blog blog blog

Here's a note to myself and others: I should follow the definitions of a blog as described in my Reinventing the News class. This means I should do a fair amount of linking, commenting and, you know, actually writing. Frequent updates seem to be a major downfall of mine, so let's work on correcting that.

First and foremost, my right knee is feeling considerably better. This does not mean that it's in perfect condition but I am capable of running without experiencing the pain. And, also important, I can walk without sensing that my knee cap is going to explode. Hard to imagine if you've never endured knee pain, but it was something of the norm last week, particularly while at work. Lots of walking, lots of pain. Proper resting, consistent icing and strengthening exercises have served as a sort of remedy. I also plan to relieve some stress by putting a heavier focus on cross-training, particularly now that my university pool is open.

Last night, Cait and I went to the Fens to do some track-style workouts. Like last time, this included the usual jogging mixed with A-steps, B-steps, the old man shuffle, lunges, etc. and sprinting. We cut the stairs out of our routine for time/motivation purposes, much to my relief, although I did climb to the sixth floor of my building upon returning home. Of course, the Fens track is a popular destination for local athletes, so we had the unusual experience of working out around people who were working out. This created conflicts regarding the sharing of the track. A certain group of local young people chose to form lines, standing side-by-side, and perform their exercises, thus making it impossible to go around them. Other joggers - like the man running infinite laps or the woman with the atrocious form - provided material for commentary. And, most of all, the company of others made me extremely self-conscious during my sprints. Was I running fast enough? What did they think of my runner's face? I guess I need to get used to these things.

Another hilarious point: turns out I thought the 5K was this upcoming Sunday. It's Saturday. Sooner than I thought, but not necessarily a bad thing. I'm unreasonably nervous. Wish us luck!

my tongue's the only muscle on my body that works harder than my heart

Let's consider this morning step 3. Step 1 was deciding to run the marathon. Step 2 was starting training. Step 3 is figuring our registration and actually applying to charities. Turns out this morning's registration was strictly for qualified runners, which Cait and I are not. But the good news is that applications for several of the charities were released so we had the opportunity to tap into those.

Step 2 has been the most interesting and challenging so far. Last night, the two of us took over one of Wentworth's quads where Cait busted out some of her old track exercises. It was good to mix up the jogging with some good old speed workouts. It was also nice to get in touch with some muscles that I don't usually use while running. We followed these exercises with some stairs, which will always freak me out a lot. I don't know what it is, but I always feel like I am going to go tumbling down stairs and land on my ankle. Maybe it's because I've done that several times before, particularly when I went to Westfield High School. Regardless, we got those stairs did then we cooled off. For whatever reason, my arms were killing me. This makes little sense because we did absolutely no arm exercises during any part of the workout. Weird. Then today I faced the scorching sun to pump out a 5.5 mile run along the Charles. It was nice to be surrounded by serious runners. One guy ran backwards faster than I run forward. Umm... And this other guy paced himself to me which made me feel pretty good about my speed. Mostly, everyone looked good and I felt great.

I would have felt better if I had appropriate runner attire on. This is something I need to remedy sooner rather than later. Fractions of my next pay check or two will need to be dedicated to expanding my running wardrobe. RIght now, I'm jogging in baggy T-shirts and this one pair of shorts that actually fits correctly. I need more shorts, spandex shirts, pants and basically anything that doesn't make me feel like I'm running in a pile of my own sweat. I also need some new sneakers. My feet have absolutely had it with my old ones. And by "had it," I mean that my toenails look like they're going to fall off any day now. Which would be inconvenient.