Baby Steps

What a weekend!?! We had St. Patrick's Day, Noreen got some great news, her sister came up, and I ran. We started it out by going to see the Namesake, Friday night. It was a good movie, just couldn't compare to the book which is one of our all time favorites. The story is by Jhumpa Lahiri who won a Pullitzer at age 30, so she's pretty good. Check out the book for sure, but see the movie first and it'll be great! Also, on Friday, Noreen got confirmation that she has been selected for a year-long internship at the Boston Arts Academy. It's Boston's version of the Fame school in New York. And, not only does she get to work in a great environment, it's a paid internship(not a lot, but anything is good). I'm very excited for her because she gets to work with the exact population she wants to in the future, and it should be a great learning experience for her! Way to go, honey! We also got our tax return Friday, sweet!

Then came St. Patty's day, or the day where plans couldn't come together. We didn't go snow tubing or see my college friends, all due to the Nor' Easter that hit. We did have a good time walking around though, and we wrapped up our celebration with some lamb stew and shepherd's pie at an Irish pub right near the house. It wasn't as exciting as last year's where we witnessed the NYPD and BPD Irish drum corps face off, but we did hear some bagpipes and we ate a lot of food that was probably not good for us and in the fashion of the Isles, devoid of most nutritional value, Yay! We had the spirit all right!

Then I ran on Sunday. Now, I was a bit nervous and a bit excited, not sure how the knee would feel, and kind of not wanting to know just in case. I chose to do 15 miles, nice and easy, on the actual marathon course. I started at mile 10, and skipped the last mile of the course, saving it for race day(a superstition thing). First off, even in 25 degree weather, the course was great, hilly but not mountainous, pretty, and something to keep you interested all the way. I scaled down my run/walk cycles to 6 minutes running, and 3 walking so as not to push it too hard on the first time back. It went fairly good for the first 12 miles or so, I had a good pace, and though I had some soreness here and there(which was expected), the knee held up ok. After mile 12, the knee started to go downhill, literally actually which probably exacerbated the situation. As I crossed the crest of Heartbreak Hill and began the descent into Boston, my knee took the downhill shock not so well, again to be expected. I shortened my running time, and pushed through the last 3 miles.

The good news about this whole thing is that the Ortho was right, it's definitely my hamstring, the pain spiked as I pushed off with the right leg, exactly when the hammie is engaged, so I know the diagnosis was correct. Also, my fitness level appears to remain entirely intact, at no point(even after big hills) did I feel winded or weak in the legs(short of the knee). This is good because it means I can continue to take it easy on training during the week, and I'm not too worried about losing the endurance I've built up. Additionally, I did get through 12 miles ok, so the healing has begun, and each walk break rejuvenated me a bit, less and less as I went on but still. So, the good outweighs the bad for sure. I'm going to continue strength and cross training to give the muscle support from other areas of my leg, and I'm going to watch the mid-week running and probably do less than I would have so I can take the long runs on the weekend. Also, I found that being hyper aware of my form really seemed to alleviate some of the pain, oh and I'm going to stretch, stretch, stretch and sleep, sleep, sleep! That should get me through the next 4 weeks healthy and ready for this thing!

And, Erin got in yesterday! She's Noreen's sister, and she's here over her Spring Break to chill out, and check out some grad school prospects. It's good to be able to spend some time with her, just her and us(no offense Mom and Pop Lavin), as we don't get to see her all that much. She's a riot, and the dogs love her, errrrrr love bothering her, either way.

So, that's pretty much it, a long post I know. Hope everyone is doing well, and ummmm, hey, we still haven't hit that $2000, let's get on that! Have a great week!