Six Miles

Had some nice weather relief over the weekend. Never being one to let a nice day get away, I went out for six miles on Saturday. It was nice, but I struggled a bit through the last two miles. I felt like my pace and heart rate were all over the place and when I checked the handy Garmin, I was right.

It's sort of a bummer that I've lost some cardio fitness over the last month, but what people keep telling me (and what I need to keep telling myself) is that I'll bouce back fast. I'm not sure about that, but I'm going to go with it.

My knee injury, which really now, in recovery, is my entire leg was pretty cooperative. I felt a little stiff the first mile or so but really seemed to loosen up and actually feel better at the end than when I'd started. I imagine, though there's some suffering to be had, that movement is actually better than none. I just have to concentrate so much more now than I used to. Not only have I had to alter the schedule (a LOT) but through PT I've actually had to retrain my muscles on how to "fire" or rather, in what order to fire. It is strange to reteach your body, it's a stubborn student; it thinks it already knows everything.

I'm loyal to the PT, at least 95% loyal anyway. The sight of me getting out of bed twenty minutes early in the morning to do stretches and strength training is not something of which I'm terribly proud. I have to do certain exercises in front of a mirror to ensure that I'm not compensating by leaning and the fact that I've only fallen twice and haven't injured myself at all at 4:30 in the morning is nothing short of a miracle. I don't have balance (read: grace) normally. At 4:30 a.m., there's no question.

It made for a good day, though, feeling like I'd done something by getting six miles in. Unfortunately, I have to give myself recovery days, which I've not had to do much of in the past (other than rest days). Yesterday, recovery translated into walking the dog and watching football. I also had a good share of food but I needed to restore glycogen. (FYI: There is a lot of glycogen in Cheddar Bacon Ranch dip.)

It's actually supposed to be above freezing for the better part of this week so it's going to be tough to keep the running reigned in. I'm hoping to get another six in midweek and then again on the weekend. I'll be best buddies with the elliptical on the other days- yay. Tough as they were, and as hard as it is to admit I struggled, those were a nice six miles. It's the most relaxed I've been in weeks.