catherine's running efforts

Eric's counting these miles, so I will too. Even though I wasn't carrying Elliott. Grove Creek? It was beautiful. 

I know I'm behind on FRBing. I'll catch up probably on Wednesday. 

I didn't catch up on Wednesday. Happy Monday. 

Last week I was going to write about my trip to the doctor for my knee, but now it's been awhile since that happened. To sum up, I wanted to go to the doctor that people had recommended for Lily, but in order to get a referral I'd first have to go to the orthopedic person at the student health center. But he said that I didn't need to go to another doctor and that really I just need to avoid running on hills and running long distances. Super. Can I say again how much I hate student health insurance at BYU? And also doctors who see running as something that hurts people instead of something that makes people healthier? And yes, he was overweight. Yeah, I went there.

Anyway, this morning I was all ready to go back out there and take life by the horns, and then my *other* knee started hurting after 2 miles. I was already on my way back home and didn't have a phone (also, who calls for ride with less than a mile to go?), so I walked a couple of times and then decided to just push through so that I wouldn't have to be seen walking in my own neighborhood. I also tried running barefoot; that didn't make the pain go away, but I was able to run for longer without it making me stop. I noticed, though, that my heels were kissing the ground a little more passionately than they did last time I ran barefoot, so I think that with the lower heel in the Altras I changed how I run a bit (more midfoot than forefoot) since there's more space. I've written before about how I really believe that the forefoot strike is what stopped the knee pain of years past, so tomorrow I'm going to try old shoes with a higher heel and see how that goes. Also, though, I was running slightly downhill and would be less forefooty on a downhill anyway, so I'm not ready to make any firm conclusions. 

PM: .5 around the track barefoot to check things out. My knee seized up pretty bad at the end, so nothing helpful there.  

A few miles with Eric and Elliott out and about and around the cemetery. My knee didn't hurt at all. Maybe it's all in my head. 

The leg/hip exercises I do (sometimes):

The side-lying clam thing (with theraband)

The hip tilt thing on a stair

Lying leg lifts - up, side, back (with leg weights or theraband)

Wall sits

Squats against a wall with an exercise ball on my back (I think this is more for quads and core) 

Eric and I were going to run together again, but after we got ready my calendar alarm reminded me that my online class meeting was supposed to start in 10 minutes. I guess it's good that I remembered, but Elliott started getting fussy when I finished up, so we kind of missed the running together window. I was going to just go to bed and skip the run, but I was already ready and everything so I decided to just do a mile (it was dark outside). No knee pain. Maybe I'm healed. Maybe a mile isn't long enough to be able to tell.  

A nice run with Eric and Elliott on the bike path. We have to run a couple of blocks to catch it, and then we follow it back and through Art Dye Park and then up a little hill until it ends and we turn around. If we tack on a little bit at the end we can come up with 5 miles. 

I thought my knee would hurt for sure on the way back because of the hill, but it totally didn't. At all. The whole time.

Miles were 9:03, 9:05, 8:44, 8:17, 7:48. The last mile was a little hard for me because we weren't going downhill anymore (and I'm kind of out of Catherine shape right now), but I figured that pushing even though it was uncomfortable would be better in the long run. Plus, it was a celebration of no knee pain.  

Down the block and back. It was pretty late, so this was more of a symbolic run. 

Two miles in the morning. A little warm because it was later than it was supposed to be. No knee pain. 

The Relief Society in my ward started a running group that runs twice a week, so this morning I went and ran with them (4 other women). The pace wasn't what I'd need every day (um...I don't run every day...), but it was really fun to run with people and to listen/talk. I evangelized the FRB to them because I love the FRB so much. Also maybe I wouldn't have run today (again) if I hadn't had people to meet. 5.5 miles with them, then 1.5 by myself to shake things out. No knee pain at all. 

9:48, 11:07, 11:25, 10:51, 10:39, 9:38, 7:51 

Friday 5 with Eric and Elliott. We didn't leave until 10:00 and it was *so* hot and the drinking fountains along the path didn't work (we do an out-and-back on this bike path in AF - goes through Art Dye park and up a hill) and we were going a little faster than last week and now I'm so so thirsty. 

My knee didn't hurt at all, but I don't like how gun-shy I am. I feel like I'm having to build up my confidence all over again. I know I can run X miles, but can I run X miles without my knee hurting? What about if there's too much of a downhill? Will it hurt if I go too fast or too slow? If I start doing too much too quickly? I don't like worrying about it.

9:16, 8:59, 8:54, 8:45, 8:33. 

I'm so excited for the wedding 5k tomorrow! Yay Allie and Fiddy!

Allie's Wedding Bells 5k was awesome. And I got to meet the amazing Bonnie. Loved it all. Except for the part where I learned about what it feels like to try to run faster than I should. Eric and I had a plan to split the 5k in half, but I got all caught up in the excitement and ran my first lap and a half in a pace that's about 3 minutes faster than I usually run, so I kind of tanked and ended up forcing Eric into a switching-more-frequently plan (and made him run more than me). Also I forgot to stop my watch when I wasn't running (so I just guessed at a race time). But it's fun to watch it on the garmin player. 

Afterward Eric and I did a mile and a half around the park with Elliott. It was hot. We'll probably go out again later this evening. 

PM: Dry Canyon with Eric and Elliott. Probably my hardest hike so far (at least the first mile) - I don't know if that's because we went up the steep part (the way we came down was a lot more Catherine-friendly) or because pretty much all of my miles this week were since Thursday. It was beautiful, though. 

At the gym. It's sweaty there. I watched Grey's Anatomy on my phone because I'm really into that right now even though I've already watched all of the episodes. 9:05/mile, 1% incline for the first 3 and 2% for the last 2. 

I miss my Altras. They feel a lot better on my feet. But I'm afraid to wear them because they were what I was wearing when my knees were hurting. I'll totally take blisters instead of knee pain. 

Also I've been noticing from the pictures of the Wedding Bells 5k that my legs don't kick up like the legs of the faster runners. If I ever think about what my legs are doing I just try to think about being relaxed and easy, and it looks like this makes them stay pretty low. If I try to have more range of motion will I go faster? Or will I have more range of motion if I get faster? 

I'm not really trying to get faster right now, though. Right now I just want to run a little bit more than I did last week and take care of all the other stuff I'm supposed to be taking care of.  

My legs were *so* tired and heavy and slow this morning since it was only about 12 hours since yesterday's run. But I pushed through and stuff. First mile on my own, 2nd with the ward women, and the rest on my own again (they were having a shorter morning). As I was running on 100 E I saw someone coming toward me on the sidewalk and from far away I thought maybe it was Toby even though it was later than Toby runs, but it wasn't. But whoever it was was running with a group that included Lindsay Dunkley so I said hi. I wish she still FRBed. :)

9:18, 10:45, 9:26, 9:51, 9:15 

At the gym. The first 6 were in the Cardio Cinema with Ocean's 11, and the last 6 were in the main area with Grey's Anatomy. The problem with my Kinvaras is that, while they're great shoes and I loved them a lot pre-baby, my feet got bigger with pregnancy and I didn't buy a bigger size when I got a new pair last year. And Eric keeps telling me to buy a new pair of shoes in the bigger size, but it's not like money grows on trees for us. So now there are a couple of spots on my left foot that rub on the shoe. I almost stopped after 10 miles today because of one of those spots, but then the blister popped and all was good again. 9:30 miles, 1.5 incline for the first half and 1.0 for the second. 

I think I'm going to try to go back to the Altras next week. I love how much room my feet have in them. And I went almost 300 miles in them before my knee started hurting, so probably it's not like I'm going to put them on and all of a sudden have knee pain again. If the knee pain's even related to the shoes. Though my knee didn't stop hurting until I switched shoes, and since then I haven't had any pain at all. But I hate to blame the shoes. They're so comfy. But I hate being injured.