The Best Running Plan Ever

I always have a hard time coming up for a title for each post I do.  I noticed that I used the same one, or close to the same one a few times.  Must be that my brain just gravitates to the easy stuff.  Sort of scary because it makes me wonder if I write the same stuff over and over again.  I could go back and read them, but that would take time and energy that I just can't work up.  Like Vasco da Gama said a while back, "you can't go forward if you're looking back.  Unless you have someone holding your hand, and then it is cheating."  He said that and I agree, so I will not go back and read what I wrote in the past.  So maybe I will keep using the same titles.  Who really knows?  I named this one The Best Running Plan Ever because I wanted to draw people in.  To make them want to read it.  But I really don't have much of a plan right now.  I'm not sure anymore, but I think I ran a marathon not long ago.  If I did, I am still suffering some after effects.  Sore legs, puffed up knee.  There is no bounce in my stride.  The knee is the thing that has bothered me the most, so now I have initiated a two step therapy program which is as follows.  Step One -  stop whining and bitching.  Step Two -  beat the hell out of my legs and work my knee until the pain goes away.  You know the saying, "spare the rod, spoil the child"?  Well, since it is too late to beat my kids, I am taking the rod to my body.  I have always found that my body responds to intense stuff.  I get a feel for what works and what doesn't work and I crush the hell out of what works.  Sore knees can be a result of weak quads and thighs, among other things.  Therefore, in addition to running, I am doing leg curls, leg extensions, kettlebell goblet squats and a lunge which includes clubbells.  It feels great.  Proper form for everything is the key.  Proper form for everything is the key!!!  I am also concentrating on how I walk.  I am trying to keep a steady and controlled stride when I walk, just as I do when I run.  A weakness in one area leads to a problem in another.  It often amazes me that I feel better when I run than when I walk.  I limp around a lot when I walk, but when I run things are different.  Once I warm up, things fall into place.  I am like a young, newborn horse.  All wobbly and unsure legged.  Not covered with afterbirth, though.  That is gone.  So, maybe I am like a young, two day old horse.  All wobbly and unsure legged until I run about a half mile, then like a thoroughbred, I am.  Not a thoroughbred that races at the Kentucky Derby, but maybe one people take their kids to see and feed a carrot.  At any rate, I feel better when I am running, so I feel that if I really concentrate on how I walk it can only help.  The leg exercises are hard.  I do at least a hundred reps of all of them per day.  My legs are sore, but the knee feels better.  This will effect my running for a little while because my legs are pretty sore, but in the past when I have done this sort of thing, I have found that at some point I just feel incredible.  I don't recommend this for everyone.  I am fairly anti-doctor, so this self therapy and self-diagnosis works for me, but some may be uncomfortable with it or hurt themselves worse.  I have totally come to the conclusion that I will never be totally pain free and if I wait for the time I may be pain free, I will be dead.  I prefer running while I am alive.  Things seems to just be more vibrant and enjoyable when I am alive.  So, I will take the pain and the ability to do what I can do, the best that I can do it.  I know there are many others that feel this way, and I have seen it work.  Be smart, listen to our bodies...but not too much.  I am looking to pull this together by the Turkey Trot 5k the Saturday after Thanksgiving where I hope to get a pr.  Like Vasco da Gama said, "proper form is the key to everything."