Cookies baby!

Tonight was an absolutely beyond amazing night for a run.  I did my regular pre-injury route, just at a  reduced distance.  It was slightly warm tonight but with a lovely breeze, a cusp-of-fall kind of night.  While I was away on vacation I did one run on the treadmill where I tweaked my knee a little bit, but aside from that it felt pretty good.  As I said in last night's post, we did some serious hiking on Thursday and my knees were complete jelly after we finally found our way out of the woods.  As I ran tonight I was very mindful and a little nervous of what might happen to my wimpy knees.  They are a little sore and I will certainly be icing both of them before I go to bed, but, I was able to climb the stairs in our building, so I took that as a good omen.

About a month ago I went running with a friend of mine who also happens to be my chiropractor. She is amazing and I am not quite sure what my body would do without her.  She was gracious enough to go running with me one day and critique my running form.  It was the one avenue we had not yet explored as to what might be contributing to my slew of injuries.  It was a fabulous experience.  We ran just short of 5km, with 5/1 run/walk intervals (including several hills), which we were both amazed by considering I had not done any serious running in many, many months.  I thought I might just drop dead or face-plant at the beginning due to sheer exhaustion, but my pride would not allow me to give in.  Pride - what a wonderful motivator!  The big take-away from that (aside from the post-run laser treatment due to ignoring my body) was that I am a ... heel striker! Gasp!  She explained to me that there is a higher impact on my knees when I heel strike and that could be contributing to my injuries.  Luckily, she did not notice any other issues with my form, my posture was good.  She showed me how to strike with my forefoot instead, so I have been diligently working on that ever since.

So tonight, I spent a lot of my time looking down, which I acknowledge is likely not advisable, but I am pretty much obsessed with trying to fix this.  Given my out-of-shape legs and the new (or attempt at) stride, I had bad shin splints and ended it one interval early.  I have been doing 3/1 and I was hoping to do five sets instead of four, but, I am comfortable with the results.  Another take-away lesson from my injuries is the virtue of patience, not one of my current virtues, but one I am working on, along with the heel strike!

What really got me through the run tonight were a few "power" songs, which I am throwing out there because I love to see what other people are listening to.  I kicked off the run with Carly Rae Jepsen and Call Me Maybe - I seriously adore this song and am not ashamed to say it, it is beyond catchy, as is the Sesame Street version - I am still deciding which one I like better!

The key song of the night was W.T.P by Eminem (W.T.P. = White Trash Party).  Does this make me WT for loving this song?  I hope not, but if it does, I embrace it.  This song is so wonderful that I played it twice and had a six-minute interval in there because - how can you not run while listening to this song?!  I also have to wonder if Eminem is talking to me when he says ... you got more junk in your trunk than I do in my car.

On a final note, I had a great laugh when I saw this spray-painted on the sidewalk ... did they know I was wearing my Lulus to go running?