Overly optimistic

I'm usually not the type to be brimming over with optimism. I'm usually much more of a realist which represents as pessimism to some. A couple of months ago I was pretty sure it would be a very long time, if ever, before I got back to running any type of distance. So when I was feeling on Friday that la di da all is well with my knee and it's better because of all the therapy and rest and exercises and I was planning races and ready to get going, I should have thought twice. Because bam! It all blew up in my face.

Saturday I was allowed to run 3 sets of walk 4 minutes, run 6. My therapist had said when he initially assigned the program that I could do it twice if I was feeling good. To ensure that conditions were contained I decided to use the treadmill and so I popped a couple of programs I'd taped last week into the vcr and started going. The first set I felt a little stiff, but good. The second set I was warming up and still felt good. The third set I felt great, so I decided to do one more repeat and call it a day. A few minutes into the run part I got that big shooting awful pain in my knee, so I stopped. It was too late.

Before all this PT and exercising and strengthening I could go just over 3 miles with no problem, then the shooting pain would start. Now I can go -- just over 3 miles. Great. I spent the rest of Saturday icing and adviling and by Sunday it was feeling a little better but still sore and swollen. Yeah. No improvement here. I not only won't be running the race next Sunday, I'm highly doubting I'll be able to run the half marathon in April.

In my achy knee sadness I thought that a little retail therapy was in order. I decided to go to Sports Basement to try to find another swimsuit, a tri bag and maybe cycling or tri shorts and tops. I found a great (huge) tri backpack that will carry, um, I think a spare body if I need one. I got a case for my swim goggles, some body wash for after swimming and a pair of tri shorts that are actually big enough. But darn it, no swimsuit so I headed over to the Swim Shop where I had bought the first one. I figured I could breeze in and out and just buy the exact same suit but they have to get it from another shop so I won't have it until later this week. That's ok, it counts as buying it, doesn't it?

On Sunday I indulged in another bout of retail therapy but this time for my nephew. I never got him a Hanukkah gift so we went shopping for that. He's really gotten into music and playing instruments. No, I mean in addition to Guitar Hero. He likes playing a real guitar and his (indulgent) parents just bought him his first electric guitar. He wanted a stand so we went to Guitar Center and I thought his little 10 year old heart was going to burst with joy. He really liked it there and we wandered through a couple of times before he decided on a stand and a new strap. He and his friends are starting up bands this summer. Rock bands. Yeah, my nephew is a rocker. We were talking about bands and he and his friends don't play any of "that old stuff." Uh huh, but even the guys in Green Day (among his current favorites) are getting to be "old stuff." Warms my heart that I was the first to play American Idiot for my unsuspecting nephew (and heard about it from my bro!) and the title song is one of the first he learned to play. I'm so going to be that auntie who gets her nephew his first tattoo or piercing ...