Well, I think I’ve experienced my first running injury. Given, it wasn’t too bad, and the pain only acts up occasionally, but after my long run last week, I had a horrible pain in my right knee. Although, I still can’t quite figure it out. I thought it was an IT band injury, but after reading about IT bands and such on line, it wasn’t in the right place.

My pain was in the tendon/ligament behind my knee. You know, when you bend your need and that hard-ish thing that sticks out; the one on the outside of the back of the knee. That’s what hurt. I think it’s the “hamstring tendon” after looking at pictures, but I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to human anatomy….anyone that knows a thing or two about this stuff, please feel free to tell me.

Well, it hurt every time I bent my knee; not just bending, but the action of pulling up my calve hurt. So here’s how training went:

Monday: (rest day) The day after my long run, I started noticing the pain while walking around at work, but I was meeting a friend at the gym that night to teach him some swimming strokes (after all I used to teach swimming lessons back in the day), so I ran for only a mile on the treadmill to warm up. I probably shouldn’t have, because it hurt after, and I ended the night with a soak in the hot tub.

Tuesday: (3 miles) I ran 4 miles, around my normal lake route. Afterwards I went to abs class and climbing like normal, but this is when I really felt the pain. I made sure to stretch a lot while waiting to climb, starting to think that maybe it was a stretching issue.

Swinging!!! Weeee!!! (Don’t look at my horribly old, worn out shoes…I desperately need a new pair, but no money : (

Wednesday: (6 miles) 1.2 miles complete! HAHA! I started out for a run and the pain was just too awful, I made it 1.2 miles from my house, right about where a playground is. So, depressed that I couldn’t run, I swung on the swings. The playground was deserted of any children (phew) so I had the swings all to myself, but when the pumping of my legs even hurt my knee, I depressingly walked home.

Thursday: (3 miles) 3 miles complete. Actually, I was on the mend…but here’s why: I work a veterinary clinic, and a new form of treatment that vets are now using is Laser therapy. I kinda want to do a whole post on this, so stayed tuned. Here’s the gist of it: The Laser is used to treat soft tissue wounds, arthritis and can be used on incision sites (after surgery) to aid the healing process. I’ve been skeptical, not really seeing results even though the doc and owners swear by it. So, why not try it on myself!? I Laser-ed (is this the correct grammar??) my injury site and because I have chronic arthritis-like pain in my knees in general, I Laser-ed both of my entire knees – front and back. Not joking: my run was pain free. I’m going to regularly laser my knees. But still, not knowing what the pain was or what I should do, I made sure to stretch really well before and after I ran.

Friday: (rest day) Time to regain my lost 6 miles! I did a 6 mile run from Wednesday on the trails for the #runchat trail run challenge.

6 miles trail run!

Saturday/Sunday: (12 miles) 😦 none. Well, I’ve having better luck doing my long runs on Sunday. This saturday, I played paintball for the first time in my life for the boy’s bday. Um, not gonna lie, probably wont paintball ever again. I am glad I tried it, but it’s not for me. For one, it fucking hurts. I have 3 huge welts/bruises, even though I got shot more times than that. For another, I’m just not good at war-like games or scenarios. Even with video games; I’d rather play guitar hero than modern warfare 2 or whatever. But seriously, paintball – not for me. I pretty sure I shot my own teammate at one point (But hear me out, he was in this v-shaped crevasse thing and I couldn’t tell who he was because of the masks from far away or which direction he was facing because of the area he was hiding) and I also spaz out and have a habit of freaking out when I see someone and then going to hide while blind shooting my gun (which actually is in the rules to not do). So, paintball not for me. And I left a little disappointment that I might not be as good in a zombie apocalypse as I thought….but zombies don’t shoot back……so I should be fine…right????

Anyway, Sunday I was going to run 9 miles (Because next week I’m going to run a half marathon, so I flip flopped long runs anyway with next weeks) but I was enjoying lounging in bed at the boy’s house and by the time I had planned to run after a nap, I woke up with horrible girly stomach issues. So, I went home and rested, feeling like shit.

Other news???

Not too much going on, South Dakota is this weekend – I’m super excited and my Mommy is going with! YAY!