Running Update

Unfortunately, there was no rocket scientist around 10 months ago to tell me that diving into running, especially a vigorous half marathon training plan, after a decade of inactivity was not the best plan.

So unknowingly, I really screwed up my body by forcing weak muscles to do activity that was beyond them. It went okay for a while, but finally my body screamed it had had enough and gave me an excruciating knee to prove its point.

I've been treating the muscles that have contributed to that knee pain for about a month but not only am I not making much progress...I've realized that there is still a root problem that can re-injure my knee or come up with brand new injuries. Root problem= I'm weak. So today I met with a guy who showed me a bunch of medieval torture, I mean strengthening exercises. These focus especially on my abdomen and glutes. I'll be doing these religiously for about 4-6 weeks while praying that along with my foam rolling exercises they improve my ability to run pain-free.

I've gotten out of the habit of running and thought about calling it quits completely because of these injuries. But when I really contemplated it, I realized that never running again would make me sad. I would like to keep trying to get back into it for now. I'm willing to work hard and apparently spend a ton of money just to get myself back to a place where I can comfortably run 3-5 miles.

If my efforts fail, at least I'll know I tried. And at least I'll still be 6 sizes smaller than I was last April. I'm not letting that get away from me. I'll be doing some different cardio exercise while running isn't working. Hello elliptical machine!