soreness = a good run?

When I woke up this morning I was so sore from 1441 yesterday morning. My shoulders, quads and gluts were on fire and I was feeling pretty tired. My body wanted to just go back to sleep and forget about the run, but I knew I wanted to get my miles in…

I got up and made my usual coffee and grabbed some Gatorade and a cliff bar. I wasn’t feeling very confident about how fast or how I was going to feel, so I made sure I had my ipod in case the group wanted to take off.

For the past few weeks I have been suffering from “runners knee” or patellar tendonitis.  After talking with some other runners who have suffered from the same issue, I went and bought a patellar strap. I was kind of hesitant about it at first because I didn’t want to waste the money.  I tried it out for the first time on Sunday during a 3 mile run and my knee wasn’t bothering me too much, but I figured it was because I was only going 3 miles.  1441 usually aggravates my knee the most. After yesterday’s workout my knee was on fire for the rest of the day, there were times that I was thinking I wasn’t going to finish my run last night because of how sore it was.  I put the strap on for my fartlek last night and my knee did not bother me at all. I was SHOCKED. So this morning I made sure I put it on again, because it is quickly becoming my best friend.

Back to the run today…

We started out and I was feeling great! I didn’t turn the light on for my watch until we passed mile 1 because on easy days (Tuesday/Thursdays) I try not to let it bother me. Well… when I turned it on we were actually going at a decent pace 8:38 and the second mile going on 8:19’s! For how sore I was, this was GREAT!!! The great feeling stayed with me for the entire run…

8:38 – 8:19 – 8:10 – 8:17 – 8:12 – 7:58

After wards I did 8 strides and lots of stretching. They say the only way to get rid of runners knee is to  STRETCH, STRETCH, STRETCH …