This past weekend was a nice one. With no particular plans, except for a 9 mile long run, I was looking forward to it. Saturday I left the house a half an hour early to try and get about 3 miles in before I met up with the Alley Pond Striders. The runners who come to the park and run at my pace usually only do about 5 to 6 miles on Saturday morning. If I want to go longer, I usually end up doing the bulk of the run by myself. I've now started running to the park and getting in any mileage over the 6 before the meetup. The weather was pretty good. Cool if a little humid. I got in about 3.25 miles before I hit the park. For a change, the runners had set off only about 5 minutes late. This means they were already well into the park before I got there expecting them to have started the usual 15 minutes after the planned start time. I managed to catch up to the back of the pack about 1/2 a mile later. I slowed down to stay with Suzanne who usually runs over 11 minutes/mile. She sped up a bit and we ran at about a 10:45 pace. I can usually keep that up easily. However, last weekend I had experienced some pain in my left knee about 8 miles into a 9 mile run. It was bad enough that I had a tough time walking for a day or so after. I skipped a run and did a 5 mile slow run on Wednesday instead of the planned speedwork. The knee seemed fine, but it started to bother me again on Saturday. It seems to be my ITB and I'm a little worried. This is my first running related injury. I've had the odd ache or pain, but nothing persistent. I skipped running on Sunday and today and have been trying to stretch out the band. I hope this doesn't mess up my half marathon in two weeks. Sunday I went clothes shopping. This is an unusual event in my life. I hate shopping for clothes. I've never fit into 'standard' women's sizes. And, of course, when I was heavier it was even worse. But I've been getting a little better since I've lost the weight. And I really needed some summer tops that I could wear to work. So off to the mall I go. I didn't find any tops, but I still managed to spend some money. I liked the new line of clothes that being carried by Steve & Barrys that are put out by Sarah Jessica Parker. When I heard about them, I scoffed - I mean she's got that twiggy figure and is always at the big fashion shows, I figured that her clothing would only fit those size zero girls. Some of it does look like that, but I got some nice pants and also grabbed a hoody. So I was feeling quite happy when I left that store. So good, in fact, that when I went into JC Penneys and saw that they had bathing suits on sale, I decided to try some on. I haven't owned a bathing suit in over 25 years - traumatic body issues in puberty. I had no idea what size I was now, but I brought a couple into the dressing room. They didn't look half bad - I wasn't crying after bathing suit hell. The topper was that the sale price was further slashed for the weekend and I got an $80 suit for about $25. Sweet!
Congrats on a successful shopping trip. I know you have issues about shopping. I hope your knee is feeling alright. You could also try icing it. I'm having puppy parent anxiety lately (will she like me, will I like her). I'm an idiot.
Name: DebbieJRT Home: Bellerose, New York, United States About Me: crotchety cross stitcher, trying to channel my inner athlete See my complete profile
Congrats on a successful shopping trip. I know you have issues about shopping. I hope your knee is feeling alright. You could also try icing it. I'm having puppy parent anxiety lately (will she like me, will I like her). I'm an idiot.