Catching the Running Bug

I can feel myself starting to catch the running bug!

I felt so amazing last night and today after my run yesterday. It's a hard feeling to describe if you've never experienced it but the best way I can put it into words it that it feels like my body is wide awake but completely comfortable at the same time. It's a glorious feeling and I had completely forgotten it existed.

I came home from work today and was itching to run, but I knew it wasn't a good idea. I am slightly sore from my run last night and my left knee is very unhappy with me (more on that in a minute), and I knew another run would be too much the night before the 3 miles Breast Cancer walk. So, sadly I refrained from hopping on the treadmill no matter how much I may have wanted to do so.

Ok, the knee. I had surgery for a torn meniscus in November of 2021. It healed really well and I went through a lot of intense PT afterward to regain as much funciton as I could. Post surgery, I discussed a return to running multiple times with the therapist and he was confident I would be able to run again as long as I maintained the strength in my leg muscles to support my knee. However, it took more than a year to regain full range of motion and to be able to resume all normal activity. During that same year my life completely imploded and maintaining my PT exercises was the furthest from my mind. I still have a full range of motion but I no longer have the strength I had built up.

And yesterday's run proved that just might be an issue.

I hadn't given my knee much thought because I didn't have any issues with it acting up the few times I ran in the middle of getting my StepBet steps in. However yesterday was a different story. I could feel my knee a little bit as soon as I started running but it seemed to settle in once I got going. Unfortuantely, as soon as I stopped running it started to really hurt. I immediately iced it for a while and the pain subsided but it hasn't felt great today and I've been taking some ibuprofen and wearing a brace this evening.

I'm definietly going to have to dig out my PT exercises and get going on them again if I have any hope of giving this running thing a real go! I also need to run with a brace on, at least for the forseeable future. But in some really good news neither my right knee nor left ankle are bothering me at all. Since those are the injuries that sidelined me in the past, I'm very happy that neither has reared its ugly head today. And I have hope regarding the left knee. When the physical therapist explained what it was going to take to be able to run on it, it made perfect sense and I know I don't currently have the strength I need. But if I got there once before, I can get there again with some effort!