This Week's Workout (6/20/05 - 6/26/05)

This week I started my new job. I use the term "started" loosely. I've made it through orientation and now I'm sitting around waiting until I get access to all the various systems and databases that I need to access. This is guaranteed to take some time. For one of my coworkers, it took up to 3 months to finally get settled. Anyway as for working out… I had the worst week ever. My feet and my knees were killing me. I spent most of the week suffering from my first real running injury!!! I looked it up. I had Chondromalacia Patellae aka Runner's Knee. All week long my knee was sore. Even though I iced it regularly, the heeling process took the entire week. So, here it goes….

Monday, June 20th, 2005
Workout – Not so good

I decided that because my knee was still sore that I'll hold off on running and do step instead. After wasting all my time on the phone with Radio Shack, who took over a month to fix my cell phone, I didn’t have enough time to make it to Ronya's step class. So, I went to step class in Fairfax. It was a pretty lack luster routine. So I didn't get much of a workout. But I managed to aggravate my knee injury.

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005
Workout – None

Because my knee was still bothering me, I didn't workout. Instead I checked out a Community Center near a running trail to see if I could use it after work. The Center didn't have a changing facility so I passed.

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2005
Workout – None

Still recovering from my knee injury, I decided to go clothes shopping.

Thursday, June 24th, 2005
Workout – Good

I felt well enough to try running again. So, I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. I did pretty well. My knee didn’t bother me too much, but I went home and put ice on it just in case.

Friday, June 25th, 2005
Workout – None

I decided to rest because tomorrow was the big 10 mile run.

Saturday, June 26th, 2005
Workout – None

I woke up Saturday morning and my knee felt great, better than it felt all week. But I remembered reading something that said just because the pain as gone away it doesn't mean that the injury is gone. So, I decided that it would be better to “ease” back into running. And doing a 10 mile run would only ease me back into the ice pack. So I got up anyway and volunteered to run the water stop. I took a few pictures of my fellow Red team members as they passed by the water stop. I felt a little jealous because they were running their first 10 miler and I was benched. But I’ll be running my first 10 miler soon.

After that the Red team went to the Silver Diner for brunch. After brunch I went to the Potomac River Running Company for new running shoes. Sean wasn't there but a girl named Sam helped me pick out my shoes. It's possible that my old shoes played a hand in causing my injury. After I picked up my shoes, I went on my second date w/ Carl. We saw “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”. Like all action flicks, if you can manage to suspend reality it'll be a fun movie.

Sunday, June 27th, 2005
Workout – Great

I decided to break in my new shoes. So, I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill at a 12 minute mile pace for 1 hour. The shoes felt OK. I think one or two more wears will get them into shape. Overall, I felt really good about this run. It sort of made up for missing out on the 10 mile run on Saturday. I'm pretty sure I could have kept running if I didn't accidentally hit the Stop button. This always seems to happen on this particular type of treadmill. But I made a new PR (Personal Record) today almost 4.0 mile in 1 hour.

I was in a great mood until I came home to find water all over the floor of my laundry room. Something is wrong with the AC Unit. I called a guy who came out on a Sunday night and tried to fix the unit. He wasn't too confident that he fixed the leak, so I called another guy to come out on Monday. I'll let you know how this Saga ends next week.

So, until next time…
Gotta Run