I haven’t felt this way since “Funkytown!”
I attempted to go for a run on Tuesday, and it was kind of a fail. But not because of my knee necessarily…but more because of Daylight Savings Time (or the no longer saving time…whichever).
Seriously, HATE when we fall back an hour and it gets dark at 5 in the evening. Also, Ive said it before, but Virginia is quite possibly the most pedestrian unfriendly state ever. At least the greater Richmond area is. There are no sidewalks and very few street lights anywhere, and very few shoulders on the side of the road. So, it’s very difficult to run here in daylight, let alone go running in the dark.
I am not adverse to running in the dark if I have to (I know…I run in parks by myself, I’ll run by myself in the dark…I’m so going to be a statistic someday), I even have a fun reflective vest to wear when I run in the dark (thanks daddy!). However, I am adverse to running in the dark with no shoulder or sidewalk to run on.
I already feel like I’m testing fate by running on the roads in the daylight (that’s why I love running in parks so much), there’s no way I’ll do it at night. However, I can’t run in the parks at night because the cops are apparently cracking down and making sure everyone leaves at sundown.
Sigh.
Which brings me back to my story I started this whole post out with. I only managed to run a mile on Tuesday before a cop chased me out of the park. It was actually kind of amusing, I tried to pretend I didn’t see him and start a second loop, but seriously, the loop starts/ends in this wide open part of the park with no trees, so it obviously didn’t work.
The cop yelled at me before I even made it 5 steps into the trees and I had to give up my run. Which sucked because I didn’t really get a good test of my knee.
The first half mile was very painful. But it was weird, I passed the half mile marker and it was like a switch went off in my knee and it was fine for the second half mile, in fact it felt great. I felt like I was FLYING during that mile (please don’t laugh when I finished the mile in 11 minutes and felt fast). But, as soon as I stopped running it hurt again.
So, recap. First half mile, super painful. Second half mile, felt great. Also, I’ve lost ALL my speed over the summer (what little speed I had). Hate the hot weather (apparently I hate everything about this state and I should just move).
However, my knee felt fine today, so I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill during lunch (ugh I know…HATE the treadmill too…but it’s either that…or play chicken with the tractor trailers on the roads here…and since we’ve already discussed the lack of sidewalks, the treadmill won).
Again, the first half mile was excruciating…but then I ran 3.5 miles (at a 10:57 min/mile pace) and it felt great. It felt better than great. It was like the best run I’ve had in MONTHS which is weird since it was on a treadmill…but oh my god it was almost blissful.
I even felt amazing afterwards. No pain, I felt refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day. Except for the whole hot and sweaty thing that lasted even after my shower.
So, I’m slightly confused what to do about my knee. Is it normal that it hurts for the first half mile of my runs? No…not really…but then it goes away and I’m fine for the rest of the run which makes me think it’s not really anything serious so I don’t really want to go to a doctor to be told it’s all in my head.
Not sure what to do. Le Sigh.
Anyways, hope everyone is having a fantastic day!


