Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Pair of Lessons

I took a week off running. I wasn't feeling great and didn't want to get sick. Plus, I just needed some time off running.

I started up last night with the intent of doing a quarter-marathon but only got five miles. Glad I cut it short, not so glad I didn't cut it shorter.

You see, I ran without my knee brace. I thought to myself, "it's not really doing anything. I'll give it a shot without it on a short run." A great idea in theory, I suppose, but in practice, that knee brace does a lot. It keeps my knee straight which keeps my foot and hips straight which keeps my other knee straight which is why my other knee — the one that never has a brace on — hurts this morning.

Well, it doesn't hurt. It aches.

For all that, I had a great pace. I'd have had it down to 8:30/mile had it not been for taking a wrong turn and getting confused and standing there trying to figure it out for however long it was. The trouble was I started running down a street I usually run up. It was familiar but wrong and I couldn't figure it out for the longest time.

Oh, well. It was a good run and I feel basically good this morning. I wont run without my knee brace any more, so that's a good lesson to have learned.

On my last big run, some people were having a party at a house along my run. I talked to them a little bit every nine minutes or so as I ran past. It was a weird little relationship. I ran 10 miles doing laps past their house, they were hideously obese and disgusting and smoking and drinking out of beer bongs. But they also approved of what I was doing. They filled my water bottle for me once and cheered for me every time I went past.

It's weird how encouraging cheering is, even when it's coming from people you solidly disapprove of. Maybe it's because I value my running and when somebody else values my running — even if they don't value running for themselves — it feels good when they let me know.

My goal for this week is another 6-mile, quarter-marathon run and a 13-mile, half-marathon run. I need to go to the bike shop to get some gels first.

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