7 Mile Saturday and a Sore Knee

Only 7 more weeks until my half-marathon, people! 7 weeks!

This week was crazy. It was the end of 3rd quarter so grades were due and I had parent teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday night. Exercise kind of took a back seat.  I got a short run in on Monday and then nothing else until Friday. I went to a Zumbathon at MSSU on Friday night. It was a lot of fun, and 3 hours of dancing. When I do Zumba, I almost forget that I am working out. Almost. :)
My only good run this week was yesterday, which was my long run. 7 miles on the schedule.  It was a warm day and I knew I would need plenty of water so I made sure to set up my route where I would pass my house to pick up more water.

I also took some energy gels with me to see if that made a difference in my energy level.  I tried GU Peanut Butter about 45 minutes in.  It tasted just like peanut butter, which is my favorite. :) It was a little much by itself, but I think it helped with my energy level. My legs didn't feel nearly as heavy as they did for last week's 6 miles.  I will definitely be buying more of that!

Around mile 3.5 my knee started feeling a little sore. I slowed down my pace and walked some hoping that it would go away.  It was still sore, but not impossible to run on.  At mile 5, I got back to my house and refilled my water in the driveway.  I kept running a mile in the opposite direction and then turned around for the home stretch. With about half of a mile left, I slowed to a walk and at this point, my knee hurt even when I was walking.  It still wasn't impossible to run, but I was glad I was almost home.  I iced it right away when I got home and just rested for a little while.

I had dinner plans with my best friend at HuHot about an hour later and it felt fine when I went to dinner.  When I got up this morning, it was still a little sore, but only if I turn it a little bit.  To be safe, we picked up a knee brace that I am going to use for a little while and I am icing it off and on today. I hate thinking that I may need to back off running, but I am hoping if I am just smart about it, it will be fine.

Oh, remember I said it was warm yesterday? Well if you're not local, you'll be surprised to know that it snowed today. Welcome to Missouri. :) I am so glad I got my run in yesterday.  Fingers crossed, but so far, I have not had to do any of my long runs inside. That makes me really happy.

How was your exercise this week?
Do you have a race coming up?

Thanks for reading!
Jamie