Setback?

I was concerned to notice my knee was a little swollen last night. It didn't hurt, but this is the first time I've noted swelling in a while.

I've been very active over the last 4 days while on a mini-vacation in Tennesee. I did a 21 mile backpack over 2 days on moderately demanding terrain, and then did a _little_ trail running yesterday while on a hike.

I had planned to do a treadmill run this am at the hotel, but decided to skip it when the swelling developed.

The last time I had selling was after a 300 km bike ride in June. That was similar to this: no real pain, but it makes me worry that all is not well in there.

Anyway, I'm still planning to try a 5 km race on Thanksgiving, so we'll see how the knee reacts to that.

A Good Run Today

I had a pretty encouraging run today. I did a little 3 mile loop I've been doing recently, and ran it almost 2 minutes faster than I did last week. For whatever reason, I felt decently strong while I was running. I think that's the first time I can say that since starting back this year.

a look back at October

Well, the positive is that October was my highest mileage month since my surgery in April, 2007. But it was only 20 miles, so obviously I'm not too far along on the road to being in shape. I am planning to run a Thanksgiving race (perhaps the Boston Volvo 5K, which I have run before), so I'd like to get those miles a bit higher.

I think I'm going to head out on my bike this am for a ride - I ran yesterday, and I'm kind of avoiding running consecutive days for now.

Back on track

My back seems OK now. Just a bit stiff, but not enough to bother me.

I ran 3.2 miles tonight, which is my longest since starting back to running. Felt OK, but still not fit. While I ran, I wondered how it was that Papelbon couldn't get any of those last five guys out...

Moving forward

My back is almost better. I still have a little stiffness, but nothing like last week. I went for a jog this am, and my back didn't bother me at all. I'm going to try a "long run" this weekend, a long run for me right now being more than 5K.

Back Pain!

I haven't been able to run since the race on Saturday because of back pain.

I had a bit of a cold, and on Monday am I was coughing and suddenly felt pretty significant low back pain. A pulled muscle.

It remains pretty bothersome 2.5 days later. Quite stiff, especially if I don't take ibuprofen.

I'm guessing I may be out of commission for another week.

Race - Komen 5K

Well I'm sitting on the deck in my back yard enjoying the nice sun after the Komen 5K today.

I was pretty happy with how it went. I ran 25:00 (strip time). Since I knew I'm really not in shape, I lined up pretty far back at the start. Probably too far back, since I wound up doing a lot of weaving and slowing to get around slower runners. Because it was a very big field (2,000 +), things never really thinned out, which in some ways helped (I was passing other runners most of the way).

I believe that time is a "personal worst" for me for 5K, but now it's going to be a personal best, as I'm starting up a new set of post-surgery PRs. I did not get any splits on the course; if there were mile markers, I did not see them.

I didn't have any knee pain, although I was a aware of the knee, with a kind of slight stiffness/lack of fluidity. I really can't say if that's just 3 years away from running, or that the knee isn't quite right.

So, my plan at this point is to try to do 2 or 3 runs a week for the next month, and then maybe try another 5K some time in October.