My knee has been bothering me again. That old running pain that I’d mostly taken care of and only flared up noticeably when I figured my form was dropping. But the last few weeks I haven’t been able to correct it and I’ve spent more time on the bench. My last run, on Monday, I went knowing my knee hurt because I was out of my mind with stress-energy. And the run helped a lot but did my knee no favors.
I’ve taken the rest of the week off running. The last three weeks now have been pretty light on the miles (luckily I got in my half marathon before the pain started). The problem: I haven’t really replaced running with anything else. Like . . . walking? weights? A few measly crunches? You know, all those other cool things you can do to move your body and complete the stress cycle. The domino effect has been swift with my bedtime getting pushed back since I’m not tired enough to easily fall asleep and my energy feeling lower during the day.
It’s tough because my usual answer would be: go running! I like running so much but just a couple of days off are enough to test my motivation. My favorite Gretchen Rubin-ism: it’s often easier to do something every day than to do it some days. And I am definitely going to test running out again tomorrow but if my knee needs a little break to reset (I took a few weeks off around this time last year and focused on training with RunRx to get back on track), I need to figure out some other ways to sweat a little every day that isn’t just randomly doing jumping jacks.
The last couple weeks have been very stressful. Obviously the election, but then rolling into some work stress and anxiety I was not prepared for and I was caught in it outside of my routine. I’ve reset a bit this week — more writing, less drinking, longer meditations. But exercise always always always makes me feel better.
Here’s my accountability piece: I’m going to run tomorrow. And if that’s a no-go, I am going to find a walking and weight routine that takes up the same amount of time until I can work on running again. It’s fucking essential to my mental health.
With Love,
Natalie