run

Free Run, Day 9

Saturday, September 30th, 2023

My knee is swollen AF. Like. SWOLLEN. Not good. I noticed it on Thursday night as I was getting ready for bed. My right knee is, like, round compared to my left knee. If I’m remembering back to my run on Thursday, I feel like there was a moment where I felt something, not exactly pop, but tweak. And I kept running on it. I do remember that at the end of that run, my right leg in particular was much sorer, and even during the run I had feelings of it being a little stiffer, but, ok, here’s the thing. I don’t know if I’m allowed to stop? Like, I’ve been following a bunch of runners, and I swear to god, five of them yesterday posted something about needing to stop during a race or during training and a) the synchronicity of all of them doing that on and around the same day is wild #weliveinasimulation and b) the fact that I don’t know if I’m supposed to be doing that???? 

` Seriously. Even with my nausea, as bad as it’s been, I’ve kept going. I think there was one day where I cut it short, but I really have been pushing myself to get through these runs. But now I’m like, ok, so, I think I pulled something mid-run – can I stop and like regroup and assess? 

I don’t know! I’m sure there is someone reading this who is screaming at me that of course I can stop, but I’ve been so hyper-focused on the time of it all the milage of it all the the time and the milages of it all as a family unit that the idea of stopping to attend to a potential injury, like, did not occur to me? 

And now I don’t know what to do. I’m supposed to do my sprint training today, and I don’t know if I physically can? So maybe I just get in, like, a classic Day 3 vibe and run for 25 minutes or something? Because I don’t want to miss a day. I really don’t. I’ve yet to miss a day, even on days when I felt like absolute crap and did not want to go at all. And I worry that if I do, if I miss a day, then it’ll throw me off of my rhythm or my momentum. Colby says I won’t, but I don’t know. It makes me worried. 

I wonder if I maybe just rest it today and then tomorrow before my shift at the shop I go in the morning? 

This is stressful. Color me stressed and swollen. 

Sunday, October 1st, 2023

Yeah, the run yesterday did not happen. And I am honestly so grateful that it did not. I woke up today with energy, my knee feels less swollen and my body is, as much as it can be, less sore. Yesterday was just a wild day. I wasn’t lying when I said I had the 6am shift kind of sprung on me, and usually I don’t mind the opening shift. But to realize six hours before you have to be there is another story entirely. I wasn’t prepared kind of for anything yesterday, which is why the afternoon of rest was needed. I don’t normally listen to myself, or to what my body needs, but I’ve been trying really hard during this process to break those habits. And yesterday’s rest proved to be so beneficial to me. 

I am about to go on this sprint run, and I have half of my smoothie down. I’m feeling good and rested and strong. Not super looking forward to the sprints, but I am only going to do 25 minutes. That feels doable. And then, wait for it, I’m going to stretch. Whaaaaaa? I might even do a little more stretching before I go. LOOK AT ALL OF THESE HEALTHY CHOICES I AM MAKING. 

POST-RUN MORTUM

Time Running: 25:15

Distance Achieved: 1.82

Tunage: Phone Call With My Mom!

That’s right, I talked to my mom on this run and I regret nothing!! It was lovely. And also, the fact that I was able to carry on a conversation while sprint training is impressive to me. 

This run went fine. My legs felt really good, and even now after, my right knee isn’t throbbing. Sometimes, and I don’t know if there is anything to medically back this up, but sometimes when I have a strained or pulled muscle, working it out helps? And then sometimes my body is like don’t even think about it you stupid woman, but today, it felt good to work some of that out. Mama Google tells me I shouldn’t do this all the time, and I don’t, but today I felt like I could handle it, and I did. 

There was a moment, maybe 15 minutes into my running where my stride was INSANE. Because I do the same amount of steps per sprint – I’ve settled on 35 steps, why you ask? Who can say. I’ve always liked the number and it fits in with the loop – but on this particular sprint, I went further into the loop and it was awesome. It was a glimpse into the future where my stamina and endurance is stronger and paints a really exciting picture of me like, properly running. Wild and wonderful.

It is also wild, again, that I almost cleared 2 miles in 25 minutes. If I went to 27 minutes with this sprint walk sprint walk thing I’ve got going on, I know I would have cleared 2 miles. I wonder if there is a way to implement this into my long run, beyond a power ten, because the power ten is great, but she usually comes at the end when I feel like I’ve got little left in my tank. I wonder if I build them in throughout, but then I worry about the recovery. Again, I wish I’d read about this sort of interval training with hills and sprints and long runs earlier in my training because I feel like I would be further along, but the 5K on the 29th is only my first one I plan to do, and I will get better as I continue to run. 

Also, the weather today was CHOICE. 65°, sunny with a breeze. Gorgeous. What a great day. Also also, someone was setting up a fancy picnic, like it was their business where they set up a really nice picnic scape and then rich people come and picnic on it and I was reminded for the 1027391823th time that I could clean up with a business like that. Anyway. May you all find your bougie picnic in the park today.