Disappointment and a "Eureka!" moment.

Before I officially write anything pertaining to the title of this post : I'm trying to figure out tonight's Mad Men episode. Does anyone have any insight? The main thing I can figure out on my own is that there were tons of doors; opening ones and closing ones...are there endings and new beginnings for some characters? But why end the season like that?! Everything is so up in the air! And there wasn't enough of Betty. There never is.

Also, what I write tonight can be kind of boring if you're not into running. I do also talk about kitchen cleaning which I guess isn't too scintillating either. Don't say I didn't warn you! 

Moving on. I'm disappointed. I'm feeling this way because of my legs. The left one, to be specific. As I've mentioned, I'm nursing an injury which I picked up during my marathon in Tucson that happened on December 11th. That was six months ago. It's an IT band injury and said band is essentially this long muscly thing that runs the side of your thighs. When it's aggravated or your thigh or glute {read : butt} muscles are weak and you still try to do things {running} then things flare up. 

IT band issues can cause a variety of different pains owing to what a large and powerful muscle it is. In my case, the pain has manifested itself in my knee. The little tendon or whatever it is that connects the IT bank to the knee {those of you who are knowledgeable in this subject matter I DO apologize for butchering my explanation} gets yanked on too hard when I run with my tired/annoyed IT band. And since my left leg is weaker than my right when I run my left thigh muscle tends to lean inward instead of not leaning which is what it's supposed to do. And that's what pulls on that little tendon thingy which is connected to the IT band. And it makes it hurt. 
Badly. Sharply. But only after six minutes of solid running on bad days and on good days, I haven't gone beyond three miles {a little under 30 minutes} so I don't know how long it could hold out pain-free but not much longer I'm guessing. At this point I'm wondering - this does get better, right?

Anyway. My course of action has been pretty lame considering that I had an unfortunately busy spring. I did {and continue to do} a ton of leg lifts and core exercises with copious foam rolling and stretching but I seriously can't stand biking-as-exercise so I haven't been doing any of that and cycling could help strengthen my thigh muscles this helping the issue.

The only real aerobic business I'm involved with is trying to run and my routine is much like it would be for a beginner runner {which is hard for someone who's been running for half of her life injury-free [getting hurt was bound to happen I suppose]} : run for a minute, walk for a minute...do so until 20 minutes have elapsed. 
After a few weeks of this then I got fed-up with not really running the way I like to. That's my main problem, I think; I love to just run. I love to feel powerful in the sense that I can run 10 miles if I want. So I started to do the one minute on/one minute off thing for five minutes as a wam-up and then just run flat out for up to twenty minutes. Then it was twenty minutes or until I reached two miles. Then it was three miles. 

Things were going well. I would get a twinge of pain here and there but not the pain that sets in after six to seven minutes and makes it so that I must stop {that's how bad it is}. My main problem was consistency. It was the last few weeks of school and I was frantically trying to finish up everything so I got in my measly three miles only once a week rather than three to four times.

Last week {Thursday I think} I was able to get out again. And the sharp pain across my knee set in a few minutes into my run. I was furious. How can my body fail me? I've been trying to do some strength work AND I had been up to three miles just the week before!

The following day I tried again. I actually made it much further than the day before. How confusing! One day I can hardly run three minutes and the next I can make it three miles? It did hurt at the end of my run and I think it's because, out of fear of pain, I wasn't lifting my legs up very high and I was keeping my stride somewhat clipped. For the last half a mile I let loose and ran like I felt my body wanted to and that brought on the major sharp pains.

Today I went back to one minute on/on minute off for twenty total. I did run for twelve solid minutes at the end so that I could make it to an even three miles and my stride even felt normal {not held-back}. But I can't relax; what if my next run is like last Thursday's?

I know that the best course of action for me would be to go up from one minute intervals to two minute intervals but I just want to run and am feeling so impatient. Ugh.

On a lighter note and to explain my "Eureka!", I really got somewhere today, kitchen-wise. Sometime in April I made tofu {for the first time!} in one of our stainless steel pans and somehow managed to preserve every bit of that experience. Along the inner sides of the pan the splatters from the oil I used were sealed on. There were black and brown scorch marks on the inside bottom of the pan. Layer after layer of my white vinegar and baking soda paste did practically nothing so I resigned myself to just having ruined the pan's looks.

I finally poked around online and read about Bar Keeper's Friend which I already had in my closet but had never used. I bought it because it's sold at Target in the natural cleaning section and I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

I made a paste of it with the white vinegar today and the pan looks brand new!

Magic! Actually it's the Oxalic acid that did the job. Simmering a concoction of white vinegar and water can also help as can doing the same with a tomato based dish {it's the acid again} but I wiped off all of the staining when I wiped off this paste and I was amazed. And really scaly-handed; this stuff isn't super toxic but it does do a number on your skin if you let it.

It's the little things that really get me going.
Good Sunday evening to you!
xoxo, natty ♥