I was relieved to wake up on Friday with my knee continuing to feel good. It’s been a month-long journey of Googling, avoiding real doctors, and pain that appeared to finally improve by actually pushing myself harder and running.
I say “appeared” because while I 100% said “fuck it” and started running because it felt way better than hiking, I know that 1. that wasn’t the right thing to do, and 2. that’s PROBABLY not what improved it.
It really could have been a variety of things, such as using a massage roller on my quads every afternoon over the past week, sleeping at least half the night with a compression sleeve on my knee, icing as soon as I got home from lumbers, and stretching more than I have in my entire life. I really have no idea because, as we’ve discussed in the past—I am NO doctor, although I do keep a set of scrubs and a stethoscope around for post-date night antics. “…paging Doctor Love, Paging Doctor Love…”
What I do know is that my knee felt good on Friday morning, and with my newfound appreciation for running, I pushed hard Friday and did a 5-mile loop (actually 4.96, but trotting around the parking lot like a spaz got me to 5) in my best time ever!
It is not my best average mile time ever, but it is my best ever time for a 5-mile loop, and for a hulking 53-year-old who is just now taking trail running semi-seriously, I will take that in the face all day long!
After the run, it was home for breakfast, coffee, and cooling down with some ice on my knee before mowing the lawn of the vast (not really) estate of the Cul-De-Sac-Shack, which is in itself a 2-mile walk behind the mower according to my watch. This meant I had 7 miles in my feet well before noon. Like they always said, “That Jason is so lazy.”
After a failed attempt at enjoying pre-season footy on TV Friday night and a brief mood low during a talk with Wifey that featured lots of “I don’t know what to do!!” about Jake (the dog), I went to bed and was up at my normal 6 AM on Saturday to tend to the dogs, coffee up and get to the trails well before the weekend dog walkers and river tubers arrived with their trail-bound dog turds to not pick up, poor swimsuit choices, cans of White Claw, and willingness to tube a river that is no doubt filled with E. coli1from unmonitored farm field runoff and hard seltzer urine.
I needed roughly 4.75 miles to hit my current goal of 25 miles lumbered/ran (Ran? Run? Ranned? Runned? Ah, fuck it.) this week, so my plan was a pretty chill hike with my camera.
The hike was fine; my knee felt 99% better, I saw no critters, and I hit my adjusted 25-mile goal in just 5 days after today’s lumber just under 5 miles, leaving me Sunday to goof off.
Being back to almost full fitness after a late spring and summer filled with oddball injuries and pain felt amazing, as did finally finding a groove for running after 53 years. It’s been cool to see progress in just two weeks, and as long as I can stay healthy, I’m hopeful that I will continue to improve. Pencil me in (eraser in hand) for the Thanksgiving Day trail run they do at Deerfield every year!!
WEEK 30, 2024:
Lumbers and Runs: 5
Total Distance: 25.15 mi
Average Distance: 5.03 mi
Total Activity Time: 6:21:21
Average: 1:16:16
Calories: 3,898
Later.