First, welcome aboard TD. Glad to see you took me up on my suggestion.
Then,
1.9 miles yesterday.
I was out running errands all afternoon, so took advantage of being nearby Lake Phalen, which is almost exactly three miles in circumference, for an intended two-lap run there. It was pretty windy and our first really chilly day this fall. I always get a little existential dread on the first chilly day of the season, looking ahead to 5-6 more months of it, and wondering why on earth I came back to live on this particular patch of earth.
Anyway, the idea was to take it slow and do a 10mm pace or something for the first lap and then see how I felt on the second lap. Maybe push it, maybe maintain a nice comfortable pace. For the last two weeks I had been running fairly fast (for me) and thought it might do me some good to back off a bit for this run and then do the same Como Lake out-and-back run on Saturday as I did on Tuesday and see how the pace felt. On Wednesday I had this urge to do the exact same Como Lake run too, just a day later, but I'm not sure I'm ready for consecutive-day running at that distance (close to 7 miles) and pace (between 9 and 9:30 mm). Probably should've listened to my body's urging. Anyway-anyway, when I looked down at my Garmin I saw I was close to 9mm pace despite my best efforts to back off. I guess 9-9:30 mm pace is my new normal on a flat, easy surface, so I should just accept it; I've become a slightly more speedy runner.
However, I didn't do any sort of warm-up after getting out of the car, and I had been kind of lazy about maintaining my aggressive massaging/stretching routine since my last run on Tuesday (despite blabbing about it incessantly on BRS's forums), because I was pretty busy with work and had a tight schedule for the afternoon's errands.
Then after a little less than a mile, while planting my left foot, I felt a sharp pain on the interior side of my left knee. Ouch! I never felt anything like that before while running. The acuteness made it feel like a football injury or something, but I wasn't making any cuts and no one had tackled me. I wonder if my form was off since I wasn't taking this run very seriously--just putting in the mileage. Maybe I had over-strode? Since I wasn't yet halfway around the lake, I turned around and began walking back to the car. But after less than two hundred yards the knee started to feel ok so I ran the rest of the way back at a slow pace.
On the remaining errands my knee would feel really stiff getting out of the car, but then get better after it warmed up a bit while walking around. Now this morning it's really stiff. I can barely walk. I don't know what could've happened. Besides the possibility that my form was off, I guess my leg might not have been properly warmed up before I ran and something in my knee's alignment could've been a bit off when I landed. But I've never needed to take warming up very serious before. I doubt it's anything serious, since I was able to jog back to the car, but it's a drag now I'll probably have to give up tomorrow's run at least, and maybe have to rest a good deal longer. I can't believe this is happening again. Does anybody have any idea what this could be?
