Week 4: Nicely done!

Ran my 8 miler this morning with Wacarra, who has lost nearly 100 lbs. in less than a year through running...

This was a tough week, both mentally (watched far too much political coverage) and physically (my knee was hurting like a mofo all week). I'm afraid the old "knee issue" has reared its ugly head again, despite running with new shoes and a knee brace. I think I've pinpointed the problem which is doing my short runs on the treadmill. I think there must be a problem with my small muscle fibers and tendons compensating for the movement of the running surface... honestly, I have no idea, but I'm going to stay off the treadmill for a few weeks and see if that helps the situation.

The bad news is I took a 4 day break from running and missed my Thursday run in order to ease the pain a bit. I was having difficulty climbing stairs at work and even pushing the clutch down in my car was causing me to wince. After icing my knee and taking the rest it was back to business this morning. Wacarra, who is in the process of tapering down in her last month of training for the Portland Marathon, ran with me this morning on my 8 mile run along Lake Washington in Leschi. We had a great time! I'm not sure if it was the jelly beans I ate beforehand, or just having someone to talk to for a change, but the hour and a half breezed by and I felt like I could have easily done a half marathon today. Some days are just like that I guess.

Next weekend I am off to Bellingham for the Fairhaven Runners Waterfront 15K and I'm pretty jazzed to #1 - look at something besides Lake Washington and #2 - run in an actual event with people cheering us on. Looks like I will be doing this alone, as Raj has to work and my other friends will be MIA. Saaad :(

More unfortunate news - we found out yesterday that we will not be able to stay with one of Raj's friends in Philadelphia as planned (long story), so we will have to book a hotel room, which will run around $200/night for 3 nights. And I was really looking forward to touring Philly with a local! Oh well....

Wacarra told me about a cool little gadget called the Garmin Forerunner 305 today which is a running watch that measures pace, distance (by GPS, so it's accurate), calories burned, and heart rate. I've already checked craigslist and there are several, so I might pick one up today. I do love my gadgets. Looking forward to trying it out and posting a review soon.