Don’t Be Ridiculous!

I laugh at myself sometimes over the ridiculousness of what I’m doing. I mean, who in their right mind would go through the suffering that I am going through just for the sake of fitness or getting a high out of it? Illegal drugs would probably be an easier way to get a high but it’s just not my thing. After runs like today instead of someone asking me what hurts, they should probably ask what doesn’t hurt because it seems like the what doesn’t hurt list is lesser than the what hurts list. Well I’ll tell you the what hurts list anyway from bottom to top. My right inner ankle hurts, that’s a given. My left knee hurts, that’s fairly new. My lower back hurts due to my stride changes. To add to all that hurt I’ve been having a toothache the past week. That’s the only non-running hurt that I have and of course when I’m not running the tooth hurts the most.

When today’s AREC run started, I told John M. that I was going to follow a line from a song from “Phantom of the Opera” (The Music of the Night) and run “slowly, gently”. But that didn’t last very long. I’m back to my old habit of trying to catch up with someone up ahead again. Although it feels good to be able to pick up the pace and do that, it jars the joints harder. Like last weekend I was running at about 85% perceived effort again, this time for 10 miles. The good thing about today’s run is that it’s the longest one I’ve done since I tore my posterior tibialis tendon last October, and not at an easy effort. The downside is all the pain I’m experiencing. A normal person would say that that I’m being ridiculous or just plain crazy (I already knew that) for doing what I do to my body (it’s my body so I can do what ever I want with it, so there!) Oh, my goodness that sounds almost like I’m hearing voices in my head just like the patients I work with do.

My joints are beginning to feel the cumulative effects of the increasing mileage. At least we get a break next Saturday, we only have to do a 7 miler and ooooh, can my joints sure use the break. The ridiculousness of running in pain sometimes has its rewards. In the middle of today’s run Nancy D. commented that I looked happy. All I can say about that, to borrow and paraphrase from another old song “ Smile though your joints are aching, smile even though they’re breaking”.