I thought I'd do a little update on my training sice real life training took place last week. Not just two mile runs back and forth over a .63 mile stretch of flat road next to my house until my knee started getting cranky. No none of that nonsense. I made it into the 30's for mileage and was feeling pretty good. Here's how the week stacked up:

Monday: I rolled in pretty late on Sunday night from FitBloggin and opted to sleep in wake up at 6 am to get to my 7am PT appointment, which I had completely forgotten about until I glanced at the calendar at 11:00pm on Sunday night. The PT appointment was great. I ran a mile on the treadmill while he set up and shot video of my stride, the difference between my stride/posture/footstrike now and three weeks ago is pretty drastic. I've been diligent with form drills and very conscious of cadence and forward lean while running. As a result my overall stride is much more efficient and has a much smoother look to it. The PT's assessment of my knee situation is that it never was ITBS but rather a tension/strain/crankiness at the hamstring's attachment point on the tibia. It seems to be working itself out little by little.

Tuesday: I ran and easy paced four miles on Tuesday and my knee felt great: no twinges or discomfort at all. I was so pleased that Sunday's 10K at FitBloggin wasn't some fluke.

Wednesday: On Tuesday night Sophia asked to go running with me. Why not? So we both got up early and she joined me for two short, flat miles (back and forth on that .63 stretch of road). In the evening I headed to track and waited out a passing thunderstorm with a couple other die hards. One the thunder was far enough in the distance and the deluge of rain stopped tapered off we headed out to the trail. We ran six miles at a pretty good clip (7:20 pace) and I felt remarkably good. It was a tough workout but everything felt strong and solid. I went home soaked but feeling so satisfied.

Hard to see but there's a lake right there.

Thursday: I took Thursday off thinking I wanted to give my knee a break after having run 8 miles the previous day.

Friday: Another strong 6 on the trial. No knee discomfort during or after.

Saturday: An easy four in the afternoon after spending the morning re-arranging furniture and cleaning.

Sunday: Decided to give the knee a test and go a little long. Figured ten was a good test, since I'd done 8 total miles on Wednesday. I felt fantastic for the first 6.5 miles then on a down hill at mile 7 my knee got a little cranky. I stopped and stretched my hamstring which helped. I was able to finish the last four miles of my run without any pain, but I stopped 6 times to stretch my hamstring in order to deal with the discomfort. It seems that downhill running aggravates it the most. I had nearly 800ft in elevation gain…and loss during that run.

We went for a hike later in the day and my knee was a little uncomfortable. It seems that 10 miles is a bit of a stretch for me right now and my knee may need more time to repair. So long runs might not be a possibility quite yet, but hopefully if I'm smart they will be in the near future!

What are you training for? How is your training going?

--Sarah

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