The Dilnad can!

And thus ends a phase in my journey. We have hit a resting point......

With nearly 18 miles in last week, I got my final run in tonight. It was miserably hot and a bit humid out. Not a fun night to run but I wasn't about to let my last one go by. With the weather as it is, the hills in Cherokee looked particularly daunting (felt that way too). It was very much a battle to just make it up them but I had real drive tonight. In the end I managed to best my previous pace of 10:02 in this park and finally got sub 10. for the conditions, I'm quite pleased with my performance. Many of our group gave up and walked portions tonight. I was not one of them!

Tomorrow morning I undergo knee surgery to remove a lump with a foreign object in it (A piece of gravel we believe) that's pressing on a nerve. This is an old problem that needs to be resolved. It's been hurting more and more after each run. It's unclear how long it will be before I can run again. Originally the surgeon told me 1-2 weeks but he submitted my work leave as 6 weeks. I'm hoping that's a lofty quote and he was just covering his butt.

I exchanged email with Jason Fitzgerald of Strengthrunning.com and asked his advice. He suggested that while this is minor surgery I start rather light with a 7 mile week. I'll break that up into 2 nights at run club and run easy. If I feel good I'll dial it up 3 miles per week until I'm back up to my previous mileage (~18mi/week). This whole process could take a bit of time and some atrophy is certainly possible. We will deal with those challenges s they arise.  I still expect to be more than ready to run the Great Pumpkin 10k on October 3rd after which, we push forward with our mini marathon training.

I will be walking and lifting as soon as I am given a thumbs up by the surgeon.