Going for a Walk

I've been mostly good about taking the Dr's advice about my knee. He told me I could run but only as long as it didn't hurt, and he told me to cross train, cross train, cross train. So I've been doing that. 3-4 days a week I've been doing hip, thigh, and glute strength training to help take some of the pressure off the knee joints. 2-3 days a week I've been going to the pool to swim, and each time, I'm able to swim farther and more efficiently. I'm really starting to enjoy the pool, and like what it's doing for my body.

Then, last Sunday, I decided to go to the gym and run/bike. I ran until it started to hurt, then switched to the bikes. I thought that was doing the right thing because the doctor had recommended biking, but I'm thinking that doing that AFTER I ran to the point of pain was a bad idea.

That evening, I took my little man to California Adventure to see World of Color. About an hour after arriving, my knee was in total pain. Walking around the park was really excruciating, especially walking down the slope of the pier. I could hardly bend my knee. I started panicking and texted a few people that I know to see if they would be interested in buying my Disneyland Half Marathon bib.

I'm not a quitter. I don't ever back off from something I say I'm going to do. So this should tell you how bad I was hurting.

But even with all the pain, the idea of not doing something that I committed to doing LAST year was even worse. I decided to take a few days and try one more thing before throwing in the towel. I took Monday off completely. Tuesday night, I went for a swim workout and felt great. Went further than I had swam before, and would've gone further if it weren't for a (I'm assuming) drunk guy who kept, "Oops!" swimming into my lane and then diving underneath me to get out of my way. ??? After the 4th time he did it, I just decided to be done and went home. Disgusting Perv!

Last night, I went for a walk. Disneyland requires that we maintain a 16min per mile pace. (Because they wouldn't want us pesky runners to interfere with their amusement park attendance for the day. They don't even give you admission into the park on the day of the race, you have to pay for that separately, but don't get me started.) Anyway, so last night, about 8:30pm, I set out to walk and see if I could maintain a 16 min pace and not feel any pain.

I walked for over 2 hours, and my ipod was giving me trouble so I had no real idea what my pace was or how far I'd actually gone. I knew the mileage was off because I run these streets and at about the point that knew I'd gone at least 5 miles, my ipod was only showing 2.5 miles. It also was telling me my pace was about 19min/mile. I was purposely keeping my pace comfortable because I don't want to cause an injury. So between the feedback I was getting and walking comfortably, I felt really slow (and really bored).

When I got home, I mapped it, and found I had actually walked 8.1 miles at a 16:08 pace!! That's PERFECT! I wasn't in any pain at all (unless you count what felt like a blister forming on one of my toes - damn socks!), and so I went to bed hoping I woke up feeling the same way.

Today, I feel great! My right thigh is sore, but I know that's because of the strength work I've been doing and not the walk. So I've made a decision. I will be walking, not running, the Disneyland Half Marathon this year. I'm going to take lots of pics, enjoy the atmosphere... I might have to run those bases at Angel Stadium just because.... :) And then I'll run across the finish line for a strong finish!

We can't always do things exactly the way we planned, but that doesn't mean we can't still do them.