Day Sixteen

Miles: 8
Time: 1:10:23
Pace: 8:48
Splits: 8:34, 9:10, 8:55, 8:56, 8:46, 8:47, 8:28, 8:45

Pretty decent run this morning. Headed out around 9:15 on a route my dad and I haven't ran in pretty much a year. It was a good route, not too many hills, but the one in the second mile is "Death Hill" and it kicked my butt. :P It was a nice run though, in a neighborhood we basically never run in, so it was cool. It was around 40 degrees, but a constant 10 mph wind for the first half, then it was at our back for the last half.

It went really well the first 4-5 miles. You can't tell from my splits (which were surprisingly even the last 6 miles!) but my knee was killing me. The hills were horrible. There was one short one in the fifth mile and in the second to last mile was an uphill followed by Death Hill going downhill. The last 3 miles were pain but I got through it OK, as the splits say so. :)

I really want to figure out this knee. It's still kind of sore, but it isn't swollen anymore. I iced it when I got home and I've been chilling all day, but I still have to work 6 hours tonight. :( Working 6 hours a day the last two days probably hasn't helped either, and is probably some of the reason my legs are sore. They were tired even when I woke up this morning.

ARGH MY KNEE. SAD FACES GALORE.

But my right ankle tendon thing didn't bug me today. :D

Day Seven

Miles: 8
Time: 1:09:45
Pace: 8:43
Splits: 8:18, 8:26, 9:17, 8:40, 8:30, 8:47, 9:09, 8:36

So, I stayed over at my house last night because I had to work until 8 pm, then again at noon, so I figured it would be simplest for me to wake up and run at home with my dad. I got out of bed, checked the weather... and it was 32 degrees. I facepalmed, as I only had a long-sleeved tech shirt, an underarmor tech-cotton t-shirt and shorts. So I borrowed a fleece headband from my dad and we headed out at 8:15.

Surprisingly, I warmed up pretty fast. About a mile or mile-and-a-half in, my hands were warm and I rolled up my sleeves a bit. My legs numbed up from the cold, which was nice. My ears were warm but my cheeks were frozen. It definitely felt like winter running... and I loved it. :)

I think you can tell where the big hill was in this route. Mile 3, you might ask? DING DING DING! My dad dragged me up about a mile and a half of hills and I totally made him walk for about 5-10 seconds with me because my leg felt like it was about to cramp up, it was so tight.

It was nice running around in my general neighborhood again, on a route I already knew. Familiar territory, but we ran in the fancy neighborhoods and that is always a good distraction. We missed a little leg of it, though, and had to make up about half a mile at the end. There were lots of hills, but I got better with them after the first big one. I would much rather run up hills (generally speaking) than down them... much less pain involved in the knee area.

But around 5.5 miles, my left knee just started killing. I could feel that it was swollen all around it (below, outside, above) and it hurt across the top of my kneecap too. Around 6.5 miles, I just wanted to stop... so that mile was pretty slow. I made it home and sat down in the living room to ice it (not that it really needed it, as my legs were still so cold from being outside). Then I took a shower, and my legs feel okay now, just tired from running 8 hilly miles.

This week as SO MUCH BETTER than last week, even with the knee pain. My pace was pretty consistent and I felt so much better through the whole thing. We only stopped once, and that was the 5-10 second walk. I think that pacing under 9:00 is no problem, so hopefully I can keep it up when I get into the really heavy mileage early next year. Out of 10 stars, I would give this one probably... 7.5-8. Without the screaming knee, it would have been really great.