Greetings from Florida

When I started typing in the title for this post, it came up automatically. I must have used the same title a year ago on this computer. Funny...

So anyway, I'm here in South Florida. Actually the weather hasn't been great, but it was sunny long enough to get that picture. The next few days are supposed to be better though.

In terms of my knee, I still feel it bothering me when I walk too fast. (Which is not that fast at all.) On Sunday back in New York, I ran 6 miles. I stopped after 2 because of my knee, and then did the next 4 with some mild discomfort. On Tuesday I ran 4, again with some mild discomfort. This morning here in Florida, I ran 4 miles. It was so hot and humid, that I forgot about my knee. I don't think it bothered me, so that's a good thing.

I'm planning on going ahead with the Miami Half Marathon this Sunday, though I don't expect to be setting any PR's.

A lot of people asked about the stretching I've been doing. My usual routine is to start with some wall pushing. (The computer here is slow, and I'm not going to link any of these. You should be able to figure out what they are.) One with my leg straight to stretch the calves, and one with my knee slightly bent to stretch the achilles. I then do a quad stretch by pulling my foot back up to my butt. What I was doing wrong was not concentrating on getting my thigh straight down below me, and pushing my hip forward. It really makes a difference. I was shown a trick where you use something else to keep your leg up (e.g. an armrest from a chair). That way, you can concentrate on getting your thigh and hip into the right position, and really stretching your quad. Try it, it works! I generally do some mild hamstring stretching by reaching for my toes. This week, I've also done some stretches by putting my leg up on a chair, and then reaching for my toes. Finally, I stretch my ITB by crossing my legs, and bending sideways away from the back leg. It can be done both by reaching down to the floor, and by reaching up. I find that the reaching up variation, where you make a "bow" out of your ITB, feels like it's working better.

(I'm sorry about that boring discussion, without any links. You should be able to google these stretches quite easily. There are many sites out there with pictures, and tips for points to focus on.)

Ok, that's it for now. Heading out to dinner. I'm not going to weigh myself here on vacation, but it's definitely a struggle to stay on the diet. I'm trying though. We'll see how I did next week.