Dec 16, 2009

knee update: i ran on it for the first time

So, for the first time since I "tweaked" my knee, I went to the treadmill and ran on it on Tuesday night. There was a ten-day interval without me running a step.

It felt ok, for the most part. A little shaky at the very beginning, and I could tell something was funny in that knee, but it didn't seem to affect my running. It didn't get worse if I ran hard or slow, so I ran hard.

I intended to go out at 12 minutes per mile and take it super-easy for two miles. But when I got to the gym, the prospect of chugging along so slowly on a treadmill by myself did not seem appealing, so I figured I'd go for 10 MPM. I am glad I did, because everything went fine. In fact, I decided to push the pace aggressively in the last five minutes, chugging out that 19th minute at about 7 minutes per mile. The fact that normal people run entire marathons at that pace amazes me.

Anyway, I ran 20 minutes and started stretching that left leg. Stretching is not part of my normal routine, and i think that might be a mistake. A lot of runners don't stretch at all and do fine with it, and I was one of them. However, even if stretching makes no difference in regards of injury prevention, I like the idea of flexibility - so I'll do it. when i have time..

I was considering not starting the team slug fattest butt 50K in janaury because of this. Because of today's run, I'm not considering that anymore. I'll probably go and at least start it. I may not run ten laps, but I will show up and start and run at least few laps and see how it goes. It'll be a good time.



New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

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