March onward! A diagnosis, new goals and an awesome find

Running has kind of sucked lately. And not just because of the wretched winter that seems to want to come along for the ride into March. Wah.

I finally made myself go back to the sports medicine doctor.

Syndrome: Pissy knee, perfectly matched with this pissy runner's mood. (See weather comment above.) Pain inside the right knee that used to happen after a run but now develops during a run and lingers for a long time afterward, despite icing and tiger balm.

Diagnosis: Runner's knee. In other words, your garden-variety runner injury.

Why? Weak glutes/core.

Wait a minute, this sounds familiar. God, will I ever learn.

So what, it's February. Upcoming races include a 25k trail in late March (please winter, go the eff away), a 10K probably at the end of April and a half in March (Green Bay?)

Plenty of time to get everything strong for warmer running. :-)

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Goal in March: 20 mountain climbers each day. Good for overall strength and core. 

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Recently I hit my neighborhood running store, armed with a Christmas gift card from my husband.

And I learned something.

Through years of winter running, I apparently was not using the best winter gear.

I usually wear this old tech-fabric turtleneck, a C9 fleece from Target and a windbreaker, with running tights, hat, neck protection of some kind and gloves.

The saleswoman told me my base layer was probably not the greatest. Yeah, she's a saleswoman. But I'm sweaty and cold after most runs, which sucks.

She introduced me to Icebreaker, which is a really thin, wool material. The price was high, and wool is usually not friendly to my skin.

But a good end-of-winter sale helped nudge my purchase of two pieces, a half zip and a long-sleeve fitted shirt.

I wore one of my pieces under clothes the other day. I was totally toasty! Awesome.

Can't wait to try one of them on my run tomorrow. Maybe it will distract from my knee.