Happy Monday friends! I had an awesome weekend with Will and so many fun things happened that I’m having a hard time deciding which one I should share first! I think I’ll save that stuff for later this week though because I’m kinda curious to see if any of y’all have experienced the same running issues I am having. Ready?
Ok, so here is the deal: as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I signed up for a couple races this summer, including the GTIS half marathon in August. Because of all of my back problems and serious burnout over the past six months, I decided to start easing my way back into the running world at the beginning of April. That would give me well over four months to find my running legs and hopefully claim a redemption race in Georgetown.
Finishing GTIS last summer
Fortunately, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how easy my “comeback” has been! I am loosely following the RLRF plan, but I was fully expecting these runs to be be far more painful and difficult than they are turning out to be. Honestly, I am crediting CrossFit with this sudden boost in my running performance. My legs are significantly stronger than they were in the past, and my aerobic running workouts always seems a bit more relaxed and comfortable than my anaerobic CrossFit workouts at Big Horn. In fact, I’ve been easily running 5 milers at a faster pace than usual and with plenty of gas left in the tank afterwards. Yes, I realize 5 miles is nothing in the grand scheme, but for someone who hasn’t put any miles on her feet since August, 2012, I was expecting my April miles to be a constant struggle.
Here’s the kicker: I think CrossFit has prepared me almost too well! For example, last week, I ran 15 miles between my three scheduled runs. This doesn’t include a few miles here and there that we tack on during CrossFit, so I’d guess my weekly miles were somewhere around 20. For hardcore runners, that is obviously nothing, but again, for me, it is a huge jump when compared to the prior months. All of these runs have felt great and I’ve chosen to cut the miles off before my body felt ready—in fact, I think I could honestly go out and crush a 10 miler right this very second! Who am I?!
In the middle of my pain cave at GTIS
However, just because my legs, brain and and endurance are ready to kill some miles doesn’t mean that my knee joints are feeling the same! After last Tuesday’s 5 miles of speedwork, I noticed a small twinge at the base of my kneecap on my left knee. It was nothing major so I ignored it and it went away. However, the same twinge came back on Thursday’s RR Sports Adventure Run, and it stuck with my through Saturday’s CrossFit workout and into yesterday afternoon. It’s gone now and I know it was nothing to worry about, but I’m familiar with this nagging ache: it’s that soul crusher called runner’s knee!
Luckily I’ve become excellent at reading my body throughout this back trauma stuff, so I noticed the aches immediately and realized the problem. I’ve iced a few times, but I think I really just need to be more mindful and cautious about ramping up my mileage. Just because my endurance is embracing the uptick in miles doesn’t mean my joints and all those tiny little stabilizer muscles are ready to follow suit! It’s a bizarre situation for me to be in because I have literally never been able to run more miles than my body could handle. In fact, it’s always the exact opposite with me, so in a way, this is a character builder 🙂 I mean, I’m already restricting what I eat for the month, so why not restrict how much I run as well?! Apparently I’m all about restriction lately! (And yes, that’s sarcasm).
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Have you ever experienced something similar where you could handle far more than was good for you?
Any runner’s knee peeps out there?