Do not do it

How many times have you gone through the long training process (for a half or mary) and, towards the end, done something different from routine; something that causes or aggravates an injury? Huh? Come on. 'Fess up.

• Do not decide to add strength machines at the same weight and reps as you did when you quit four months ago
• Do not try to dance all funky to the beat of a West African drum line
• Do not start climbing eight flights of stairs all of a sudden and call it hill work

Do not do these things for you will pay.

My left knee cap hurts. It hurt yesterday as I went out for the most grueling repeats on my training plan. By the time I jogged to the track in the nasty 69F humid conditions the knee stopped hurting. Just so I could do 6x1200. I struggled. I felt like quitting in the middle of the third repeat. It was hot.

I took of my shirt, it was so hot (calm down Jeanne). I kept going and psyched myself into making them come and go one lap at a time; passing the same discarded mouth guard at the 200m mark that some soccer player left on the track.

When I was done I was relieved. I have stopped doing all those "new" ideas but my knee still yacks at me when I ascend steps. Tomorrow I have hills to do so we shall see how I fare. In the meantime I guess I'll go vote one of the girls off the American Idol island.