running update & DC ride
I'm about 2 weeks out from cortisone shot insanity now. This is what my test runs have looked like:
Until a man walking by took pity on us and took our picture. I think we were embarrassing the city.
We left Haines Point and decided to do a loop around the mall. We convinced some more tourists to take our picture at the bottom:
6/7: Cortisone shot.
6/11: 1M (9:02): still a bit achy from the shot but otherwise feels good.
6/14: 1.25M (9:12): a bit of pulling but no pain.
6/16: 1.25M (9:08): felt amazing.
6/18: 1.5M (9:00): tiny bit of tightness at the end.
6/21: 1.5M (8:54): some tightness throughout but no pain.
I'm doing all these runs on a treadmill at the gym so I can carefully monitor distance & pace while concentrating on how I feel and my gait. I know that once I get back outside - especially in this heat - my pace will suffer, and that's fine. Right now it's more about getting going again. Looking at this, so far, so good. When I talk about tightness, it's more of an awareness of my IT band above my knee in the lower half of my thigh, but I haven't felt anything on the front/side of the knee itself, and I haven't had the trademark OMG WTF IS THAT pain that the IT band is known so well for, so I'll take it. I'll take all of it.
As many people have commented, it's surprising that my cycling isn't bothering the IT band. I do have a bit of tightness when I ride, and I've had a tingly sensation in my kneecap that worried me at first, but my doctor friend says that the tinglies are an annoyed meniscus that is common to new cyclists, and ice plus advil will help it calm down. Done, Dr. Jamie.
My goal is to be running (or walk/running, if needed) 2.5M miles by July 11th because, as some of my eagle-eyed blog stalkers have noticed, I'll be doing a teeny tiny mini sprint tri that day at GMU. I picked this one because a) it's in a pool; b) the run is only 2.6M; c) it's in a pool; d) I don't have to buy a wetsuit because e) the swim is in a pool. Right. I'm a wimp and I don't care who knows it. No putting my face in river ooge, not just yet. My cross-training regimen over the past 5 months has essentially been tri training with lots of lifting, so I think this will be a perfect race to test out where I am at. Also, I'm sure I mentioned, it's in a POOL. What do I wear?!
In other news....
Yesterday afternoon I went out for a monumenty ride with a close friend of mine that is moving to Denver next week. Sad pandas are everywhere. My original plan was to ride up to Roosevelt Island and meet her there (less than 6 miles away), but I stepped out of my house into the blinding heat, humidity, and sunshine at 5pm and decided to drive instead, so I wouldn't be zonked out for our ride. We started out by riding onto Roosevelt Island, which was a terrible idea, because, as many of you know, it's a gravelly pebbley trail with roots and stairs and all kinds of bad things. Also, yes, many people have told me this morning that there's a big sign that says "NO BIKES." We didn't see it, I swear, but I promise I won't do it again. Ru posed with Roosevelt and we GTF off that island. Ahh, road is so much better on the biscuit.
Hello Mr. Roosevelt.
We looped over the bridge that involves crossing the GW parkway TWICE, waved at Lincoln, and headed out to Haines Point. We attempted to take pictures of ourselves:
I don't know why I'm standing like that.
...and then went past WWII - my favorite monument - did some hinky jiggery and ended up on the other Memorial Bridge to get back to Roosevelt Island, which has a TEENY WEENY pedestrian walkway and I was terrified I was going to get blown into the river.
I really enjoyed this ride - the Mall was deserted because it was 7pm, and it had just cooled down enough that we weren't roasting. It also made a nice change from the tree-tree-bush-tree-bush-tree-tree-tree scenery of the trails I've been riding on.
Happy Tuesday, everyone!