lesson learned

So I haven’t talked much about my running lately…but I’m still doing it!

I’m in week 7 of a 12 week training program…working towards my first Half Marathon. It’s going great! I started to feel my knee stuff again a few weeks in. Boo. But this time I recognized the signs so I’ve been much nicer to it. Icing, foam rolling and stretching properly. I also had some conversations with my PT friend and she suggested a patellar strap. I just tried it last week…and what a difference.

You’ve seen them. Now, if you’re like me, you question their use. I used to think they were overused. And they probably are. I did not want to go the route of a brace or whatever…I guess it just seemed to me like I could get my body to do what it was supposed to do. But after several months of working on this issue physically and resting and then still having the initial pangs of pain…I was willing to try it.

Funny enough, as soon as I got the left knee acting good, the right starting acting up…so I now am running with two straps. I’m not going to let them be the complete answer to my problems and I’ll still be doing the other things (including some hip strengthening that I’ve been reading might be part of the problem, too)…but for now they are helping me run pain free. And the after effects of a run are less too.

So back to my Half Marathon. I’m on a roll. I just finished up a week where my plan has me running a 5k ‘race’. I didn’t want to actually look for and pay for an actual race so I just ran a local 5k course and tried my hardest. My legs felt like lead and I still PR’d. Go me! This is the same course that I ran for my first 5k back in April and I’ll be running again in April…I’m hoping to shave off even more time!

Then last night I get an email that says the race I had been planning on was SOLD OUT! What?! Now, this wouldn’t be a problem if I had signed up way back when. But, you guessed it, I didn’t. Not sure why…I’m a big procrastinator if you hadn’t guessed already. I’ve been training for it…just hadn’t gone through the motions. Sigh.

Luckily that same friend who delivered the news (who is also deep into her training schedule…hi Amy!) found an alternative just 2 weeks later. I’m looking at it…and I promise I won’t think about it too long. I’m just mourning the idea of my March 13th Shamrock. That and it messes up my April race plans. Not sure I’m really going to be able to run the 12k a week after my first Half. So I’ll probably go back to the 5k…I can’t NOT run in it since it’s my Runner-versary race.

So here’s my lesson learned. When you plan for a race, sign up. Simple as that. Luckily I have my June race paid for…now I need to get the March and April races paid for.

Stay tuned tomorrow for some sneak peeks at my February kit club layouts…

Kristen