I did it anyways!

Last night my plan was to come home, hop on the bike, and put in 45 minutes - thus saving my knees for the heavier duty running later in the week.  But of course, that's not what actually happened.

On the way home from work, Beth - who was on her way to an info session about a training group - called and asked if I could call about a package at UPS.  There was a little bit of a runaround (the computer was telling me that they had attempted at 2:00 pm and subsequently sent it back and I should call the shipper if I wanted it - and I knew that wasn't right), and then when I started thinking about it, I realized that Wednesday was going to be difficult to go get the package, get a work out in, and meet Joe for Wednesday night baseball.  So I should just get the package now.

So - plan thrown into disarray.  I made dinner, waited until 8:00, got into my gym clothes, drove over and picked up the package at UPS, and then went to do my biking at the gym.  As I got on the bike, I thought - rather than 45 minutes of biking - why don't I bike the 30 minutes and then do the elliptical for the 15 minutes of "running"?  It isn't exactly the same thing, but what's bothering me about running isn't the fatigue and breathing, it's the stress on my knees.  And 15 minutes of the elliptical will save my knees, but I'll still be building cardio.  Yeah!

So, 33 minutes on the bike with warm up, got on the elliptical, and hated it.  Could only stand three minutes with the weird gait - legs too far apart, couldn't make it go as fast as I wanted to, the arms all over the place.  I got off the elliptical, sucked it up,and got on the treadmill.  It was inside, and I was running slow and "taking it easy" trying to save myself for later this week - but I still did the run.  I had to stop and stretch out my calf a couple of times (which was where things went all screwy last year), but I did the running. 

Of course, coming down the stairs at the gym, my kneecap felt like it was going all over the place.  And laying in bed, my knee and calf felt kinda numb.  Not really pain - but not a real great, hunky dorey feeling either.  This morning it's better, but still not great.  It feels kinda weak, and I twisted it just making lunch for Beth, which caused some pain. 

So....  I think tonight might just be extra swimming instead of 15 swim and 30 run.  We'll see how the knee feels throughout the day, but I think a day off of running will do more in the long run.