Week 2 (July 21 - 27): Stretching out the kinks

Subjective/Objective
         34 y/o female appearing younger than stated age with chief complaint of transient sharp anterior knee pain.  No pain at rest.  Pain worsens with sudden changes in movement while running.  Past medical history significant for patellar tendonitis (which knee unknown), binge marathon running, possible sporadic and inconsistent training; P.  160 cm, 59.1 kg.

Assessment/Plan
         Rule out recurrent runner's knee, iliotibial (IT) band syndrome.  Try knee cap stabilizer band (already has) and foam roller exercises.  Emphasize well-balanced nutrition and adequate stretching and resting.  Maybe start light yoga again!  Avoid activities aggravating pain when not running (i.e. stairways at work).

Pros this week -
Found it easy (routine) already to get in my car and get to the Thursday Night Fun Run group (open to public).  Nice to see a couple of familiar faces from the marathon training group there getting in an extra group practice as well.  Saturday - overcast -loved it and took advantage of the hiding sun and 'rested' little/no pain knee to have a good continuous run.

Cons -
WTH with this knee?  All I know is that is I have to go slow, take it easy and no sudden starts or changes in direction while running.  And definitely not the Tuesday running backward up the hill exercise (that was the worst pain it felt)

Going to rest this weekend and continue to work on adequately hydrating.  Oh and dig out my Garmin watch so I can figure out what and how to do 'splits' :)

Any tips on how to get through this runner's knee? 

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Run stats:

WEEK 2		Mileage	Duration (hr:min:sec)	Pace (min/mile)
Mon	22-Jul	Xtrain	0:30:00	Stationary bike
Tues	23-Jul	4.76	0:51:19	10:46
Wed	24-Jul	2.21	0:34:43	15:41
Thurs	25-Jul	5.31	1:08:18	12:52
Sat	27-Jul	6.05	1:05:27	10:48
Total weekly mileage		18.33

Week 1 (July 14 - July 20): The Committment

Thursday 7/18 - The fear sets it...

Gotta get out and run.  Gotta get out and run.  This futile mantra has been ticker taping in my head since I got back from Peru after 4th of July.

Remembered Grace had mentioned a running club that ran on Thursdays at 6pm.  Hey!  I'm out of work at 4:30pm...should be able to make it.  Lemme make sure and text her.

A:  Did you say there was a running group Thursdays?

G:  Yep starts at 6pm Friant & Washington.  I'll be there today.

A:  Cool! On my way!

And that's how it started.

Arrive 5:50pm Sierra Running Company.  I'm feeling good.  Dug some black running shorts and hot pink dry-wick tank out of my boxes still only halfway unpacked.  Plain cotton white Target socks should be fine, don't plan to run too far.  Here early:)  I step out of the car...omg it is like 100F, ok maybe 95F???  What was I thinking?
Where is Grace?

Whoooo.  Slow, deep breaths, looks like there is quite a few runners gathered in front of SRC.  I'm starting to feel a little better again.  I'm not the only crazy one out for a job in sweltering oven heat.  Oooh, water cooler and cups!  I help myself to a delicious drink, I can do this!

I won't lie, the run was hard for me.  Ran 4 miles thanks to my running buddy and the scenic backyard view of Woodward Lake residential property docks and their cute docked electronic paddle boats.  But I can't kid myself either, I haven't run in at least a month let alone ever in 75F+ heat.  I've been spoiled by my Santa Monica beach runs with Sienmi.  Loved that SRC had ice cold water gallon jug/cooler again at 1.5 mile marker as we entered Woodward Lake turn-in.

Going with my gut on the chance of my success for 2 Cities on a self-training regimen in Valley heat, it was an easy decision to signed up for the marathon training program I saw offered on the whiteboard outside the SRC store.  The program had already started on Tuesday but only one 'missed' practice session so far...not bad.

$195 fee to commit me to being ready for the marathon that I signed up for in May?  Charge it lol:) Here I go!!! That was the was the easiest part...only time can tell now if my body keeps up its end of the bargain.

Anyone else training for an upcoming run soon?  What's been your all-time favorite 1/2 or whole marathon?

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Run stats:

WEEK 1		Mileage	Duration (hr:min:sec)	Pace (min/mile)
Thurs	18-Jul	4.01	40:35:00	10:07
Sat	20-Jul	4.96	1:13:29	14:48
Total weekly mileage		8.97