Old friends

Alriiiiiight, let's see if I can make this shorter than it needs to be. One sidenote before I start, people have been wondering what the heck I'm doing with my life now that I'm a college graduate. Well I'm taking the MCAT again in April, but this time around I'm taking a Kaplan test-prep class. I'm also working, and volunteering as a course assistant in an anatomy lab...it's something I did last year too.

Anyway, Wednesday my physical therapist taped me up again and that night I went on one of those stationary bikes that has a seat-back and killed two birds with one stone by studying for the MCAT. Time flew by because before I knew it, I had completed 13.5 miles, so I called that a productive night. Thursday I did 4 miles on the elliptical with some speed intervals thrown in, and then did 4 more easy elliptical miles with a nice 6.5 mile bike ride thrown in for good measure on Friday. Friday was also my last physical therapy appointment, and my physical therapist said that there's only so much they can do and that I need to just do the exercises on my own. We agreed on going a week without therapy and seeing how things hold up. If anything, I'm definitely breaking down a psychological barrier in that I'm pretty much DONE with physical therapy.

Saturday, I biked 5 easy miles to get the blood flowing, and then lifted the upper body. This morning was the most telling - I met up with an old friend for a little over an hour. That old friend just happens to be the river trail that I did most of long runs on during training for the Detroit Marathon. The last time I ran on it, it was the beginning of October, the leaves were changing colors, and it was picture-perfect. It was picture-perfect again this time around, except everything was covered in snow, the trail was almost clear of snow, and there were other footprints on the trail as if another runner ran the same way earlier and they were saying "Hey I was here an hour ago, come find me." It was a balmy 15 degrees when I started, but I was planning on going 10 miles, so I bundled up for the ride. I didn't want to go too fast, but with the somewhat slick snow, I kept it at about an 8:00 min/mile pace. Sure enough, I completed the first 5 miles in 40:12, just a shade over 8 minute pace. I felt like I kept the same pace thru 8.5 miles, and then I decided to pick it up a little and finish strong. I forgot to stop the watch at the end, but I think it was right around 38:30 for the second half. Negative splits are grrrrrrreat.

All in all, my IT band felt better during that run that it had in a long long time. Old friends have a way of bringing out the best in us, huh? I did get a couple of minor pain sensations but I felt like I spent most of the run just waiting for something to happen, so it was like I was forcing it to hurt. I gotta stop doing that. It also felt great throughout the day as well, which makes me very happy, you don't even know.

Well that's about as short as I can make this...though I feel like the post is a little disjointed. Hmm...