Went for a Walkie-Walkie (as my mom would say)

After a hard-running and cycling weekend, I decided to take today off. Well, sort of.

I had all of my swimming and running gear in the car at work today, but I skipped lunch and left work early to get some thesis reading and nice-day-appreciating done. And after sharing a summery salad with Neil, I put in a fast-paced 3-mile walk around my neighborhood before the Cavaliers tipped off. I was really smart about it too: I anticipated a short walk, so I put on my little ballet slippers that gave me some swell blisters on the outside of both my feet. Yowsers!

Let’s just say I had a full cardiovascular workout watching the game with all of its ups and downs and missed free throws. Although I think I’ll need a sedative for the next couple of games.

One of these days, I will get back in the swim of things. I don’t know what’s stopping me: the warm weather, the sunny days, the desolate campus. Although right now I think the biggest obstacle will be getting over the dread of swimming through the start-up pain. Oh the pain!

But on the good side of pain, my knees have felt fantastic for the past week. I think swimming and some additional weight training (smart weight training, that is) should help me continue to build knee strength. While I have been trying to rest a little and take my runs easy, I think it was the threat of doctor’s attention and the fear of MRI that cured my knees.

Now, if only I could find a way to scare away stitched while I’m running...

Runs, Goals and Knees

It has been a beautiful couple of days in my neighborhood! In fact, last night (Wednesday) was almost too summery—it had to be in the mid-80s when I ran after work. But more than anything else, it was my anxiety about running in the muggy, warm air that hampered me at all.

I’m glad to report, however, that once I got over myself and warmed up my muscles, I had a nice 5.02-mile run around my neighborhood. And on Tuesday I took a slow 3.3-mile run after giving myself a touch of recovery time.

Neil, Salty and Natalie are right, though: I’m strongly considering getting my knee checked out. I’ve never really had a serious or nagging injury (knock on wood), so I don’t think I believe this thing won’t go away. But I may be persuaded in the next couple of days. I’ve found and have been given a number of resources/doctor-references to get a check-out, so perhaps I’ll see what’s up in the next couple of weeks.

On a brighter note: congratulations to everyone who ran some kick-butt races at the Cleveland Marathon (full, half and 10K…. or should we say 10-mile?) last weekend. I was so bummed to miss out on the fun, but it was for a good cause.

But now it’s goal time. It’s been a couple months since I’ve set a month mileage goal (remember when I set January’s goal for 30 miles and thought I would never make it?), and thought I might get back to that. Not only was it nice to have a goal, but I think it helped me with my focus, which tends to wane sometimes.

So, I thought it might be reasonable to target 100 miles for the next four weeks (starting this past Tuesday). I ran 92 miles in April and will run about as much in May, so I thought it was about time I aim for the century mark. But knowing my uncanny ability to overdo things, I will keep my limitations in mind ;-)

Good news in another arena is that my home computer is up and running again. So, I look forward to catching up on my blog-reading and writing (again). And while I’m at it, I just might get my bike tuned and patched up and start on my brick workouts again.

Speaking of which, I’m reigniting my swimming streak next Monday. It has to be at least a month since I last swam and I’m so looking forward to the feeling of starting all over again and swimming through that pain threshold about which I lecture everyone. Ahh, nothing like your own medicine.

Triumph Over Wednesday

My goal for this week: get past Wednesday. And I did it! Between work and school Wednesday was one of those days that pushes to see how much you can get done in a short period of time and maintain your sanity. I am proud to say that I prevailed. Woo hoo!

It has, nevertheless, held me back from properly blogging, but after next week, I’ll be free to blog way more than is really reasonable.

Despite all the work, Wednesday was in fact a rest day. I ran a really slow and easy 5.5K on Tuesday evening after work. My knee was still a little tweaky when I ran my normal pace at first, so I slowed down for about 2K. When I picked up again, my knee felt fine. So, for Saturday’s race, I might need to do a little more warming up than I’m usual. But that’s probably a good habit to acquire.

Aside from celebrating my making it past Wednesday, I will be running one last time before the race. Today I’m going to take an easy jog during lunch to test out the knee and give some GU a try. In light of my last race and my experience with drinking water (I had to run for 2.5 miles clutching my side and wincing in pain), I thought I would try something a little bit different.

So, as I run today, I’m going to test my GU-ability (opening it, gulping it, running with it). Plus, I’ve never had the stuff and thought it would be a good idea to give a try during training than in the race.

In other news, a friend from my media ethics class has begun bringing me pieces to the bike he’s passing my way. It was only a little strange to walk out of class with a set of wheels, but someday I will have all the pieces to the Nishiki racing bike I’ve been talking about since January. So far, my current bike—LeBron LeTrek—serves me very well. But I can’t say I quite know the difference between my hybrid and a good tri- or racing bike. I’m not quite ready to make the investment (I just made an investment in the Trek!) for a tri-bike, so I’ll have to make due with LeBron and my new bike, whose name is still TBD.