no wonder my leg ached

My left leg has never been quite as muscular as my right leg. Added bonus, nine years ago, in a mishap involving moving boxes and Birkenstocks, I sprained my left ankle. So, last summer, when I was running longer distances than I ever had before, and my left ankle was achy, I always figured it was just My Left Leg. Then, a few weeks before my first 10K last summer, I happened to stop to admire an interesting berry on the side of our driveway. Standing quietly communing with nature, I heard this long, high-pitched whine - it took me a while to place it: it was my left running shoe. The magic, super-expensive cushioning system had sprung a leak. Stupid Nikes. I immediately went out and got new running shoes (Asics) and voila, no more achy ankle.

So when, in the fiasco of my recent overtraining, my left leg ached more than my right leg, I just assumed it was – let’s review – My Left Leg. (I haven’t run enough miles to warrant replacement shoes yet.)

OK, so today marked the end of my first week of post-overtraining rehab work. 10 minutes on Tuesday…20 minutes on Thursday…30 minutes planned for today. As I got started, I had the presence of mind to check something on the treadmill:

The cushioning system. This is Kevin on his pre-run warm-up. The orange slider thingy is where you adjust the cushioning. There’s one on either side.

Much to my surprise, I discovered that the right hand side and the left hand side were adjusted to different cushioning! The left side was set to be super-extra-firm, while the right side was set to somewhat less firm. DUH. We’ve only had this thing set up since January 11th!

This explains why both of us felt that we had a tendency to migrate over to the left side of the belt…why I had to adjust the belt a couple of weeks ago when it made awful wrenching noises…and why when I overtrained, it was my left leg that hurt more. Again, DUH.

I am Really, Seriously Hoping that this Whole Training Program will work. Two Sundays from now is when I first show up on the radar of the actual plan – that week’s long run is supposed to be 5.5 miles. I’ve run 5.5 miles loads of times…I just hope I can hit it from here, having just gotten back into the swing of things. The past two weeks have pointed out for me that in addition to inheriting my dad’s tendency to paint the house weird colors, I may have also have his tendency to get addicted to working out to the point of injury. (He was a weight-lifting fiend.)

In other news…

Kevin’s laptop is at the doctor’s getting new memory and re-formatted, since it’s really sluggish. The experience of digging through basement boxes for original install disks (which I took care of because hey, he’s working and doesn’t have time for this crap) inspired a little spring cleaning in other departments…

You can’t see just how incredibly sparkly the inside of the fridge is; trust me on this. I ALSO – Jen! Jen! I did a CLOSET PURGE! So much fun! Really, there are only so many oversize T-shirts from mid-90’s conferences, decorated with embedded paint flecks, that one girl should have.

  I don’t think Maggie has moved from this spot in 18 hours.

 

The driveway is not currently an ice field.

There, that’s all my news.