Inconvenient Pain

My leg hurts. No, really. I'm not just making it up. I'm not trying to garner sympathy. I'm not even trying to justify the fact that it is 4:18pm and I have not yet started my new lower body workout.

I'm just stating a simple fact.

I've got that race coming up this weekend, so I've been training regularly. Not anything crazy ... just 3-3.5 mile runs 3 days a week. Maureen thinks I need to get my shoes checked out. I tried running in my cross trainers on the treadmill last Tuesday. That was an exercise in futility. Not only did my leg (knee) hurt, but my feet did as well.

We have a good running store on the other side of town, where they will fit me, watch me run, check my gait, judge my flat-feet and all that sort of stuff. Trouble is ... I know a new pair of runners is going to cost me some dough (that I don't have right now) and even if I picked them up today (and I don't have the money to do so right now), I don't think I could break them in properly before Sunday.

So I guess I just have to live with it. Until this Sunday's race is over, anyway.

I'm getting older. I guess there's no use denying it any longer. My joints are old, over used, dried up and not keeping the bones safe like they should. My shoulder goes out ... I get it fixed. In the meantime, I work my lower body to the max. Now my knee is rebelling ... just in time to switch the tables and work my upper body into submission. But cardio requires legs, and I need to do the cardio. Not to mention the fact that I have signed up for 3 races (2 5k's and a 10k) over the next couple of months.

Guess I had better go invest in a crate of joint juice?

"Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain" ~William Faulkner~