One can only hope.
In retrospect, there were a lot of dumb things I did to lead up to my knee being mad at me. Honestly, it probably should be a lot angrier. In an effort to save myself in the future, and possibly to save you from yourself, here is my list of things I definitely shouldn't have done if I wanted a happy knee:
1. Hard runs on not so great surfaces. A few weeks back I had a track workout. I asked a buddy if he wanted to join me for that track workout. And then it snowed. Said buddy shoveled a lane of the track so we could still run on it! And then the snow melted, and then froze, and then it snowed again. And finally it was time for our run. Because said running buddy had worked so hard on the track, I went out and did the workout. It went great. My paces were fast, and it felt pretty good, except for the slick patches, and the spot of packed in snow. I probably would've been better off just running those 8-9 miles at a regular effort on a clearer route.
2. Being stingy with my shoes. I have a lot of running shoes that are on the cusp of retirement. I usually try to get ~300 miles out of my Mizuno Wave Riders. I have 5 pairs of shoes that have ~250 miles on them, that I've swapped out for a fresh pair when they felt like they lost a little bit of their pep or I started to feel a little niggle of annoyance somewhere in my body. About a month ago, during a cutback week, I set out to rack up some mileage on those shoes. 8 miles on a pair here, 6 miles on a pair there, all in an effort to max them out and donate them. At least I was smart to consider doing this on a cutback week, but after rocking some serious mileage in previous weeks, this was a recipe for a disaster.
3. Neglecting strength training. I finally went back to POWER after missing 4 out of the last 5 weeks. Uff da. I need strength training in my life, but I was finding it really hard to balance running ALL THE MILES with a 5:30am strength session. I talked to the coach and told him where I was at, and asked if during future cycles, if I can scale back the intensity/weights of the lifts during the peak part of my training cycle. He agreed. Phew. I don't want to skip runs and I don't want to skip POWER so I hope this is a good way to keep them both on track.
4. Regular massages. In addition to not being able to find time to strength train, and recover from said strength training, I've also not been the best about my monthly standing massage appointment. My weekend schedule at work got messed up, which meant that my random mid-week half day schedule got thrown off and I couldn't find time to meet up with my massage guru. Thank god she is the best and could get me in for a 9pm emergency appointment before the St. Patty's Day mile, but I need to be seeing her with a lot more regularity for maintenance vs. emergency care. :)
5. Self care. Since starting to strength train regularly (with the exception of lately) I found that I didn't need to foam roll nearly as much. My IT bands stayed pretty damn happy with the newfound hip stability and glute strength (hallelujah!) and I just got out of the practice of doing it. Once I neglected to go do strength work, I surely didn't start up again, which is a terrible idea. The knots that live inside of my calves are toddler sized. Spending some time foam rolling and trigger point treating my legs from the knee down will really help keep my legs happy.
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