HEALING AND IDIOCY

First, the healing.

Yesterday morning for the first time in a week and a half, I was able to walk a three-mile trek at my normal pace. Progress! The tendonitis is still there, but it gets better every day. Now that I know I’m not going to be permanently crippled, chronically maimed, or everlastingly scarred, I am more confident about increasing the pace and the distance.

But I have learned a lesson about warming up and stretching out, before and after running. I have learned about ice and elevation. I have learned about the structure of a knee, especially tendons.

Always read the fine print.

Second, the idiocy.

Yesterday, while I was watching Colbie, I told her that we would go outside to play. She knows that means putting on shoes, so she happily trotted over to where I had kicked off my shoes by the front door and brought one to me. Upside down. Imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw this:

In the four weeks since we’ve been in Arizona, I have completely gone through the bottom soles of my shoes. I was walking/running on the cushion insoles (or whatever cushion was left of them). How dumb could I be? I will need to replace these shoes before I try running again.

I plan to try a short sprint again this weekend, using a McDavid runners’ knee band (to reduce pain from patellar tendonitis) that my daughter-in-law lent me. Just think: two weeks ago, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as patellar tendonitis. And two weeks ago, I had no idea that a guy named McDavid was dreaming up a knee strap just to help people with conditions like that.

I will also need to find a shoe store which will sell a pair of shoes to an amateur runner who is too dumb to consider that part of her problem might be that her shoes are worn out.

Anyway, I’m back on track. Just thought I’d admit that I’m not getting any smarter as I age.