Running Chick

It finally feels like summer around here, what with the 90 degree temps we’ve had for the past few days.  It’s been nice, but I really miss having central a/c.

I’ve been dealing with some left knee issues since April that really got bothersome in June.  I thought it was a tight IT band so I really worked on getting that stretched out, only to find that the pain didn’t go away.  After a particularly bad run that had me limping, wincing and cussing the entire way, I consulted with my physical therapist friend who diagnosed me with patellar tendonitis.  I didn’t have to stop running (“..I won’t tell you to stop running, because I know you won’t..” says PT) but I did cut my mileage and pacing way back (four days to three), quit running on the cambered roads around my house and did lots of stretching/strengthening exercises.  Particularly the ones here and here.  The exercises in the second link were the ones that really made a big difference for me, I noticed improvements in mobility and decreased pain after about three days and I’m just about back to normal about two and a half weeks later.  I’ll probably start to slowly rebuild my mileage this week and hope to be back on track in the next couple of weeks.

My totals for June (bum knee and all) were 68 miles running and 55 miles biking.

This week I did two five milers and one hot, humid, miserable 10 miler early Saturday morning.  My overall pace ended up being around 11:46/mile (gah) and I’m very lucky I was able to get that. My body does not do well in the heat and humidity.

There were a lot of people out on the trail that morning, we all probably thought we’d beat the heat and get out very early.  Everybody I passed was drenched in sweat, had beet red faces, and huffing and puffing like crazy.  Haha, that Mother Nature sure is a jokester, she got all of us but good.

Josh has been training for RAGBRAI (two weeks!) and I’ve been riding with him a couple of times/week.  On the 4th of July, we did a 50 mile ride from Calumet to the Jampot in Eagle River, and back with stops at the Fitz (Short’s on tap!), Drift Inn and Shute’s.  That was the longest I’d ridden in quite some time, it was a lot of fun.

Wildlife report!

Modest Sphinx moth. 3” wingspan. Cute in a please-don’t-eat-me Mothra kinda way.

Raccoon prints on the grill.

Our bear friend, who is apparently training to join the circus.  Good thing we have our garbage barrels outside and he can train whenever he feels like it.

Just don't hit my car, dummy.

The week according to my phone....

I was missing my old running routes so I drove into town for my Saturday long run (a whopping 5 miles). The bridge as seen from Navy Street. Totals for this week were 15.5 miles @ 10:40 plus one 10-mile bike ride and a couple days of strength training.

Recovery.  It was warm out and this tasted so good.

Covered Drive. 

Phlox in the backyard.

Smooch.

Onnela School

This is why I never can complete a quality stretching session.

Yogi and Boo Boo are back.

Apple blossoms.

The little toad I rescued from the pit of doom.

Bye!

Lots of marine traffic around the Keweenaw tonight.  It’s almost as much as the traffic on the Liminga Road during my run.

I decided to run down to the folks’ house and have Josh pick me up on his way home from work.  It’s all downhill, and I figured my legs would appreciate it after yesterday’s strength training session and my hill session from Monday.

As soon as I turned onto Liminga Road, I hit a very obnoxious headwind.  It was cold and generally unpleasant making the last two miles of my run also generally unpleasant.  My left knee started bugging me with just over a mile to go due to the outrageous camber in the road.  I know this is a no-no, but I ended up switching sides every quarter mile or so just to get some relief.  Next time, I’ll take an alternate route that gives me less time on that road.  My pace for the 4.25 miles was 10:14. Sorta speedy but that's my average pace and my first two speedy (downhill) miles made up for the slow (strong headwind) last two miles.

Today is National Running Day.

Yesssss.