My Running Thing Cycle 4-II Week 5: My Poor Knee

I didn’t get to run over the weekend like I intended to. On Saturday, while walking around in a shopping mall, suddenly I felt sharp, shooting pains on my right knee – the same knee that had been giving me problems for the past 6 months, the last incident being about 4 weeks ago. I decided to give running a miss as I do not want to exacerbate the situation. The knee guard is back on and I massage the knee a bit with deep heat rub before I sleep to help with lessening the pain. I am not debilitated like I did before, probably because I now recognize the pain and immediately stopped myself  from walking or doing anything to put more stress on the knee til the shooting pains went away. Still, it was a cold sweat moment. It is a little painful to walk and to get up/sit down and to sleep as I cannot straighten the leg or turn to my left or right, but this time around it is a lot more manageable than the last one.

There are several theories as to what’s bugging my knee. I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t gotten it properly checked. I should and I will. That’s all I have to say about this matter.

Updates for Week 5:

GEAR

• Purple and Pink Penelope Pants. In preparation for our foray into the world of fitness, my sister and I went to F.O.S (Factory Outlet Store) to buy running pants and socks. I was very happy since I spent a lot of time last week to mend my (old and tattered) running pants and socks. The running pants were selling at RM39-47 per pair, sizes ranging from S to XXL; while the socks that I got was RM20 for a set of three pairs. I wanted to get something thicker but those were too expensive; the ones that I was using were by Byford and they only cost RM16 for a set of three at Giant so it didn’t make economic sense to me to spend in excess of RM20 for socks. Anyway, once I tried the socks with my trainers, I was happy with them. The running pants are excellent, of course.
• Daiso For the Win! We bought another pedometer from Daiso, a pink one this time for my sister. She has been wearing it religiously since; we both aim to walk 10,000 steps a day so now the pedometer is my compulsory accessory. I’ve achieved in excess of 10,000 steps a day twice now, something that I hope to be able to do every single day. In meantime, I cannot praise Daiso enough – they make such lovely, functional things at such cheap prices (everything in the store is RM5 each). If this pedometer breaks in a week, no problem, I’ll just get another one! I also bought a pair of hanging earphones from Daiso, the kind with “hangers” or “hooks” that you put over the ears so that the buds stay in place. Due to my knee problem, I haven’t had the chance to give this a go to see if it stays in place as I run but at RM5 a pop, I won’t sweat so much about it if it doesn’t :) Hey, a pun!

Price: RM1,600 (selling for RM6,690 in stores), please email me to fix appointment to view. I am located in Shah Alam, SEL.

• The Treo Treadmill Must Go. We are letting go the Treo Fitness T707 Treadmill; details and pics here. Why? 2 reasons:
  1. The Treo T707 is good, entry-level unit and it has served us well. Seriously no complaints. But we are at the point where investing in a more heavy-duty machine is a good option so this Treo has to go to make space for a new one.
  2. I love running and I intend to continue running for as long as I can, but with this knee… Since treadmill is high-impact, it’s bye-bye treadmill. We are joining a gym hence I’d still have access to a treadmill whenever I need to use one for warm-ups or cooldowns. And there’s always running outdoors as an alternative. Either way, it’s going to be a treadmill-free zone for me for a while til my poor knee is given the all-clear.
• We have not decided or window-shopped for the equipment that we will buy to replace the Treo. I think we should put in a month or two at the gym first so that we know what’s our equipment of choice and then go from there. We still have the OSIM iGallop and 1 more mountain bike to sell, if you are interested please go to my Stuff For Sale post for details.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

• Cutting Down Carbs. As I said last week, I am now very aware of the fact that I have been eating way too much carbs than the recommended daily allowance. This past week has been all about cutting down carbs. It is not easy. I don’t have any updates to give on this front coz I just started. Let’s see what happens next week.

EXERCISE

• Step Step Step. Running is definitely out of the question right now and I am bored with body weight exercises.  We are yet to join the gym, so I took up walking and stepping instead. Stepping means I hang out at the lobby, put my mobile phone speakers on high then walk up and down one step of stairs for 30 mins (30 secs stepping as fast as I can + 90 mins regular stepping x 15 sets). Walking is fine though I get bored easily so I am thinking that I may need to switch my walking/stepping time from the evening to early morning i.e. 6.30am. The cool early morning breeze would perk me up and make it a bit more interesting. See how.

Photo comparison between Week 4 and Week 5 below. You can totally tell the difference between when I am working hard vs hardly working :) I promise Week 6 I will do better.