This is progress?

Last night I met Pam and Olivia to join them for their regularly scheduled Monday night run. I was a little worried since last time they ran wayyy too fast for me, but I decided I'd just drop behind and have a nice run on my own, if I had to.

The weather was cool and breezy, nice. I know sooner or later it's going to heat up to blistering temps but for now it still seems like winter. California winter, that is. Perfect running weather. We all got a good laugh when we started since none of us had a watch. I had left home with Mr. Garmin but as it finally located the satellite it showed "low battery" and shut down. Perfect chance to run without any monitoring, just a fun run.

As we headed off I felt that we were going too fast for my comfort. I was already wheezing and we hadn't even crossed the first street yet. I gasped my way to our stretching point and caught my breath and told myself that I just wouldn't be running with them. We stretched and took off again, this time with me in the lead and trying to force them to slow down to my pace. We were all chatting and talking and running and it seemed to be ok, but then they both eased around me and increased their paces a bit. I still managed to keep up, talking, but then I felt something in my knee kinda slip and pains shot through it. The pains I wasn't having anymore since I've been in therapy.

My initial thought was to ignore it (smart, hmm?) but even Pam noticed that I winced and stumbled. I was going to go on with them but it was really the perfect point for me to take the short short short shortcut and head back. I waved them on and continued running, very slowly. I took a walk break but that hurt more than running, so I ran back most of the 3/4 mile that was left. I went home, stretched and did most of my legsercises, iced. It was painful for the rest of the night.

This morning my knee was back to it's usual slight achy-ness, nothing too bad, maybe a little more sore than usual after a run. I had physical therapy and now he's thinking that maybe what's bothering me really is the torn meniscus. Well crap! He told me not to run tonight (which I wasn't planning to do), to take it easy, and see the doctor if it gets worse.

I'm planning on treating it as if it's a one time aberration, the final last gasp of my sore knee before it returns to normal. Positive thinking!