I started running slowly in April but had a goal to run a first race in late June…which didn’t happen. For the first time in my life, I started to experience small pains and twinges in my knee, which scared the heck out of me. So inevitably I took time off from running. But I studied why I might have the knee pain…and sought help for all the knots under both of my back shoulder scapula, hoping that loosening those knots up would provide knee relief. I also thought about the fact that I had basically gone for nearly four years either wearing thongs or no shoes at all, then I came back to the US and started wearing shoes…and running.
Seeing a doctor for the minor amount of pain in my knee and my back wasn’t really something I needed, but I was smart enough to know that acupuncture and massage might do the trick. I slowed down to have several sessions with the practitioners at GMC Acupuncture Clinic in El Cajon, Ca for treatment. In addition to the acupuncture and massage sessions, I took more time off from running, knowing that time would help the knee. Unfortunately, this has taken us directly into this magnificent heat bubble sitting over Southern California and the community we chose for our adventure base is in one of the hottest, driest places in the United States.
Needless to say, adaptation to this environment and the ridiculous temperatures have taken a toll on running. I’ve done badly at getting up early in the morning to run (like not at all) and trying to run even in the late afternoons turns into a heat session not always worth doing. I have started running again, relatively pain free. I attribute this small victory over my knee pain to time off, adaption to walking and running in shoes again and the hard work by GMC Acupuncture. Baby steps, baby steps. I’m running again, very slowly with walks thrown in every 5 minutes or so (simply because of the heat) but I’m working hard to be as consistent as I can be.
I need a goal, so I’ve found a race/run down near San Diego in October that I can start to train for; as that gives me a clear goal and purpose and allows me to figure out what I need to do in order to get base training, some speed work and especially endurance on top of the base work.