Yesterday, I took to the trail for the first time since my 15k race downtown.  Normally, I would’ve been out on the trail earlier than eight days after a race, but…

I bowled on Tuesday.

Now, I used to bowl in leagues for years and years.  I was never all that great, but I enjoyed it, and occasionally had sparks of … mediocrity.  🙂  However, last Tuesday was the first time I’d bowled in a decade.  It was a work event, so we had a good time, and tried to cram as much bowling as we could into two hours.

By the time the next morning rolled around, my left knee was pretty tender, and I knew I needed to let it rest.

And rest it did, until yesterday.  It was time to return to the trail.

We’ve had crazy warm weather for Da Lou in December.  In fact, the weather dudes and dudettes have already called this the third warmest December on record here.  When I hit the trail, it was 64°, but cloudy as could be.  Big ol’ winter clouds filled the sky, looking like they could start dropping rain at any moment.  Regardless, I headed out.

I took it pretty slow at first, and kinda felt like I was gaining speed through the course.  However, the data didn’t exactly back that up.  I was really slow, with my slowest 5k time in almost two months.  My knee held up reasonably well during the run, although once I got home and rested, it started to be painful.

I think I just need to make sure I’m relatively careful with it, and I’ll be back to my normal lunatic running in no time!

This race benefitted K9s for Warriors.

Race Course