MIA

Yeah yeah yeah I know, I have been MIA from blogworld. Ugh my life has been crazy busy these past couple of weeks and unfortunately, it's not due to running :-( I decided to take two weeks off from running because my knee tightness just does not want to go away. I'm frustrated, angry and upset. The orthopedic surgeon said my cyst will go away on its own. I decided that maybe two weeks worth of rest will help it heal properly. I'm still not sure what is causing the pain.

Here is exactly what happens: I start running at a slow comfortable pace. Whether I stay at this pace or increase it, I begin to get a funny feeling in my knee at around the 20 minute mark. I try to adjust my stride and posture which seems to help for five minutes or so but the feeling still remains. Then the funny feeling turns into a tightening feeling. The feeling is on the outside of my knee just below my knee cap. It occurs where my collateral ligaments meet my fibula. If I try to run through the tightness, it just gets worse. Then the knee sometimes locks and eventually it becomes too painful to run. When I stop and walk, the pain disappears but not entirely. My knee feels bruised afterwards, especially when walking down stairs. It also becomes a bit stiff after sitting for a while.

I have iced it and stretched it. I endured a good two months worth of PT. My IT band feels pretty loose now. I have custom orthodics due to my flat feet. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to make this go away, PLEASE HELP!!! In the meantime, I will stay off it and try to get my running mojo back soon. Oh how I long for the day when I can run six miles pain free.

One of those weekends

It was one of those weekends where I didn't exercise and I ate crap all weekend long. Well I only ate crap on Sunday and maybe today:-) After five days straight of exercise, my body needed the break on Saturday. I'ts tough when you work out hard, as well as work full time, to rest and recover. My body was screaming for it on Friday but I pushed myself to take a brutal spin class. I love this instructor. She is AMAZING and her class really kicks my a**. My legs feel like sacks of bricks afterwards. So I gave myself off on Saturday and then Sunday and then Monday :-(

We had a super bowl party so even though Saturday was a rest day, I spent the entire day (and night) on my feet cleaning all three floors of our house. I broke a sweat a couple of times. I was hoping I would wake up to snow and was disappointed when I saw nothing outside my window. It was probably better it did not snow as I would have had guests treking in all sorts of snow, sand, salt, etc. into my clean house on Sunday. The party was a blast and filled with all kinds of yummy-but-so-bad-for-you treats. We had wings, chips, dip, chicken cutlet-roasted red peppers- mozzerella hero, pasta with meatballs and sausage, cookies, cake (picture is of the triple layer football cake I baked) and more. Oh and the wine and beer kept flowing. I was beyond exhausted (and tipsy) by the time the last guests left at midnight. Side note: one of our guests brought over buffalo chicken dip. Has anyone ever tried this? It was incredible. I had never had it before and couldn't get enough of it.

Needless to say, I did not get much done today in terms of exercise or healthy eating. I'm still recovering and right now, Chinese food sounds like the perfect dinner haha. Looks like I will have to wait until tomorrow to get back to my good old healthy self. I'll hit the gym during lunch and have a salad for lunch.

As for running, I recently received an email from NYRR about about a Run for Haiti on February 20th in Central Park. It's a 4 mile run/walk at 9:00am and all entry fees benefit the relief effort in Haiti. As long as my calendar is free, I think I will run it. Maybe I can get the hubs to run it as well. If you are interested, check it out at NYRR. It's for a great cause and you'll get 4 miles under your belt.

"Life is a zero-sum equation"

"Every minute I save will get used on something else..." written by Barbara Kingsolver in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. (if you have not read it, read it. It's one of my favorite books)

This statement could not be more true. I remind myself of this when my head starts going over the "things-to-do" checklist for the day. As a result, I rush less through life. I live more. If I save a couple of minutes rushing through one thing, I will spend those minutes I worked so hard to save on something else. Unfortunately, we live in a country where everything is extremely rushed. We barely take the time to smell the roses or take care of ourselves. When I find myself putting off a run because I'm rushing to clean the bathroom or fold a load of laundry before I hit the road, I tell myself that it's a zero-sum equation. When I get back from my run, I can do all of those things and if I do not get to them all, tomorrow is another day.

On a side note, my dinner with the gals tonight was cancelled. One of my friends fell ill and we have rescheduled for next Wednesday. I will have to wait another week to see my ladies but I know it will be worth it.

Went to the orthopedic surgeon who said my knee looks great. Everything is intact and there are no tears in the ligaments. He advised me to continue with physical therapy. The cyst is small and should disappear on its own. I ran for two miles today and started to feel something funny in the knee. I stopped immediately and stretched out the ITB. One day it feels great and the next day it seems like its back again (maybe I'm just paranoid). At least I know it is getting better as I can run farther and longer.

4 Miles

in 34:53 today. That's an 8:43 pace. It's the furthest and fastest I have run since November '09. I did the run on the treadmill today. The knee felt great so I kept going. I stopped at 4 miles because I did not want to overdo it. It was an easy run and now my urge for racing is even greater. My legs have given me 7:30's and I'm looking to get back to that again. Could this be the year they give me 7:15s???

I guess I should share the news with my knee. As most of you know, I have been dealing with an annoying knee injury since MCM. My knee tightens up after so many miles/minutes of running. Thanks to our lovely health care system, I had to first get an x-ray to make sure nothing was broken. The x-ray showed everything was fine so off I was sent to physical therapy. I engaged in therapy for two months- resting the knee, avoiding running, doing various stretching exercises, having my ITB massaged by the devil and pumping electric stimulations into my knee. The knee was slowly getting better but I was not seeing the results I would have expected after laying off of it for so long. So I went for the MRI. (I should have had this done in the first place but the stupid health insurance company doesn't want to shell out the money for it right away. First they put you through x-rays and pt and if that fails, you go for the MRI. Well, I did not save them money- all those x-rays and pt were their loss)

MRI results said..........I have a baker's cyst in my knee!!! It's not large and it's ruptured and leaking (not sure if this is good or bad but the knee felt fine today). I was so happy to hear this. Now I know what the problem is and hopefully I can solve it. I have an appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon tomorrow. Can't wait to get this knee fixed right this time.

On another note, two of my best college friends and I made dinner plans for Wednesday night. They are coming in from Jersey so we can eat, drink and catch up. It just so happens to be restaurant week which makes this little get together even sweeter. We're heading to a Japanese restaurant which I know is good. I can't wait. I love these girls. They hold a very special place in my heart. I don't see them as often as I would like so I cherish the moments we get to spend together. They make me happy and whole. When we are together, it's as if little has changed since college. Wednesday couldn't come fast enough :-)