I learned a hard lesson last Saturday, 11/10. A 5 miler was scheduled for that day, part of our set back week. Every third week in our running schedule we cut back a few miles to get us ready for another set of long runs the following two weeks. I decided to stay close to home to conserve on gas and not meet Tiffany and Veronica out on the trail.
“Come on Hawkeye let’s go!” I excitedly leashed up the dog and he was excited too anticipating our outing. Poor Rusty, I left him whining, he’s not a long distance running dog, or should I say any distance so it was just going to be Hawkeye this time, I needed to get these 5 miles in and I wasn’t too motivated. I’ve been feeling tired, stressed, and lethargic lately.
We headed out, Hawkeye paced me pretty steadily at about 9:45/mile. I loved it.
“BARK! BARK! BARK!” We dart out sideways, Hawkeye is defenitely wanting to go after a dog behind a wooden fences. I manage to pull him back and get him going straight again, however now we’re running 8:15/mile. Oh Oh, another dog….I start yanking and pulling as I’m running to keep him on a straight line.
5 miles were complete. I felt good and was glad I finished. Sunday morning, I woke up and my knees were achy, uh oh…”That’s not good!” “Why is this happening?” “I am running a marathon in February!? or am I?” Well thank goodness today is cross training and tomorrow is rest day before my 3 miler on Tuesday. I walked the dogs felt some pain and figured tomorrow I can rest. On Monday I went to work and while I was sitting at my desk, I felt achy again in both knees. Then all of the sudden it dawned on me! The side to side motions while running with Hawkeye aggravated the stress on my knees from running! Tuesday-3 miler, Wednesday 4 miler, and Thursday 3 miler I skipped. I was feeling dull achy pain and didn’t want to continue to hurt myself. Saturday we had a 9 miler planned and I wanted to run! I chose to run 3 miles on Friday and felt good during, after, which gave me hope for our run on Saturday. Saturday I met Tiffany at the trail and we ran a great 9 miles in the cold. My knees felt great and they weren’t sore afterwards or on Sunday. Thanksgiving is this week, so I’m running 3 miles tomorrow to make up for the 3 miles I won’t be running on Thursday. Thursday we’re walking a 5k Turkey Trot. :o) Should be fun.
I’m officially registered to run the Cow Town marathon! Now it’s serious! I’m so excited. Needless to say I will not run my training runs with dogs anymore.