Sun, Feb 22-Sat, Feb 28

Sun Feb 22 - DNR - Injured knee. Did lots of leg lifts and knee-strengthening exercises.

Mon Feb 23 - DNR - Injured knee. It’s not as painful when just walking, but it hurts pretty bad as soon as I try breaking into a stride. 

Tues Feb 24 - DNR - Another mild weather day, but yet another day without running- resting knee.

Wed Feb 25: AM. Ran 15 mins very slowly. Knee hurt but remained tolerable. Mostly clear skies, temp 23°. PM. Ran 15 mins. Knee was painful but no worse than this morning. Clear skies with a temp of 26°.

Thurs Feb 26: AM. No morning run- iced knee (felt sore upon waking). PM. A 30 min run on the Capital City Trail and over residential streets. Rt knee was achy and painful but remained tolerable (barely). It was dark and in the upper 30s.

Fri Feb 27 - DNR - Rt knee is painful and hot to the touch. Time to rest and ice. Nice out tho—56° and sunny.

Sat Feb 28 - DNR - Another beautiful day—snowing and in the 30s—but no running. Resting the injured knee.

There are some injuries that I can run thru and my body gets used to the pain, then forgets about it after a while. I don’t think this is one of those injuries. After Wednesday and Thursday's painful little jogs, my knee has gotten worse. Probably going to be out for a bit.   

Time to get scared

Time to change plan

Sun, Feb 15-Sat, Feb 21

Sun Feb 15: AM. Ran two loops around Lake Monona in 2 hours 48 mins. Heel was ok. Darkness gave way to mostly cloudy skies, then it became sunny. Temp in the low 30s.

Mon Feb 16: AM. A 72 min run on the Capital City Trail, the Wingra Creek Path, Monroe St, and the SW Path. Darkness gave way to partly cloudy skies, temp of 41°. PM. A 45 min run around Lake Wingra. It was dark and 48°.

Tues Feb 17: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. Darkness gave way to cloudy skies, temp 32°. PM. A 40 min run on the Capital City Trail and over residential streets. It was dark and 46°.

Wed Feb 18: AM. A 60 min run on the Capital City Trail and over mucky trails in Olin Park. Darkness gave way to clear skies with a temp around 50°. PM. A 45 min run around Lake Wingra. Clear skies turned dark, temp in the 40s.

Thurs Feb 19: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. My right knee was bothering me but remained tolerable. Darkness gave way to clear skies, temp 30°. PM. No second run- Rt knee has gotten worse. Hurts walking around.

Fri Feb 20 - DNR - Rt knee is very BAD. 

Sat Feb 21 - DNR - Injured knee. Been icing it and doing leg lifts like crazy.

Yikes! After about six months without a day off and generally feeling good, I’ve suddenly turned into crippled wreck. These past few weeks have been kind of a mess- first my heel, then the covid bug hit, now my old knee. Can’t seem to buy a break.

Sun, Feb 8-Sat, Feb 14

Sun Feb 8 - DNR - Sick with coronavirus. Rested in bed most of the day. Have bad headache, sore throat, stuffy nose, chills, and ache all over.

Mon Feb 9 - DNR - Sick. Still resting in bed and feeling wiped.

Tues Feb 10 - DNR - Sick. Still resting, trying to get rid of Covid.

Wed Feb 11: PM. A 45 min run on the Capital City Trail and on the Wingra Creek Path. Felt tired but good to finally run. It was dark and in the low 30s.

Thurs Feb 12: AM. A 75 min run on the Capital City Trail, the Wingra Creek Path, Monroe, and the SW Path. Sore heel. Darkness gave way to mostly cloudy skies. Temp 22°. PM. A 60 min run on the Capital City Trail and the SW Path. Heel was pretty painful for the first 30 mins. It was dark and 34°.

Fri Feb 13: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. Heel was a nuisance throughout. Darkness gave way to blue sunny skies, temp 23°. PM. A 50 min run on the Capital City Trail. It was dark and 40°.

Sat Feb 14: AM. A 55 min run on the Capital City Trail and over trails in Olin Park. The heel wasn’t too bad, but my legs were tired and I generally felt lousy. It was mostly cloudy and 22°. PM. Ran 75+ mins on the Capital City Trail and over residential streets including the subzero mile in ~5:10. Warm out—53°!! Eek—Heat stroke!

Getting sick sucks. Took three days off due to illness. My heel has also continued to bug me. At least it's warming up. Though, I’d much rather have a healthy body and rotten weather. I will run in anything mother nature has to offer, but I won’t run if I’m injured or not feeling well.

Sun, Feb 1-Sat, Feb 7

Sun Feb 1: AM. A 90 min run on the Capital City Trail and over residential streets (two Olbrich loops). My left heel was acting up a bit. It was noticeable from the start, but it never really became painful. Hopefully it’s nothing major like a stress fracture. If so, I might have to take some time off.

Mon Feb 2 - DNR - Tried running but had to stop immediately. Left heel hurts.

Tues Feb 3 - DNR - Injured. Resting heel.

Wed Feb 4: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. Got new orthotics and heel felt okay! Darkness gave way to clear skies, temp of -1°.

Thurs Feb 5: AM. A 60 min run on the Capital City Trail and over residential + city streets. Heel was sore initially but seemed to get better. It was cloudy and 20°.

Fri Feb 6: AM. A 78 min run on the Capital City Trail. Like yesterday, the heel was bothering me at the start but got better as the run progressed. Darkness gave way to cloudy skies. Temp 32°.

Sat Feb 7: AM. In Green Bay, ran (part of) the Beerntsen’s Chocolate 15k until going off course and getting lost about 8 or 9 kilometers in. Course wasn’t well marked. I think I was in fourth with the top 3 runners out of sight and the fifth runner a good distance back. After several blocks without seeing any cones, signs, race volunteers, police officers, etc… I realized that I must’ve missed a turn and was no longer on the course (I was feeling terrible anyway so I wasn’t too upset about getting lost). I turned around and jogged back a quarter+ mile till I met the runner behind me, who also followed me off course. Luckily he was from GB and we were able to find our way back onto the course, though I’m not sure how much extra (or less) of the 15k we actually did. Crossed the line in 58:42. First 5 miles at 6:05ish pace, the rest at 6:30+. My heel wasn’t all that noticeable, but the rest of my body felt like shit. Still I managed to enjoy some chocolate and beer afterwards. It was sunny and 3°. Drove to Marshfield after run then spent the rest of the day horizontal- tested positive for the coronavirus disease.

I was still on course at this point in the race, but not feeling too good

Early in the week I was worried I had a calcaneal stress fracture. I gave the heel a couple days rest, then tested it out and was able to make it through an hour without too much discomfort. I did the same the next day, then a 78er on Friday and the heel held up. I thought I might be safe to race on Saturday, but what a disaster that ended up being! At least my heel is okay (or so I hope).