...and failed. About 7 weeks ago, I decided that I was going to get off my hide and follow my husband's footsteps into the world of running. Growing up and all throughout high school, I was a competitive swimmer, but never a runner. Figured might as well give it a shot.
So I went out with him twice and then tried to do it a bit on my own. Decided I would try the ole Couch to 5K program and see how that went for me. I felt really good getting up and outside in the gorgeous South Carolina weather. Until the pain arrived....
After my third trip out for a walk/run around out neighborhood (1/3 mile loop - tried to do at least 3 loops), I started to notice shooting pains in my left knee. I figured it was just not used to being used and maybe a little of the weigh I've been carrying around for the last few years. So I ignored i; but after it happened again after my next try outside and continued to hurt for another week on top of that, I knew something was wrong. So I spent a week doing some Wii workouts inside. I figured low impact might help the good ole knee settle down. Wrong. Squats are not conducive to nursing a knee injury.
So what did I do... ignored it. Five weeks (one of those including a family vacation) went by before I finally (at the urging of my husband) decided that I might need to see a doc. Over these 5 weeks my knee hurt a bit here and there but not too much, but I also wasn't doing anything. Lucky for me, my coworker is an avid runner and has tons of contacts in our area. She put out some feelers to a running group and one person was kind enough to get me into a physical therapy center.. for FREE! (its good to know people)
So last Friday, I got a free consultation with a PT guy. He had me do some exercises and did some strength tests and apparently, my left side is weak. I hate weakness. I was assigned / prescribed a set of strengthening exercises / stretches that should help me build up strength in my left leg and hip. I need to do these for 4 - 6 weeks and slowly ease back into walking / running. This past week, I've done the exercises every other day (should do them right now) and I have noticed that my knee isn't hurting too much and there is no more swollen-ness. Great news!
I'm going to try to hit the pavement again sometime these week and at least walk a mile and see how it feels after that. From there, my goal is to ramp up my walking to gradually. Looking to do up to 3 miles of walking with weekly half mile increases and once I can master that with no pain, I'm going to add the running back in.
We'll see how it goes. Off to do my stretches.
