Flurries and Injuries...

Don't make for good outdoor training. The injuries make for NO training.

This week has been a complete disaster for my relationship with my life partner, Running. Yes, we're THAT committed. The two weeks prior to this week were close to disastrous. I felt Running starting to slip away and then this week, it's like we've started a long distance relationship. I'm not sure who to blame--if I can blame anyone. Running has been there waiting, hoping I would give it a shot. I've WANTED to be with Running. But for one reason or another, our relationship has been that of forbidden and also unfulfilled romance.

As many of you are probably aware, the President declared that Kentucky (where I call home) is in a state of disaster due to the recent ice storms. Tuesday of last week, my area received sleet, snow and very cold temperatures. I was still able to make it to work but it was slick and officials were asking people to stay home. Overnight into Wednesday morning, we were basically hit with ICE--I awoke to a nice coating of ice on the accumulated snow. Poor Chassis (my dog) couldn't even walk--she just skated around outside. The entire night was filled with incessant sleep disturbances from transformers blowing--I'm not talking once or twice either. The entire night was nothing but BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I decided to stay home and after breakfast, I fell asleep in my recliner--startled awake by a weird sound. I looked out the window, nothing that I could see. Went back to sleep. Startled awake again. It occurred to me that tree limbs were cracking and breaking due to the weight of the ice. These poor trees and EVERYTHING was covered in 1-2 inches of ice. The noise of these falling branches was incredible--never heard anything like it.

Needless to say, not a lot of running. I've tried to get out but it's very difficult when even the STREETS are ice covered. I managed to get out on Saturday--early enough to avoid large amounts of trafic and I just stuck to the main roads since they were mostly clear. It was an exhilirating run! I loved running on these streets that I usually drive on--and I also ran through the parking lot of a large, nearby church because their lot was very well cleared. Fun run, and I definitely needed to get out! It was great.

But that was the last time I ran. To make up for my lack of anything physical, Sunday I did that workout (see previous entry). It was great and I was tolerably sore on Monday. Tuesday--still a little stiff but okay. And then, at work, I kneeled down and it happened.

My knee just gave out. SO. MUCH. PAIN. Stood up--pain. Sat down--pain. Climb ladder/steps--pain.

Knee cap pain=out of commission.

It's better. My self-diagnosis blames Sunday's workout, as it was INTENSE in the areas of squatting and lunging. I think the muscles were so strained that my work (which requires lots of kneeling and bending at the knee) was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. It's better but it's not 100% and I am REALLY scared to run for fear of further damaging it.

One more gripe--my shoulder is really hurt. I'm going to have to completely rehab it before I do anything else--no more weights, no more pushups, no more pullups. I've come to terms with the fact that it'll be a few weeks before I can do anything upper body. I'm not happy about it but I feel better about THAT than I do about not being able to run.

So HM training is on hold. I really wanna go for a run tomorrow but I'm so scared to. Sigh.

At least it's going to warm up...