no more running?

So, I intended to do a 5K last night. As the day progressed, it became less and less likely that I'd do so and then it just didn't happen.

I woke up with burning calves. I could only hobble around the house, but I thought it was hilarious. I'd run a course with some hills the day before and this was expected. Burning calves are a sign that unused muscles are waking up.

When we got ready to leave the house, I got to the five steps from our porch to the ground and discovered a far bigger problem. In the past, I've experienced varying degrees of knee pain from different activities. In general, when my knees take a repeated beating over time, they let me know about it. Near the end of a 40 mile hike a few years ago, I found myself only able to step up and down with one leg because the other knee was so upset with me. Well, yesterday, my left knee felt like someone had stabbed it.

The pain has mostly gone now (more than 24 hours after my last run), but it was intense, right between the patella and the femur. It's on the inside of my knee, and feels like it's in the cartilage (I could be wrong about that, but it's definitely not bone and I'm pretty sure it isn't tendon pain). With a large family history of bad joints (both parents and a grandparent have had at least one joint replacement, two of them have had more than two replacements, and my sister is a matter of time) my next step is to get a full physical and then a reference to someone in the physical therapy field who can help me move ahead from here. I'm happy to use a knee brace for support and protection, but I refuse to use painkillers. Joint pain is not something that I want to cover up or ignore - it's there to warn me about something serious and important and I need to know.

My days of running on hard surfaces are probably over, which is unfortunate because though there are plenty of trails around here, they aren't as well-lit as the streets, have far more large omnivores with which to contend, and aren't located close enough to the house for me to access them without a bit of effort.

I just hope I can run again.

run 2

Tried some hills today. I ran part of the route that will be used for tomorrow night's Only Fools Run at Midnight charity 5K and managed to survive.

3.27 miles, 34:59. VFFs did great in damp conditions, but my legs were really feeling the workout. It's been nice so far to see that my lungs are keeping up with everything I'm asking of them.

It's been eleven and a half years since the last time I ran a competitive 5K and I'm considering doing one tomorrow night on only two days of "conditioning." I'm not sure if this is crazy or suicidal, but I've been having a blast with the actual running and my body felt like it was asking for a run tonight, so I'm gonna keep giving it what it asks for.

first run in Sitka

Having lived in Sitka for nearly a year, I went on my first run today. I'll be recording my future runs in this blog, so sorry if you don't want to read about this. There'll still be the same lack of posting on other subjects as before.

It occurred to me that my wife's references to my growing belly might be subtle hints that I could make myself more attractive to her. Combine that with a wedding coming up in a few weeks where I'll see my family and be sure to hear from my mother about how out of shape I am as well as a desire to not feel like a fat bastard, and here we are.

Turns out, Sitka is a great place to run. Beautiful scenery, clean sea air with enough humidity to not dry me out, and temperatures that feel great. I need to scope out the best places and times to run on trails without fear of bears, though, so that I can really get the best of it all (and not destroy my feet in my Vibrams).

First run: 9:30ish at night, just in time for the sun to start dipping, 27:40 and an as-yet-unknown number of miles. I'm guessing it was about 3, because I'm out of shape.