An injury update

I've been icing, stretching, strengthening and rolling my knee/ IT band a lot over the last 4 weeks.  After talking with the doctor I started "running" on the elliptical.  While I love that it allowed me to keep up my endurance without further injuring my knee I quickly was reminded why I don't use the elliptical more often.  After about 20 minutes my feet start to go numb - by 25 minutes in I'm seriously questioning the wisdom of continuing.  So needless to say my first few workouts were not overly strenuous.  About a week later I progressed to an elliptical/treadmill combo workout, then on to a treadmill only workout and then finally - just this past Saturday an outdoor run.  While I am definitely improving I can't honestly say I'm where I would like to be (understatement).  You might remember that until recently I was planning to run a half marathon this past Sunday.  More than that - I was planning to redeem myself from my disappointing finish in the Stillwater Half Marathon earlier this year.  Nope - I didn't do either of those things this past Sunday.

But there is hope on the horizon!  First, this Thursday I am planning to run the third race in the Life Time Trail Series.  I signed up for this series back in February but I missed the first two (of five) races due to my injury.  This will be a 3.2 mile trail run in French Park - I'm totally psyched and quite confident I will be able to finish given the distance and terrain.  Even better - this Sunday I am participating in the Minneapolis Duathlon with my aunt - the plan is that I will run the 5Ks at the beginning and end and she will bike the 18 miles in the middle.  If push-comes-to-shove and my knee decides not to accept the invitation to join me for this race she will run and I will bike.  My aunt is a killer biker who typically runs only when she has to.  I'm not saying she isn't a good runner - just that it isn't her activity of choice so offering to let me bike in her place is pretty big.  Isn't she a good auntie?  Trust me - she's a rock star!  I'm not planning to take her up on her offer but I know as well as anyone that it's always good to have a Plan B - or even Plan C!

So that's it - my big goal is two 5Ks on Sunday.  There is a huge amount of irony in that statement. When we signed up for the Duathlon I thought this would be an easy run following my second half marathon of the year - now I'm not even sure I'll be able to run the race.  Humbling.