23K yesterday morning

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a couple of emails from people asking me for an update..

Here's a brief re-cap of the last couple of weeks for me.
As I've mentioned in the past couple of posts - I've been having trouble with my left knee. My last run was September 14th (29K) and I only made it through that run because of some Advil halfway through. However, I paid for it over the next week with not being able to walk properly.

I was then supposed to run 32K on Sunday September 21st. On Sunday, however, I was on a plane from Toronto to North Carolina and wasn't really in the mood for running. Plus, my knee was still bothering me. So, I didn't run the 32K and I decided to take it easy and keep off it. Other than a mild 40K bike along the Lake Ontario bike path that Suzanne and I did, I didn't do any major exercise.

I later found out that this knee thing left me in a bit of a funk. The thought of this injury not getting any better was weighing heavily on me. It was too painful to even jog on and I thought it wasn't getting any better. I thought "Will I be able to do this?" "What about my family and friends who have supported my fundraising and what if I don't end up running it!?" "Do I still go to New York?"

I've been doing Chiro, Massage Therapy, ART, etc., and it was still aching.

So, this past Saturday, September 27th - I was faced with having to run 23K the next morning at 8:30 AM. The knee actually felt pretty good and I said - well, I better give it a try. Around 8:00 AM I had an Advil in my hand and I was trying to determine whether I should take it or not. Should I mask the pain to get through the run or should I just try it without to make sure that I'm not further injuring myself?

For some reason, I decided to pop the Advil and grin and bear it.... Well, I'm glad I did!

I took it pretty slow (which is REALLY slow..) to make sure I paid attention to any pain, etc. I ended up finishing the 23K without stopping because of pain. I ran my normal 10 Minute / 1 Minute walk - and made it the whole way through. I was stoked!

I believe the issue was with my orthotics - I did not give myself enough time to work into them and so my body paid the price. I was warned a couple of times about this - but my first few runs, other than the blisters, were pain free. So, I took them out for this run and it seemed fine. The knee was throbbing a tiny bit - but that happens after 23K no matter what.

It was so energizing to finish without a ton of pain and I had the feeling that "I'm back!" This weekend, we run 29K and then 32K the following weekend - and then we start to taper down before the race.

Seeing the Running Room group again was awesome and running with that bunch of people has been really inspiring and helpful.

My brother-in-law, Chris, is in the early stages of training for the Ironman Triathlon and has started his running training. He's already strong on the bike. We've been talking about running and trying to find ways to improve our running technique and efficiency. He found a couple of links that you might find useful -

http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Fundamentals_of_efficient_running_technique.htm

http://www.momentumsports.co.uk/TtRunTechnique.asp

I have picked up a couple of tips that I'm looking forward to trying during my next run. Even if you increase your efficiency by 5% of 8% - it is a considerable amount over a long distance run.

Only 33 days left!