two-fer

I haven't been running much lately. My knee has been in pain for a while so I've been using the Elliptical machine at the gym. It's not nearly as satisfying as the treadmill, which itself is boring. The Elliptical doesn't burn nearly as many calories as running at 7mph with a 2% incline on the treadmill does either. Not that I expected it to, but people tell me that it's the best way to burn calories. Nope. I'll put a hard 30 minutes on each machine head to head. I think people just don't like running and aren't in shape to run hard for 30 minutes when they can hang on for 30 minutes on the Elliptical.

In any case, I saw a sports medicine doctor last week who has a pretty good reputation for treating athletes. He listened to me and gave some theories as to what could be wrong, but otherwise didn't really do anything. He did send me down for Xrays and give me a referral for Physical Therapy. I could call this "exactly what I wanted" I guess. I made an appointment at a sports medicine physical therapy office that's about 10 min from work for tomorrow afternoon.

To prepare for the PT appointment I ran on the treadmill on Monday and Wednesday. Both runs were 3 miles at an 8:30 - 8:50 pace. Nothing too stressful, but I do now have knee pain to go in there and tell them about. I'm going to ask about Orthotics. I hope my health care plan can at least help me out with the cost of Orthotics.

I've been stretching and doing a few core exercises and pushups at night and at the gym on M/W/F. I'm doing okay with my flexability everywhere except for my hamstrings. They've always been really tight. I think I was able to touch my toes with straight legs when I was going to Yoga 2x a week but never before or since. The joy of being 6&1/2 feet tall.

More info after the PT appointment I guess, but hey: another 6 miles in the book this week. /sarcasm.