As expected...

As expected, the imbalance dragon has been puffing his little bursts of fire at me. I went for a run on Monday morning, but only managed a few k before my knee started to hurt to the point where I had to stop. I did jog home again, but only because that was faster than walking. Not happy.

I had a physio appointment on Thursday afternoon, so no running until then. He confirmed that everything on my bad side was very tight, and a combination of very weak glutes and some muscle just above my knee with relatively strong quads was pulling my knee cap out of alignment, hence the pain. I don't know whether they're weak because I was protecting them for so long, or because of nerve damage, but the trick now is to strengthen them. To that end, he's given me some exercises that are supposed to do the trick, and I've got two weeks before I see him again to "make those muscles pump, baby"!

He gave me the OK to run, so we headed off to Run Club. It was;
- 1200 at AT pace. I'm still getting used to my pacing again and I started too fast, but brought it back after a quiet reprimand from Tim at the 400 mark.
- 10 minutes of rolling hills. I walked down the steepest parts to protect my knees.
- 10 minutes of 1min on / 1 min off.
My knee survived OK, but my thigh was pretty sore when Dr pain had 'released' all the tight bits. Finished off the evening with a bite to eat with the rest of the Run Clubbers down at a local.

Nothing on Friday, recovering (how come I have to recover after 5k??) for Saturday's Striders' 10k. Tiger Angel had volunteered to marshall before she found out she was clear to run, so I was running it on my own. Even as I was going off for a warm up I still had no idea of what I was aiming to do, so when Ben said he wanted to do sub 49 it sounded like a good idea to me. We sat behind the 50 minute pacer for the first 3 or 4 k, noting that his "putting time in the bank" had him running at about the same rate as I thought we needed to (I've never been a great fan of the time-in-the-bank theory, even on a hilly course like Lane Cove). Consequently, we were actually about the right time at the half way. We didn't rush the down hills, but used them to recover so we'd be ready for the later undulations and then the big rush of the final couple of k.

There were a couple of times around the 7-8k section where I thought that I was going to lose Ben, but I could hear that he was breathing cleanly and rhythmically, so I figured that he still had a bit more in him. To give him his absolute due, when I called for him to catch up, he responded immediately and was very quickly up on pace and he never dropped again. At the 9k I suggested that he go ahead and make the running, whereupon he promptly took the lead and pulled out a 4:30 to have us home in 48:43!

Since I started running again, I've been waiting for the day when it would all feel good again. I got that day on Saturday. Running down the hill with Ben brought back all those old feelings of just floating along that I love. Unfortunately, at about the 9k mark (just after Ben took the lead), my knee started complaining again. It wasn't bad like it had been on Monday so I had no problems getting home, but it was a reminder that I still have to build for a while yet.

This race was my focus from the day I got the OK to run, and I haven't thought past it at all. Alas, now is the time to look forward again. What's the 'Next Big Thing'? Dunno yet, but whatever it is starts tomorrow morning early... :-)

Gnome