What a weird week. Monday I went with 100 7th graders to the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, MN. This is an annual 3 day trip that they go on to get some hands-on science experience, as well as for many of our urban students a chance to be out in the wild.  It was a lot of fun, though being responsible for 16 students and 3 adults would be draining enough, we rock climbed, cross country skied (classical), hiked (and fell alot), and generally were very active.  The weather was great – 40’s and sunny, but the snow conditions were terrible.  They decided we were the last group to ski, since we went through 3 inches of water while crossing the lake.  The snow pack was also fairly soft so every few steps you sunk a foot into the snow, which made for a very long and tiring hike.

The only free time to run was in the morning or late at night, so on Tuesday morning I set my alarm for 5 and got up.  I was supposed to run with one of the male chaperones, but he was up really late and opted to sleep in!  It was so quiet and peaceful.  I was a little concerned at first that some animal might attack me, but once I got over that I enjoyed one of the best runs I’ve had in a long time.  Just me and the serene early morning quiet.  Due to the conditions I just did an out and back on the Wolf Ridge dirt driveway, which ended up being 5 miles and a little hilly.  The actual campus sits atop a “mountain” at about 1,400 feet above sea level.  I gained about 400 feet in elevation over the last mile, which was a lot steeper and longer than any of the hills I’ve run this year.  I managed to keep running and finished without having to walk!  Like I said it felt really good.  I did some stretching, etc and then commenced the day of skiing, hiking, etc.  I was exhausted by the end of the day!

I felt fine on Weds to finish up the trip and we rode all the way home on the bus and only felt a little sore.  On Thursday I woke up early for a running analysis at a new physical therapy center and learned that I really do pronate a lot.  I still have a lot of weakness even after all the therapy I’ve been doing.  He wants me to try wearing insoles while I run, stretch the upper calf more (gastrocnemius muscle), and try to focus more on being a mid-sole striker instead of a ball of my feet striker.  My right leg was a little tight but nothing serious.

I decided not to run on Friday because I planned on running Saturday and Sunday with the guys, at least for a little bit.  I noticed that when I squatted my quad hurt on the outside part near my knee.  Odd, but I thought it was still residual pain from the hill work.  So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up at 4am with a lot of pain in my leg.  I took some ibuprofen and went back to sleep. When I finally woke up my knee was a little swollen and it hurt to stretch out my leg.  Even with icing, popping pills, and elevating it my knee cap was almost missing due to the swelling.

When I woke up on Sunday it was feeling better, though still stiff and swollen.  Christy was going to the gym so I decided to join her and swam 300 meters in the pool before sitting in the hot tub for a bit.  It is hard to swim without bending your knee, so I got a pretty good upper body workout out of it!  It really sucks because it was in the mid-50’s on Sunday and would have been a great day to break out the bike from its winter slumber. Oh well, there will be plenty of time for that.

How was your week?

One Post this week combines cookies and race strategy.  Enjoy!

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