I Got In A 5K This Morning!

Back "in the day" I use to participate in all sorts of runs - 5K, 10K half-marathon, marathon, ultra-marathon, trail run.  For the past few years, though, my running has been non-existent.  I developed arthritis in my right knee, and there were times a couple of years ago I had trouble just going for a walk.  I kept umpiring and officiating, but I was only able to do that by popping Advil or Tylenol to kill the pain enough to make it.  Then, when that wasn't enough, I went to the doctor, and he prescribed me Meloxocam, which at the time he told me was similar to those medications.

So this morning, I ran a 5K...okay, honestly, running 3.2 miles on the track at RHS in a blistering time of 45:39 is not exactly running.  I'm positive many folks can walk faster than that 15-minute per mile pace.  And "running" on a track isn't quite the same as running on streets or pavement with hills. 

Still, it was 3.2 miles, and I wasn't "walking", so I'm counting it as an accomplishment.

Losing weight has helped; I believe my change in eating habits has helped; doing a little simple yoga routine each morning has helped; and trying some therapy on my knee from Dr. Moreno at Frontline Sport and Spine has helped.  I've had two treatments so far, and they have me doing some simple strength and flexibility exercises on my own each day.  I wouldn't say I feel miraculously cured, but whatever he's doing with that little platinum credit-card-looking thing he uses to scrape my knee seems to be easing the acute pain I was previously experiencing.

In my mind, my improvements are probably a combination of all of them, so I just need to stay the course, be patient, and see how much I can improve and what I need to develop as a regular daily/weekly routine to attempt to help myself out.  I'm not in the middle of basketball season, so I admittedly may have to go back to Tylenol or the Meloxocam if the acute pain does return, but for now I like where I'm headed.