4.28

 

This morning was the first in weeks that the temperature and humidity weren’t completely out of hand.  I woke up early and drove to the parking lot at the start of the trail and was surprised to see it nearly full of cars.  A bunch of bikers rode by and there were several others either gearing up or putting bikes back on car racks.  There was also a large group of high school girls, a cross county team I assume, cooling down and enjoying some oranges after a nice weekend workout.

I remember doing workouts at the lakefront in Milwaukee and while I was never a cross country star, the team aspect and fun of being at the lake always made those workouts fun.  I have to imagine that having such a great trail to train on makes the high school season wonderful for the schools in my area.

I slipped on my knee brace, set my GPS to track my route and pacing and pressed play on my IPOD.  It felt great to be back out as it has been a couple of weeks courtesy of the weather and my knee.  I felt comfortable as the steps ticked by and my knee was feeling pretty good.  I followed my doc’s advice and did a nifty zig-zag move when I hit a downhill in an attempt to take some of the pressure off my knee and it seemed to work fairly well.  I did my best to be an adult and not jump in the mud puddles left over from rain last night and made my way to the first rest area.

By the time I hit the rest area it was starting to heat up and my knee was getting a little achy.  Exercising my better judgment I opted for a shorter out and back than I had planned and turned back for the start of the trail.

Getting back to my car I was tired, but in a good way, not a pass out in the parking lot way, so that was good.  I noticed along the way that pacing was more consistent, with fewer times when I felt I slowed down a lot, also good.  My knee wanted to rest a bit more than the rest of my but I kept pushing it and adjusted my gait when I could to account for that, something I’m happy I was able to do without too much trouble.  I’m scaled back on my miles at current but I’m building back up in a good way, a way that ought not hurt my knee (and the fluid hanging out on it…) and I feel good about that.

All in all, a good 4.28.