Naked runner

Dear readers, I need your help, advice actually. But I’ll get to that in a moment. First, I need to express a little something here: Yippee! Hooray! Hourra! Wonderbar! Jupiiii! Urra! Hallelujah!


Oh how I have missed you dear sneakers.

I went for a run after work yesterday, just a short one, a painstakingly slow one in fact, and the whole time I was freaking out about my knee. I hadn’t run in 24 days, and as a result I knew my body would be rigid, un-flexible, and my head would likely be mimicking that of a bird’s with my shoulders scrunched right up into my ears. So, I stripped down my friends, ran completely naked … well, the runner’s equivalent of naked that is. No Garmin. No iPod. Just me, my sneakers, shorts, technical shirt and hat. Ahhh, so exhilarating 😉


No ear buds, no Garmin.

I purposely went super slow and tried to be as light on my feet as I possibly could. I didn’t want to aggravate a thing. It was raining a bit, but I hardly noticed it, my eyes and ears were 100 per cent focused on the inner part of my left knee. Was that a twinge I just felt? Was that a creak in the joint? Is there something moving around in there? Was that a pain? Am I imagining all this? Yep, I think I was.

YESTERDAY’S ‘COME BACK’ RUN:

  • 6 p.m. BG before: 6.4 (1 dark chocolate biscuit, no bolus)
  • Temp. basal: -50 per cent (1/2 hour)
  • Distance: approximately 3.5 km
  • Time: 23 minutes
  • 7 p.m. BG after: 5.2
  • Temp. basal: +50 per cent (1/2 hour)

For the second time this week, I got up at 4:30 this morning to head to dear physio’s office. (Let me just say, I don’t function at all that early. Case in point: My underwear, I noticed at NOON, was on inside out! Awesome.) Dear physio rolled my right leg inwards, then rolled my left leg – the problem leg – inwards, pushed down on my left pelvis area a few times, rolled my problem leg in again, got a smile on his face. He asked me if I’d gone on a run, I said yes, to which he replied he could tell. My pelvis was a little out of position, he said, but no big deal. His pushing down on it had put it right back into position.

Then he started pressing down around the outer edge of the inner part of my knee, right where the bursa had been anchored, with his thumb and forefinger. I held my breath. I didn’t want to feel pain, please don’t let me feel pain, I silently pleaded. He pressed. I felt nothing. He moved slightly to the right and pressed again. Nothing. He shifted further right and pressed again. Nothing. Not until he had got right down to the bottom, pretty much to the front of the knee, did I feel a slight something. And I kid you not, it was only slight. That’s better than two days ago! I shouted out. He smiled. “You got the green light,” he said. “Go run.”

YAHOO!!!

But now, here’s where I need your advice. I have a race in less than a month, that’s just three Sundays left to fill my sneakers with long runs. I haven’t run in more than three weeks, and one of those weeks, I did no exercise at all. How many kilometres do I put in this Sunday? I do not want to re-injure myself, but I also don’t want to miss out on mileage. So, what oh what do I do?

What would you do?

6 thoughts on “Naked runner”

  1. Run like a kid?
    No TIME goals, no DISTANCE goals, just go with your obvious LOVE of running?
    Of course, I am only guessing 🙂
    Oh, and don’t run naked? 🙂

  2. Nothing that you do now will make you more ready for the race than you already are Katie! Slowly build up to race day. The last thing that you want is to have to limp through a race. Far better to take it easy and enjoy the run. That being said, I would not recommend running any more than an hour this Sunday, just saying 😉

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