catherine's running efforts

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.