I got injured.

I mean, a little bit of everything sort of hurts all the time – like my right arch is bruised in like three places – but I really got both hands on this one.

Luckily! This isn’t a torn tendon or something that’s irreversible. I was running one day and my left knee kind of locked up between strides and that felt bad, but I also figured I could finish the next two miles (I could! But should I? I shouldn’t), and that was the beginning. I couldn’t really go up or down stairs for days, walking hurt, and sleeping hurt. Bob concluded that my quads were over-tight, while my hamstrings were nice and flexible. The imbalance of tension was putting a ton of pressure on my knees. I had to work through it (including walking outside in Miami humidity for a week) and then one day I woke up and it was just over. (Also trying to snorkel with flippers and two knees that hurt with any kind of resistance is just masochistic – and then the jellyfish descended.)

I was so annoyed, because I had to slow down for like two weeks. But also grateful, because it was so painful, and I just assumed I’d be in pain forever, and I’m not in pain any longer.

Bob did a good job of researching everything, giving me workouts to do that would continue to stretch the quads while not pushing anything else too much, and recommending a plan for icing. I also ate so much Motrin you guys.

Bob gave me an estimate the other day that he thinks I’ve probably lost 20lb of fat, but also built 15lb of muscle. On a scale, I’m down 6lbs, but my legs are completely different. I have muscles all the way to the floor! And not to brag, but I am pretty ok at planking now, and I feel like I have core muscles (which I’ve really never felt like before). I can see and feel a big difference through my hips, and my belly is quite different (still present, but different).

We are into our long runs now. This past Sunday it was 8 miles (I run and walk; I have a long way to travel – physically and figuratively – before I am all running all the time), next Sunday it’s 9 miles. I didn’t trust the mile markers at the trail this past week, so I actually ended up going 8.5 miles, though my watch recorded it as 8 (which is why I did it – to get the credit, or else my watch would have said 7.5 miles, and I’m not here to get partial credit), but I have promised my coach slash husband that I will trust the mile markers next week. Bob wants me to get comfortable with 10 or 11 miles before the race at the end of April. That way he feels confident that I’ll finish 13.1, despite us not getting to that distance before the race.

Another problem I have is wanting to catch up. Even though when set to run mode my watch will tell me my pace, and I could see this last week that it was too fast, I could not get myself to slow down on the run portions. So I have to get really used to accurately gauging my pace outdoors. I was able to do my 8.5 this past week in 2 hours which is a huge deal for me. But that sort of behavior is also how you end up with hurty knees (I feel fine, fortunately). My husband slash coach has written on my board “(WALK)” on some days, because when he writes “as you feel” I’m like “better make every second of this count by overdoing it,” which is so stupid. But I do tend to follow exactly what the board says, versus when he texts me workout instructions. I both love the rules and love to be defiant. We had to talk about this twice 🙄

I just worry, you know, that if I don’t give it my absolute all that I won’t have made the most of this time, when I actually have the luxury of both intensively working out and recovering. I don’t know where I’ll find the time to workout when I go back to work. I have almost decided to do a second half marathon (eventually) so I have a comparison race, but it’s so much training. I do cognitively comprehend that I’m currently going from a deficit of fitness towards some amount of positive fitness, and everything beyond that is going to be much easier (relatively). Being able to maintain fitness is easier effort than creating a fit body out of an unfit one. There’s a quote from a cyclist that goes “it never gets easier, you just get faster,” and I’m not exactly sure how I feel about that. Keep in mind I’m 42, so I’m not in my salad days here. But I also haven’t spent the last 20 years destroying my cartilage so there is that. You know what I do like, though? That feeling after a couple hours of working out when you are wiped out and your whole entire body is tired, and you just want to drink 3 Gatorade zeros and watch Lost reruns. It’s the same exact feeling as having a really good sob. Or sort of like after giving birth where you are excessively bone tired, but also feel like clear-eyed and smug as shit. Like you have a written pass for the rest of the day because you Accomplished, Physically. I wonder, as I write this, if my inherent laziness is once again showing through. I suspect so. C’est la me, as I like to say.