Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

I've not mentioned anything lately about running for the simple fact that two circumstances occurred simultaneously and sidelined me… for now.


 
Circumstance Number One, when I went for a Saturday morning run with the running group in mid-November, I got as far as 4 and a half miles, was feeling great with my breathing and rhythm, was no longer minding the cold temperature, when my knees both began to hurt. A lot. This wasn't a crankiness about the work I was putting them to, this was a downright mutiny. I tried walking a bit, thinking that after a brief break I could pick up again with the running- after all, it was going so well. But when I slowed for a walk they suddenly hurt even worse- in a weird, weak way. I actually stumbled and almost fell. Once I had walked for a bit the pain was gone so I resumed running and the pain returned almost instantly- and the knees had recruited my left hip to join them in their mutiny. I finished the distance, (for a total of 6 miles) somewhere between a limp and a run. Anyone watching my halting gait may have thought I was rehearsing for an upcoming audition for the role of Quasimodo.



 
Figuring that I needed some stretching and a couple of days rest, I did just that. The next time I laced up my shoes- which, by the way, were only a couple of weeks new- the same thing happened again. Only this time I barely got to a mile before breaking down.


 
Now there are two appropriate responses to pain which occurs while running. Response Number One is for those pains which are a result of getting this lazy body outside to do something it really would rather not do: Run Through The Pain. Keep going and eventually your body will know that you're the boss and shut up with the complaints.


 
Response Number Two: Listen To Your Body. This may be a genuine message that something is actually, really, truly wrong and you need to stop running. Now.


 
After another try or two I acquiesced and went with Response Number Two. Taking a break for a few weeks in order to heal up whatever is wrong with my knees wasn't going to kill me.


 
Here comes Circumstance Number Two. It is downright cold out there!


 
I know, I know; I started running last year in January, and it was piled high with snow for the first several months that I ran/walked my way up to my first 5K. Yet then I had momentum on my side. Right now I have a teeny-tiny nagging fear that the pain will return, and that teeny-tiny fear is enough to make me take that first thought of, "I should get out there" and smash it under a pile of excuses so thick I'll never hear it protesting.


 
"C'mon! Let's go! You can do this! You'll be so glad you did! For Pete's sake- go for a RUN!"


 
"Did you hear something?"


 
"No, not a thing. Now get away from that window and sit down with a nice cup of hot tea before you catch frostbite."


 
So it's now several months since I've been running on a regular basis, the jeans that were starting to fall off of me are now too tight again, and the scale laughs menacingly every time I step onto it. The question that now faces me is this; am I going to take this lying down, (or rather, sitting down with a cinnamon roll in one hand and a plate of lasagne in the other) or am I going to take up the challenge, listen to the right voices, lace up my shoes and hit the road?!


 
I think I'll hit the road! (The merits of listening to voices which only I can hear will be explored in a separate post later… when the voices tell me what to write.)