run

Week Four, Day 3

Saturday, August 5th, 2023

POST-RUN MORTUM

Running Time: 31:31 minutes

Distance Achieved: 2.11 miles 

Tunage: Summer Playlist*

*ok, so this is an interesting thought that I had – I tend to run on the beat of whatever I’m listening to. I think it’s why podcasts are not going to be it for me while running, but music is a great motivator to get more steps in. I wonder if I curated a playlist for the 5K in October that has, like, interval BPMs? Like, it tells me when to push or when to back off by the tempo? Is that a thing? Hold please.

Ok, so yeah, according to Google, this is very much a thing, cool cool cool, thought I was on to something, but apparently, it’s very normal, and people are very serious about it. Great, cool, at least I’m thinking like a runner? ::Ally shudders as she stares off blankly into the middle distance:: 

Y’ALL. Ok, just to keep the tone shifting that this blog will either be heralded or condemned for, TODAY WAS A GREAT FUCKING DAY ON THE ROAD. I had a groove, I was focusing on my breath, the sun was shining, but there was a cool breeze, I felt like I was finding a stride?!?!?! It feels like, if we look back over the last four weeks, Thursdays have been canonically not a great day for running, so I’m going to do some unpacking and soul-searching as to why that is, and this past Thursday was particularly rough, but today felt like I turned a corner in a really exciting way. 

Also, I want to talk about IT Bands, and up until a year ago, I, like you, thought that this was just a group of tech people who got together and played music. But no. It is, in fact a muscle group. And mine, dear readers, are fucked. Last year, I had a series of injuries on stage. It was the first time I’d ever fallen on stage in front of an audience, and all three times were due to the fact that my costume was hanging lower on my waist because I was losing weight from how rigorous the show was. Long story short, my heel caught on my hem three different times, and I landed with my whole body weight on my knees on a set that was made of reinforced steel with plywood on top of it. 

Now, for those who know me, you know the number of injuries I’ve had in my life. I blame them on a series of inner ear infections as a child and my need to keep up with the litany of small boys I found myself constantly around. But all of them were things that I recovered from. Some even made me stronger; look at that positive reframe, but seriously, I grew extra bone in my wrist after the second time I broke it, so, like, literally stronger. But these knee injuries are the first injuries in my life where I feel like my body is different now. I move differently and recover differently, and here, at the end of week four, I’m feeling it in my Pink Floyd cover IT Bands. 

Because here’s the funny thing, right? At the time of the injury, when I was in PT, I was like, cool, so we’re going to fix my knee. And Harkness – the BEST physical therapy I have ever had in my life, big hearts to them – was like, yes, but it’s not just the knee, it’s this stretch of muscles above and below it. And I was like, no, but I hurt my knee, and they were like, yeah, and everything attached to it. And then I was like, OHHHHH, the knee bone connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone, the song suddenly made sense. It all works together. And mine, as I said earlier, were and still are fucked. 

I’m feeling it today, even with how good of a run I just had, especially in my right leg. There’s this slight throbbing pinch of a pain in the lower left side of my patella, which is where the injury was at its worst. So yes. I want to strengthen this, but I also need to take care of it. And stretch, I know, I hear you. I’m going to right now. 

Oooooo, and theragun. I’m going to theragun the shit out of my leg right now.