New Tenni-Runner Day.

I have to admit that I am an avid lover of shoes and find the nearby shoe warehouses difficult to resist when I have some time to kill over lunch. I tell myself that I’ll just casually browse the scary tall heals, the cute flats and the sexy pumps, but the temptation is too high and I rarely walk out of there empty-handed. Yesterday was a different kind of shoe day… new tenni-runner day! With my knee trouble still lurking around, I thought it would be a good idea to trade in the old kicks for some shiny new running shoes. Being partial to Saucoony’s, this was the easiest shoe shopping experience ever. One trip to Gary Gribbles running store and 10 min. later, I was walking out with my new tenni-runners excited to try the 5 mile run later that night. And boy, I tell you what, it was glorious! The shoes are an amazing. I ran all 5 miles with no pain in my knee… my ankle is another story though.

I’ve been trying to avoid running on hard surfaces to help lessen the pounding on my knees, so I’ve been running on the grass whenever possible. This has really helped the last few runs I’ve been on. The deceptive part about the grass is the hidden potholes. While I do run with my head down to watch for the concealed weapons of ankle destruction, my eyes can’t seem to discover all of them before my foot stumbles into them. Plus, with my chin buried in my chest, I’m left vulnerable to any obstruction directly ahead of me. I can only image what the passers-by think when they see me running, head down, about to run into the 50 light poles that are scattered about the small patch of grass between the sidewalk and street, but twisting awkwardly at the last second, narrowly avoiding the tall, white rods of Illumination. I’m sure it’s quite a sight.

The best part of last night’s run was that once I made it though the crater mine field, over the bridge and onto the trail, I was almost pummeled by the incredulously high number of bikers flying down the hills and around the tree-blinding turns. I turned my iPod way down to barely audible so I could hear the flashes before they buzzed passed me. I was so worried about falling into a hole and getting run over, that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. The miles flew by and I didn’t even have time to think about my knee. I don’t know if it was the softer soil, distractions or the new tenni-runners that helped my knee feel better, but new tenni-runner day was a great day!

Diplomas, Parties and Inspirational Speeches

Ah, high school graduation. A time of excitement and fun, sadness and unknowing. As I watched my baby sister-in-law walk across the stage of her High School graduation this past weekend, I couldn’t help but think about my high school career years ago. My senior year was probably the most fun year of the four. I only had half days the entire 2nd semester because I was in a work study program and I got extended lunch periods because I was in the “Cafeteria Kid Cop” class. (we got to walk around during one lunch period and tell kids to pick up their trash. It was a cake job, and as a reward for our job well done, we got to go off-site for the other 2 lunch periods.) As a result, I left school around 12:00 each day, went to lunch with my friends and then headed home for an afternoon siesta before going back to school at 3:00 for basketball or soccer practice. It was a pretty sweet schedule when I look back. I got a couple hours of hard work and learning, took a large afternoon break and then worked out for 2 and a half hours before coming home to an amazing home-cooked meal, ready when I walked in the door. What do I have to do to get that schedule back today?

It wasn’t a great year just because of the fantastic schedule, it was also the year that my class bonded and my group of friends expanded as we merged with other groups in our class. Without the friends from older classes to split up our groups, we turned to each other to fill the void. We may have just been acquaintances those first 3 years, but senior year united us and made it a fantastic year of fun times. About 20 of us decided we’d spend the last few weeks of HS playing Assassins. If you’re not familiar with the game, it is pretty much spectacular: each person picks a name out of a hat and that name is the person you have to hunt down and shoot with your nerf gun. Once you’ve successfully assassinated your target, you get to take the name they’ve drawn as your next target. I don’t remember who won, or who got me out, but I do remember hiding in bushes and around corners to sneak-attack my targets. We didn’t leave the house without our gun and were always on the defensive for fear a sharp-shooter was lurking nearby.

So, I say to all those high school graduates out there: enjoy your final summer before college; before your friends scatter to different cities and it gets harder to keep in touch, before you realize that college isn’t all about parties and fun; before you live off Ramen and Spaghetti O’s; before you have to take complete responsibility for your actions, ALL your actions. Before you jump into the next chapter of your life, take a moment to reflect on the years you’ve surpassed and take a deep breath and enjoy what you’re doing right now. Because no matter how exciting the next few years will be for you, you just can’t beat running around with a nerf gun, stalking your friends trying to get the next kill.

It's all in my head --- or knee

For about 10 years, I have suffered from what many may see as an irrational trepidation towards knees. I don’t like them. I don’t like looking at them, I don’t like talking about them and I sure as hell don’t like touching them. If anyone gets within 5 feet of my knees, I start cringing and immediately tense up, followed shortly by a light sweat. My instincts demand that my knee bend, often putting me in the standing ball or fetal position depending if I’m standing or sitting during the attack. This anxiety towards knees started back in high school when I went to a general physician because I was experiencing pain in my knee when playing basketball. I’ll spare you the details, but needless to say, I walked out of there terrified and emotionally scared from the way he handled my knee.

It is partially because of this fear that I am now in quite a predicament. With my recent increase in running mileage, my oh-so-familiar knee pains have flared up again, but this time it’s more persistent. My right knee will allow me to run about 4 miles before completely giving up. It starts to feel like it’s just going to buckle and if I try to run through it, I get shooting pain all around the knee. Not good.

The awesome part about this past Saturday’s run was that we did a large 8 mile loop, so when my knee decided it was done, I couldn’t have possibly been further away from my car (note: see map below for visual). So, I did what any respectable 26-year-old would do: called Mom to come pick me up. I flagged down a stranger filling up his gas tank and asked to borrow a cell phone. After curiously looking me over and cringing at my overly-sweaty, beet red face, he reluctantly handed me his cell phone. After several rings, I was almost worried the ‘rents were either not home or where screening their calls and ignoring the unfamiliar number. Thankfully though, Mom answered and 5 minutes later Dad was there to rescue me in his shiny black Buick. (side note: I would have called the hubs, but he was about 15 min. away, whereas I was practically down the street from my parents’ house. A girl can only sit on the corner for so long before passersby begin to speculate…)



I haven’t gone on a run since Saturday, optimistically (or stupidly) hoping that my knee will heal itself with some good old fashion rest and TLC, but I just don’t think I have enough time to give it the proper amount of rest it truly needs. My ½ marathon is in 4 weeks and I’m already 2 weeks off on my training schedule. I’m starting to have flash backs about the tiny, dark, dark room with the bad, bad man.

Despite advice, stretching tips and leg taping by my pseudo physical therapist, Danielle, (clarification: she’s a real PT, just not my PT) I think I may have to make a trip back to the dreaded doctor. Please just don’t mock me when I make my husband come with me and hold my hand.

No more audibles

During the past 7 weeks of training, I have frequented the site www.mapmyrun.com which is great for finding routes of the appropriate distance and I can check how many hills I’ll have to climb during that run. Seems pretty simple, right? Well, apparently I am struggling, because the last few times I’ve mapped out my run beforehand, I seem to end up off track. The first time it happened really was a misunderstanding. We were running on a trail and when we came to a fork in the trail, I decided we should take a Larry instead of a Ralph. Consequently, we ended up on a shorter path than expected and ran 2.7 miles instead of 3.2. The second time it happened I was running alone, so I don’t feel as guilty. Once I got started, I decided to change my previously mapped out route and thought I remembered another route that was less hilly. Throw the flag on this runner for calling an audible because I definitely shot my yardage stats and ran 5 miles instead of the intended 4.5.

This last time, D and I ran together and we ran a big circle around my neighborhood and then an out and back. It’s a very basic route with some good rolling hills. My knee was hurting me, so it felt like we were running slower than usual, so imagine my surprise when we finished our 4.5 miles in 37 minutes. We’ve been averaging about a 9 min mile on our shorter runs, but I knew for sure that we weren’t doing 8.20 min miles. So, I looked up the route again and I’ll be damned if I didn’t have us turn around about a block short of where we should have, leaving us about .37 miles short .

Punt the ball because the quarter back of these running routes went 3 and out. Maybe I need to stick with marked trails or only run routes that end in zero: 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, etc. Apparently when you add a .2 or .5 to the mileage, it’s a trick play in my mind.