Today is very special, because I ran again for the first time in nearly two months.
The last time I ran was six weeks ago, and it was a very painful experience. I could barely walk back up to my unit, and my knee felt like it was pulling in several different directions. Thankfully, with consistent home exercises as well as focused weekly attention from my sessions at PACE Prehab & Recovery, we’ve gotten back to the point where I can start running again.
My last appointment at PACE was on Friday. I told them that I’ve been able to use a lot more resistance while riding my bike trainer, and the sharp knee pain I’d complained about when I first came to them is now gone. So they asked me to try running again — but to do it after I’d stretched and activated the muscles we’ve been working on.
I’m rarely the cautious type, but I didn’t want to set myself back after these weeks of work. So I said I’d run exactly one kilometer.
Watch below to see what happened.
I’m not going to lie; my run conditioning sucks. Jogging at 12 minutes per kilometer spiked my heart rate up to 150 beats per minute, and even though I ran pain-free I was glad when that one kilometer was over. I sandwiched it between a warmup and cooldown of two kilometers each, which brought my entire workout to almost exactly 60 minutes. (That’s how slow I was going.)
Afterwards I made it a point to get my foam roller and massage ball out and roll out my quadriceps — and they definitely needed that attention.
It’s been really weird to be “Kikay Runner” without any running. Right now, I am far from the runner I used to be. But this gives me the opportunity to build back better.
