Sunday, July 1, 2012

Storms Behind, Storms Ahead

The Stats 6/24/12 - 6/30/12
6/25/12: 2.51 mi; 18'34"; 7'23" avg. pace
6/27/12: 2.04 mi; 15'04"; 7'22" avg. pace
What started as a promising week with two runs in the first three weekdays turned into another rather restful week. It may be what is required to get this $#@# knee back to health, but it's frustrating and stressful not to be able to release some energy via running. Monday's run was the first in my new Newton's. The shoes held up well, and while I could tell the extra cushioning upfront is trying to make me run more on the front of my foot I still reverted to a flat strike for most of the run. It's difficult to undo years of heel striking with heavily padded shoes. As for the knee, it still twinged throughout the run and prompted a shutdown before reaching my standard 5k mark for training runs.
The recovery period on Tuesday was much better than last week. No residual pain in the left knee and minimal soreness in a healthy right leg signaled it was okay to plan on another run later in the week. I took the rest of Tuesday easy and came back after work on Wednesday to try again. Another 5k attempt was crushed by growing weakness in the knee. Just when I thought it was nearing total health it let me down in the middle of yet ANOTHER training run. I was being asked to run the YMCA Corporate Cup 5k on Saturday so I knew to pack it in for the rest of the week. Thursday and Friday proved nice and easy on the legs and I was set to give the 5k a try Saturday morning.
And then the storm came. Friday night featured one of those rare end of the world moments in the Ohio Valley when hurricane force winds ravaged the hillsides, displacing trees and anything else that was planted tens of feet underground. Cars hurried around, wind whipped and trying to find order with the stoplights deciding to turn off. I ended up sleeping in an office building, as my house, along with several hundred thousand others on the east coast, was bereft of power. I say all that to say, of course Corporate Cup was cancelled and no more runs were logged for the week. Barring a zombie apocalypse, I'll be back out on the streets again next week, trying to make sense of this wacky world, or at least forget about its wackiness for a moment.

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