Well I went to the fabulous Cleveland Clinic today and I was NOT impressed.  The good news is that nothing is messed up, no broken bones, nothing torn or over stretched.  My x-rays and exam were completely normal.  What was so unimpressive was that the physician was NOT sports oriented. He was quite overweight and the first thing out of his mouth was "stop running".  I'm not stopping. Definitely not going to stop if nothing is wrong.  He asked me if I "wanted" physical therapy. I really thought someone would be giving me some kind of information on how to ease back into  running. I was not happy.  Interestingly though, I think perhaps the whole issue is from my knees getting misaligned because after he (the doctor) manipulated my knees, I haven't needed any ibuprofen.  I've been living on ibuprofen for 5 days, taking 600-800 mg every 6 hrs. Maybe I need to see a chiropractor. Maybe it's my shoes.

So in a nutshell, I'm going to start up again this week but jump back to week 4. I'm going to do strength and cardio on non run days. I found a running group nearby and I'm seeing if they are ok with a show poke.

SGT SNESAVAGE, YOU SOB!!!  Went out this morning for W6D2 as usual.  I was doing my 5 minute warmup walk and the Sgt ran by going the same direction.  I proceeded to do my first 10 minute run, walked 3 minutes and finished up my last 10 minute run...when I heard "don't stop now you can keep going" from behind me.  My 10min - 3min - 10min morning turned into 10min - 3min - 10min - 45sec (walk) - 6min (run).  I feel great now but at the time I wanted to kill him.  We did slow down closer to my pace this time but he would not let me quit.  He did about 4 miles this morning and actually started catching up with me after I had turned around mid way through my 3min walk.  He said he was about 100 yards behind me and when I finished my last run he was still about 50 yards behind me so apparently the pace I was running wasn't as bad as I thought.

maureen0131, I actually changed doctors for a similar reason.  Any time I went to my previous doctor with any problem the first thing she said was that I needed to exercise more and lose weight.  In the meantime, she had to turn sideways to get through the door.  At one point I told her I wasn't losing any weight but that I had been going to the gym and going at a pretty good clip on the eliptical for an hour a day.  She told me I just needed to exercise more.  I couldn't exercise anymore, I was spending so much time on the eliptical that my nipples were literally bleeding by the time I was done.  At that point I found a new doctor who, when I told him the same thing, immediately wrote me a perscription to go see a nutritionist so my insurance would cover it.  My long way of saying...go find a new doctor.

What a rediculous doctor! Gosh that annoys me so much! I don't think my knee pain was as bad as yours, but it lasted a few weeks (I think end of week 2 to beginning of week 4) until I got new shoes, and now I don't have any knee pain. I also had started doing some quad strengthening exercises for it, so maybe that helped too. I actually traded in the Asics I originally got from fleet feet for some more supportive Brooks sneakers. Apparently they are known in the running community for being really supportive. I also got some inserts to put into them from fleet feet as well. I can't remember if you already have good shoes though? If you are still in pain, I would go to a physical therapist!

Another thing that I did.. and I'm not sure if it helped or not, but I have been trying to run really slowly and focus on my form. If you just look up "running form" on the internet, I'm sure you can find good info.

I wanted to wish everyone luck with their future running endeavors!  I am out for now.  Maybe in a few weeks (or months?) when things heal up and feel a little better I'll have to see if anyone is starting the program then.  Great job everyone, keep it up!

Well greenybeany, I was hoping it was my shoes but I have Brooks Glycerin 10 with inserts for people with high arches.  So I think my shoes are fine.  I am so sore all the time.  I just don't get it.  I haven't run since last Friday and I was hoping just a week would take care of this but I'm still having so much pain.  I am trying so hard not to get discouraged.  I am going to start strength training.  I know I need to but everyday the pain is so bad I can hardly walk sometimes.  I have no idea why if everything was fine with my xray's.  It just making me sad.  I'm scheduled to do a simple 2 mile walk for the American Heart Association on Saturday.  I originally thought, wow, I could just run the thing! but now...nope. I'll be lucky if I can walk it. 

I'll keep everyone posted. Keep up the good work. I hope I'm running again by next week.

It was a beautiful day so my 4 yr old and I stopped at a park with a running track after school and I got 2.5 mi in with a 2 min walk at the top of each mi. My 4 yr old wants to run the Jingle bell kids run in dec with me. I told her she had to run at least 1 time every week if she wants to do the race. She made it a little over a mile and then switched to her bike. Pushed too hard last tues so my knees are a little sore so PT did some things to help them and told me to take it a little easy this week, slower runs and to stop if they start to hurt.

Nicholette _  Good Luck! on your run!  I'll be anxious to hear how it went and what advice you have for the rest of us :-)

Rayna- so sorry you have to put your running on hold ( cause I'm not gonna say stop or give up)  Hope everything heals quickly and your back at it soon!   

Here is my run...

Nicolette - due to my schedule, i have to do all my running during the day outside (during my lunch break in Boston eep!) and at first I was really worried about people seeing me but that passes pretty quickly!

My run yesterday (w4d2) was roooough. Just one of those days where you don't feel 100% going into it....and you feel about 20% coming out of it haha. My body felt like it weighed 600 pounds and like i was barely moving. Blegh.  But despite all that, i managed to do better at it than w4d1 so its ok by me. Hopefully I won't feel like so much crap tomorrow.

Looks like I'll have to invest in some good waterproof running gear for next week if all the predictions about Hurricane Sandy hitting the northeast come true.