EWF

For the past few weeks I have been working hard on my training for the upcoming Komen 3 Day in Washington DC.  I thought it was the least I could do, since many of you have so graciously stepped up and taken care of most of my fundraising (only $80 to go!!)  My sister has spurred me on from afar - we are training "together" through our shared training log on Google.  4 days a week I am walking, 2 days cross training, with one day of rest. 

At least that's the ideal schedule. 

And except for a random week or few days here and there, we have been fairly true to it.  Some of my crosstraining has been on the elliptical but more and more I am opting to go to yoga classes.  For anyone who scoffs at the idea of yoga as "training" - let me tell you how completely soaked in sweat this uncoordinated body gets during even a short forms ashtanga or a basic class!

I feel great!

Or at least I felt great.  A couple of weeks ago I started having random pains down my right outer calf, shooting from my knee.  The knee itself seemed okay.  And it was mostly while driving, so I blamed it on my shoes and usually kicked them off to seek relief.  As days went by, it increased, nagging me at night and other times when I was at rest.  Ironically, activity brought relief.  I had almost no pain, other than some initial stiffness at the start, when walking, using the elliptical or performing yoga.

This week the pain got more intense until yesterday when I looked down and noticed I had this weird concave spot on my knee.  Naturally I completely freaked out.  Cancelled my yoga class reservation, came straight home to the couch to ice and raise my knee.  Then called my good friend and doctor (poor man) who always gets our random calls and certainly must believe us to be complete hypochondriacs.  He invited us over so he could take a look.

The diagnosis?

EWF

Exercising While Fat.  Yep.  That's it.  My poor knee isn't used to this much regular and consistent level of training and is rebelling. 

The cure, though, is to get some of this weight off of it so it's not such a strain.  So it's back to training I go.  Carefully and with plenty of rest and ice in between.  Oh, and naproxen (Aleve)?  My new best friend!


P.S.  I think I need to copyright EWF because I doubt I'm alone.  European Weightlifting Federation be damned!

P.P.S.  No, my doctor did not actually state that in his diagnosis - that's my own synopsis of it!