For the past few months, whenever I went road-running for more than like 3 miles, I could anticipate knee pain for the last several miles of the run, followed by limping for a couple of days, and having trouble taking the stairs for a couple of days after that. After limping around this past weekend from doing a 6.5 mile road run last Thursday (I knew that would happen when I decided to run, but it was SO gorgeous outside that I couldn't resist!), tonight I decided to finally go back to my orthopaedic specialist. So, after work, I joined some friends from work at Capital Alehouse for our office happy hour. We shared some laughs while discussing the "Bacon Challenge" charity fundraiser that I was involved in last week (we raised over $2,200 between the competing factions; one group was raising money to see me, the office vegetarian, eat a bacon-maple sundae, while the "Save Juliana and the Ice Cream, Too" fund came to my rescue and was successful in sparing me from eating that gross concoction). I hung out for a bit and enjoyed a delicious black bean burger topped with cilantro-lime slaw and an ancho-chili sauce (a few curious coworkers came over to inspect the burger, taken aback by the idea that I was eating a real burger...I quickly assured them that they had nothing to worry about...you couldn't pay me to eat red meat!), along with pita chips and a healthy dose of what I believe is the best hummus in Richmond. Anyway, I'm rambling and I know you don't need a recap of every detail of my evening, so let me get back on topic. When I left Cap Ale, I headed out to the West End to get my knee checked out. I fully expected him to x-ray my knee and tell me that it was suffering from chondromalacia patella, which he diagnosed for my left knee last October. However, it turns out that there is only slight evidence of that, and the real problem is a minor meniscus tear. So, the doc gave me a cortisone shot, along with the orders to rest it for 10 days (aka no running). After 10 days, I can start with 1 mile and gradually work my way back up.
I'm sooo excited to be able to run pain free (hopefully) again soon!! And the horror stories about cortisone shots are SO over-exaggerated! Seriously, I barely felt the needle at all! Granted, I guess once you've had a few injections in your eye, all other shots seem like a breeze by comparison. But nonetheless, I don't think anyone's ever been so excited to get a shot as I was tonight! LOL. The whole concept of a shot being able to eliminate all pain in a joint sounds almost too good to be true, but I'm optimistic that it's gonna be successful and I'll be able to start training for the half-marathon soon! :)
And to make my night even better, my buddy HC just emailed me to let me know that he got them to box up the leftover hummus from our happy hour tonight and it will be awaiting me in the office fridge when I get to work! Homemade hummus for lunch tomorrow!!!!! Woo-hoo! :)
And on that happy note, I'm signing off....
Oh, and only 6 more days until Easter! Which also means i can have ice cream and chocolate again! Although, being deprived of chocolate really hasn't bothered me...at least not nearly as much as ice cream has been tempting me. I think as soon as the Easter service at church is over on Sunday, I'm going to suggest to Mom and Jon that we skip lunch and head straight for the ice cream shop! Haha. Just kidding....but only halfway! :)
Night y'all!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Blog Facelift/New Name/New URL!!!! :)
I've been wanting to revamp "Juliana's Juncture" for quite some time now, so tonight I finally decided that it would be easier to just start from scratch, hence the current unveiling of "In a Richmond State of Mind." (Yes, in case any of you were wondering, I am a Billy Joel fan, thus the inspiration for the new title). After creating this new blog, I was relieved to discover that Blogger lets you export all of your blog posts into an .xml file for future uploading elsewhere. So, I decided to transfer posts from Juliana's Juncture from January 2010 onward, since that was the official month when I began my life as a Richmonder. I'm excited for this new, updated look, and I hope you enjoy it, as well! Hopefully the excitement will motivate me to post updates more often!
I just realized it is after midnight, which means it is now officially my mom's birthday! Happy Happy Birthday, Mom!!!! Hope it's absolutely fantabulous!!!! :)
I just realized it is after midnight, which means it is now officially my mom's birthday! Happy Happy Birthday, Mom!!!! Hope it's absolutely fantabulous!!!! :)
Saturday, April 2, 2011
2011 Monument Ave. 10K = Complete!
Waking up at 6:45 isn't usually a pleasant thing to do on a Saturday morning....that is, unless you're super excited for a race!!! As you all know, I've been anticipating this day for several months now, so it was totally refreshing to wake up, gobble up some Special K with skim milk (my personal favorite "Breakfast of Champions" haha), put on my running gear, and start my 1.4 mile walk to Monroe Park.
I checked my bag (obviously can't go anywhere without my cell phone, chapstick/lipgloss, and keys haha), and then headed a few more blocks over to Broad to wait with the other 40,000 runners. It was quite a long wait, since I had arrived around 8:20 (the first wave started at 8:30), and my wave wasn't supposed to start until 9:16....what can I say? I like to be early for things that I'm excited about, and apparently thousands of other people felt the same way! :) This is the first race I've run in that used chip timing, and I am definitely a fan! Anticipating a gun shot to start a race always makes me feel like I'm gonna throw up....I blame that on my years of track & cross country. So, after what seemed like forever, Wave QA approached the starting line, then before I knew it, we were off! I was near the front of the wave, but about 2 blocks in, I could feel my knee brace sliding off my knee, so I had to make 2 very quick stops to try and fix it. By the end of the race, I think it was acting as more of a calf brace, but I finally decided to suck it up and quit wasting time trying to adjust it. As I told my Mom on the phone during my walk back to my apt., I think it's time to buy new knee braces that use straps instead of the pull-on one that I've been using.
Aside from the knee brace annoyance, the race was pretty awesome! The live bands and cheering spectators made it lots of fun! The one thing I learned for next year is that it's not a good idea to sign up for a slower wave than what you're capable of running just to stay on the safe side. Even though I knew I should finish under 60 minutes (notwithstanding a bad injury or an act of God), I signed up for a 61-65 min. wave, thinking that it would be better to run at the front of a slower wave than at the back of a faster one. The result: I got stuck in more bottlenecks than I've ever seen at Capital Ale House! The joggers who signed up for the faster waves were spread out everywhere across Monument, so those of us at a faster pace ended up zigzagging back and forth just to get through them. Not a huge deal, just something that could have been somewhat avoided if I had been in an earlier wave....but at least now I know that. :)
Overall, it was an awesome experience and I ended up setting my personal best record:
During the race, I kept thinking about Dad and reminding myself to push harder because I was running this for him. And I also wanted to have a good report to give Mom and Jon when I called after the race. When I crossed the finish line, I didn't think I had improved much, if any, on my usual time, but when I got home and checked the chip time, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I had knocked about 5 minutes off of my usual 10K time. Granted, this was a very flat course and much easier than most other routes that I tend to run, but I'm still pretty satisfied overall. I hope Dad was watching....I'm pretty sure he was :)
Okay, well, as if all of the black and yellow this morning wasn't enough of a reminder, VCU's big Final Four game is tonight so I should probably start getting ready before my neighbor and I go scope out the least crowded local bar to watch the game. Let's Go Rams!!!!
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| (Please excuse the poor quality...my digital camera finally kicked the bucket and my new one isn't supposed to come in until Monday, so I had to resort to my BlackBerry camera). |
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| I'm not normally this awake before 7:45 on a Saturday! LOL |
I checked my bag (obviously can't go anywhere without my cell phone, chapstick/lipgloss, and keys haha), and then headed a few more blocks over to Broad to wait with the other 40,000 runners. It was quite a long wait, since I had arrived around 8:20 (the first wave started at 8:30), and my wave wasn't supposed to start until 9:16....what can I say? I like to be early for things that I'm excited about, and apparently thousands of other people felt the same way! :) This is the first race I've run in that used chip timing, and I am definitely a fan! Anticipating a gun shot to start a race always makes me feel like I'm gonna throw up....I blame that on my years of track & cross country. So, after what seemed like forever, Wave QA approached the starting line, then before I knew it, we were off! I was near the front of the wave, but about 2 blocks in, I could feel my knee brace sliding off my knee, so I had to make 2 very quick stops to try and fix it. By the end of the race, I think it was acting as more of a calf brace, but I finally decided to suck it up and quit wasting time trying to adjust it. As I told my Mom on the phone during my walk back to my apt., I think it's time to buy new knee braces that use straps instead of the pull-on one that I've been using.
Aside from the knee brace annoyance, the race was pretty awesome! The live bands and cheering spectators made it lots of fun! The one thing I learned for next year is that it's not a good idea to sign up for a slower wave than what you're capable of running just to stay on the safe side. Even though I knew I should finish under 60 minutes (notwithstanding a bad injury or an act of God), I signed up for a 61-65 min. wave, thinking that it would be better to run at the front of a slower wave than at the back of a faster one. The result: I got stuck in more bottlenecks than I've ever seen at Capital Ale House! The joggers who signed up for the faster waves were spread out everywhere across Monument, so those of us at a faster pace ended up zigzagging back and forth just to get through them. Not a huge deal, just something that could have been somewhat avoided if I had been in an earlier wave....but at least now I know that. :)
Overall, it was an awesome experience and I ended up setting my personal best record:
During the race, I kept thinking about Dad and reminding myself to push harder because I was running this for him. And I also wanted to have a good report to give Mom and Jon when I called after the race. When I crossed the finish line, I didn't think I had improved much, if any, on my usual time, but when I got home and checked the chip time, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I had knocked about 5 minutes off of my usual 10K time. Granted, this was a very flat course and much easier than most other routes that I tend to run, but I'm still pretty satisfied overall. I hope Dad was watching....I'm pretty sure he was :)
Okay, well, as if all of the black and yellow this morning wasn't enough of a reminder, VCU's big Final Four game is tonight so I should probably start getting ready before my neighbor and I go scope out the least crowded local bar to watch the game. Let's Go Rams!!!!
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