far so good with the knee. I took today off and will probably go for a 2 mile run Monday or Tuesday depending on my work schedule.

In other news, congratulations to Zoomy (my unofficial knee therapist) for finishing her first marathon earlier today!

Short, but sweet

After 7 days of rest I decided to test out my crappy knee at the greenway. I made sure I wore my knee brace (duh!) this time and kept it to 2.5 miles at a roughly 10:00 pace. It felt very weird to run less than 3-4 miles and I didn't even really sweat or feel tired at all. But that's ok because my knee did not make me want to scream at any point during the run and that was my primary purpose today, to run and not injure my knee.

New longest run.. and my knee.. again

Ran downtown again starting at 31st and West End and followed part of the route from the Country Music Marathon. We hit 6 miles as we were coming back past Belmont and were actually planning on taking it to 8 or 10, but just before 7 my knee decided it wanted to scream.. VERY loudly.. so I ended up stopping at 7 and walking the last mile or so back to the car.

So I'm happy to have run 7 miles, even happier that I felt like I could have kept going for a while (other than my knee), but pissed off once again that my knee can't keep up with the rest of my body! Of course maybe if I'd run with my knee brace instead of leaving it in the car that would help :)