the waiting game

I am still waiting for my knee to feel better. At this point, it hasn't been close to ready for running again.

Two weeks with no running. Nearly a week with no cycling. Yesterday I did put the bike on the trainer and spun, fast, in the easiest gear for 40 minutes. I was thinking maybe that would loosen things up. It didn't seem to help, but it didn't seem to hurt either. At any rate, it helped my mood. I was so stoked to be on my bike, even on the trainer. I put on the fastest techno/rap music I have on my ipod and was dancing like crazy. Yes, dancing. On the bike. It's possible.

Not running makes life a little harder. It's like, if happiness is a horizontal line, when I don't run I permanently hover just below the line. I can't QUITE be happy, ever, if I can't run.

But I'm hanging in there with it. I've actually been so busy that I can't imagine how I had so much time to train before. My theory is that subconsciously, I've managed to fill my schedule because I'm just that type of person that needs a full schedule.

So I've done some fun things. I went to one of the practice 5k's for Girls on the Run and helped out and took some pics for them. Holy cow, that was FUN. I was initially bummed because I was planning on running with the girls, but handing out rubber bracelets (to count laps, how clever!) and taking pictures and cheering them on was every bit as much fun. I got some pretty good pics, considering I don't have a super awesome camera. And the girls' enthusiasm was infectious. They were hilarious. The fastest girl ran it in 24 something - yep, faster than I've EVER ran a 5k! But they all cheered each other on, and when the slowest girl - who walked a lot and looked rather discouraged at times - crossed the finish line (they were holding out crepe paper), the other girls all made a tunnel for her to run through!! I got a good pic of it, and I totally wanted to cry when they did it. It was totally the girls' idea. LOVED it.

I still can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone as to WHY my knee is still driving me nuts, so my best guess is a bad case of tendonitis. At least, I'm told by health professionals that it's nothing serious, nothing broken or torn - it just really hurts and nobody is sure why. It feels super stiff most of the time, especially if I've been spending much time OFF of it. Today, I took a tactical shooting class with my husband, and I was standing for about four hours. The knee felt better than it has in the past week. But as soon as I sat for a while, it was all stiff and painful and unstable when I tried to stand on it again. It gets stiff and painful if it's in one position for too long, period, which means I wake up several times a night to change positions.

I'm trying to make it better. I stretch. I massage. I do exercises that seem like they may help. I ice. I'm taking herbal supplements and rubbing arnica on it. I've tried taping and bracing (with two different knee braces) and compression. And it's not better.....yet.

Honestly, my plan for the Pig now is that, if my knee is well enough for running at any point in the next three weeks leading up to the race, I will still run it. I will run it for fun and for the big old party that it is. That's really why I wanted to run the Pig - it's my hometown race and it's known for its massive spectator support. I'm bummed that I probably have to ditch my original plan - to run it for time and get the best time I'm capable of doing - but maybe at this point in my training, I shouldn't be so hardcore about marathons. I'm getting to the point where I can push myself and my training for half marathon, and I totally want to continue to do so (sub 2, here I come!) but marathons can be a fun adventure thing for now. At least until I figure out why I get hurt every time I try to train for one.

Oh yeah, back there I did say tactical shooting class!! It's funny, I realized that I got into shooting guns - a little - last time I was laid up and couldn't run. What can I say, it's something of a substitute adrenaline rush. Anyway, I never got REALLY into it, but recently my husband bought a handgun and so I took a concealed carry class with him. Primarily, I did it because his gun still intimidated me a little, and I wanted to make sure that if it was in my house, that I could be more confident with it and know that I could handle it safely if it came down to it.

I loved doing the ccw class. I loved it so much that, in addition to applying for my ccw license (which is on my 30 by 30 list, actually) I got a gun of my very own and decided to take a more advanced shooting class with the huz. That was today, and it got me out into the beautiful weather, which was good for me too.

So that's where my life has been lately. Not a lot of training. I should be swimming more, but it's so hard to motivate myself to swim when it's not part of the swim/bike/run package, if that makes sense. Swimming has been frustrating me as of late, since I've hit a plateau and my attempts to improve aren't doing a whole lot. Hopefully I'm not losing too awfully much fitness here, but I was training hard for a while and as long as the knee is better SOON, I'm not worried. Yet.

Can't wait until I can blog that I'm back to running again. Hopefully it's soon!!