finally some warmth!

Well it is now the start of March and finally the weather has turned.  Its been sunny all week and the 10 million feet of snow is now melting.  I can already feel my mood turning to hope.  This winter has been long as I have mentioned in almost every blog so far.  I kind of find this striking because I love winter but for some reason it has dragged on me this year.  I think there are probably two reasons for this: 1) I actually ran outside and trained for a marathon through the depth of the Minnesota winter and 2) for my job I spent most of every week outside in the freezing cold and on the ice.  The amount of time that I spent outside in the cold could damper even the most die hard winter lover.

Anyways, Lindsey and I tried to get back into the running again after about two weeks off from the Austin marathon.  I had run a few times during my "break"  but not very much.  I did notice that the few times I had been running there was an incredible tightness in my hips which in turn, led to some knee issues.  Well we tried running the Gateway trail, hoping to do a five and back, but the time we got to the trail it was a sheet of ice.  Luckily, I had my phone with jogtracker and we were able to map out a course.  It started off fine and I felt really strong.  On the way back though I started to get this horrible stabbing pain in my knee.  It was like someone was sliding a hot screwdriver under my patella.  It would go away and then I would try to run again and then BAM there it was again.  Not fun and not nice.  I ended up walking the last 3.5 miles and feeling pretty demoralised about the run.  I think one of the reasons why is connected to the tightness in the hips.  I ended up taking off most of the week cause I had to go to a meeting up in Brainerd but attempted my triumphant return today.

It was great outside today! The sun was shining, the snow is melting, birds are singing and I was running in some shorts.  It was an easy run around campus just under 5 miles at an 8ish pace.  Best part:  no knee pain.  I have been trying to get back into my stretching routine and I think that it may be helping.  One of the best ones I have found is the pigeon:

 

NOTE:  I do not look this graceful or relaxed doing this pose, in fact there may be a pained look on my face.  

I am going to keep my fingers crossed because I need to get back into the swing of things. The Lincoln marathon is coming up fast and I want to break the 330 mark.  

Musical suggestion:  Today while I was running I was going through some old music on my phone.  Last year around this time I was listening the hell out of Elliot Brood (a three-piece Canuck alt-country band. ) Here is one of my favs: