Finding Joy

I’m the only one who stuck around for the awards.

I do not like being injured. I’ve talked about the mind/body/spirit link that affects all of us. For me, I feel at my best when my body is able to perform how I want it to. When it can’t, it can (and does) trigger my depression which then makes it harder for me to get in a workout which then makes it harder to recover and gets me depressed and cycles all around. 

I’ve been in that cycle since my meniscus tear a few weeks back. Fortunately for me, Lorraine has seen this type of injury and knows I’ll recover, so her encouragement makes a huge difference. Going on the hike up in Ithaca was a big confidence-booster. But then it was time to start running if I want to play in this tournament in early November. 

Some friends of ours has started fund-raising 5k run called “Run For Joy” to raise money for mental-health awareness, especially among students in the medical field. They lost their daughter to suicide and this is one of the ways they want to turn that into a positive.

Lorraine and I signed up for the race and my original thought was I’d just walk it with her. But my confidence was coming back, so I got it in my head that I could run it. I just needed to train.

So, the week of the race (last week), I ran a mile for the first time in several weeks. I discovered a few things: 1) my endurance was a little down 2) it hurt my knee less to run than to walk! In fact, the faster I went, the better it felt 3) my recovery was still really good. My heart-rate was really high while running but I could get it to drop within 30 seconds of stopping.

But, boy did that kind of give me pause. I was sucking wind immediately and felt wiped after a mile. The next day I did a bunch of squats, and over the next day or so started to feel that awesome feeling of having used my muscles. 

The day before the race I challenged myself to run half a 5k and do it under an 8-minute pace. I got close, but was just over at 8:05. But it felt good, and I did it in my hilly neighborhood. 

And that was it for my training. Two running sessions and some squats. Not exactly olympic-level.

Nevertheless, the day of the race (Saturday) I had two goals: run the whole race and break 8-minutes on at least the first 2 miles. 

It was a perfect morning and a great course on the greenway in nearby Winston-Salem. I started off a little too fast, but adjusted my speed to something more manageable and got the first mile under 8. I sped up a bit and did the second mile at 7:40-something. I was feeling pretty good and realized I had a chance to be in the top ten of my age bracket if I could just maintain my pace. So I did, and ended up 2nd in the 50-59 age group! 41st overall out of nearly 500 runners. 

My knee felt a little sore, but so did my good knee. My calves took it the worst because I didn’t properly train for it. They are still sore. 

This was a great confidence booster as I look ahead to November 6th. It showed me that my injury isn’t quite as bad as I think it is and I haven’t lost as much of my fitness as I thought I had. 

And that, my friends, brings me joy.