It is too cliche to type “week 3 is in the books” because I have no knowledge of what books I would be talking about here.
My left knee had been in such pain that I had trouble getting into bed or sitting in a squat. Inside of the knee felt like a band that was being pulled too tight. Either that, or the grinding of bone since the cartridge is nearly gone. What all of this has brought to the forefront of my training is that the days of me just going out for a run and coming back and picking my day back up are long gone. My warm-ups need to change. My cool downs need to change. Stretching and recovery has to be made more of a priority for me.
On Monday, I felt relatively recovered and went out to the park to run. I opted to repeat the week of intervals (1:30 run / 2:00 walk x 6) and feel that was the correct decision. While Monday felt as normal as I can feel, I still had more trouble recovering than I had anticipated. On Thursday, I was 50/50 whether or not I would be able to run, however, the weather had different plans for me. In a way, this was a good thing as it forced me to react to breaking my routine and training schedule. Had the weather been nice outside, I most likely would have gone for a run and pushed harder than I needed to. Especially where I am with training. Look, I am not going to break any records here. I am nearing 50 years old with busted up knees and a busted up back. I have to not only be smarter about all of this but more realistic in terms of expectations. Breaking the routine helped me, looking back on it. Rather than run, I opted for 45 minutes on the bike, taking low-impact classes so that I could stay moving but not push beyond where I should. I burned some calories, broke a good sweat, and felt better for it.
On Sunday afternoon, after being a lazy blob of nothingness nearly all day, I laced up my shoes and ran here in the subdivision. I did not look at my watch to see what pace I was at, but did my best to scale it back some and get closer to a jog than my run. I noticed at the end of every 1:30 run interval that I was breathing pretty heavy and welcomed the 2:00 of walking rest. There too I tried to slow things down. Instead of breaking into a power walk, I focused on breathing and preparing for the next run interval. I did a slightly shorter distance on Sunday than I did on Monday, which I am happy about as that proved I was slowing my pace down a notch.
When I got in on Sunday, after my cool down walk, I made it a point to stretch, rehydrate properly, and I also iced my left knee. I found that I was in far less pain than I had been after my runs. I am sure that someone would tell me I shouldn’t need to ice my knees after running the minimal distances I am running now and that if I have to ice my knees, I need to do something else. Maybe they would be right. Maybe I have neglected proper warm-ups and cool downs and need to try that. Maybe I am a glutton for punishment and plan to continue this training until I can’t walk any more.
Only time will tell.