So last week things around these parts were a bit of doom and gloomy courtesy of my torn meniscus. My knee was miserable in spin class and hurt off and on the rest of the week.

But last night, I noticed that my range of motion without pain or discomfort had improved a little bit, and by this morning I could bend my knee all the way with no real pain.

So I decided to give spin class a try tonight and see what happened.



Verdict: Mostly good things. Minimal to nonexistent pain or discomfort throughout the class.

Also, the class was amazing. It was 100% Halloween themed. Our instructor came in sort of in costume and played all sorts of Halloween-y/monster-themed music.

Think: Thriller, the Ghosterbusters theme song, Phantom of the Opera, etc.

Tonight's instructor is definitely vying for a spot on the top of my favorite spin instructors list. I loved her two weeks ago when I took her class too. She's upbeat and fun and always has an awesome music selection.

I might be making her class a regular on my schedule.

Other highlights of the day: I voted today because Maryland has early voting and it's the best thing ever. Who wants to wait in long lines on actual election day. Not this girl.

If you follow on me on Instagram you may have noticed this photo I posted Monday.



Ah yes, me with an ice pack on my knee. Just another injury around these parts.

I went to the doc this morning and found out I had a torn meniscus -- which yes is pretty crappy, but I wasn't too down in the dumps because my doctor said I could still do any activities as long as they didn't cause pain or discomfort.

I asked specifically about running and spin class, and he said biking was probably the better option for the time being.

Cool, I can handle that.



Until I showed up to spin class tonight and tried to get comfortable. It didn't seem to matter how high or low, how far back or forward I put the seat, pedaling was not at all comfortable.

My knee kept popping and locking and felt so, so miserable. Not painful in a sharp stabbing way, but discomfort I knew I could not deal with for an hour.

I thought about trying to stick it out and push through. I feel so lazy sitting around not able to do anything and I really wanted to blow off some steam, but I knew it would hurt too much.

And that's when I felt the prickle of frustration tears at the back of my eyes.

Injuries suck. They're frustrating and awful and apparently make me overly emotion.

Since I wasn't in the mood to have a break down in the spin studio, I quietly packed my things up and left.

I'm home now -- annoyed, frustrated and pretty sad.

I'll be missing yet another race this weekend, and who knows how long it will take until this feels comfortable enough for me to try another workout.

Sorry for the downer of a post, I was hoping to be able to write all about how awesome spin class was and how this little injury wasn't going to be a big deal. But now I pretty much just want to wallow in my pity party for a while.

Hey remember when I used to blog semi-regularly. LOL I do too.

Here's a quick run down on my life lately to catch you up.

1. I turned off comments on the blog. Too much spam, not enough time to moderate. No one's got time for that. But you can always tweet me, comment on Facebook or email me.

2. I bailed on the Army 10 Miler this weekend. Had some sharp knee pain on a run about two weeks ago. I took some time off because I don't mess around with knee stuff after all the problems I've had and I just couldn't get my distance back up to acceptable levels to not risk further injury. So I slept in on Sunday morning while everyone else enjoyed a picture-perfect running day in the city.

3. The knee pain seems to stay at bay if I keep my distance around 3 miles. I've been mixing in some spinning in the meantime and hoping that I can still run the two 10Ks I have planned for November. In fact I may have found a new favorite spin instructor.

4. I love grad school -- which probably surprises no one who knows me. I've always loved school and learning. And my MBA program at Auburn is seriously amazing. I will probably write a more detailed post about this later, but so far I can't say enough good things about how much I love it.

5. I've been thoroughly enjoying playoff baseball, it's hard not to get excited when the local team does well (and I'm talking about the Os, not the Nats...that's a team I'll never cheer for.)

6. My fantasy football teams are both doing terribly this season. I think I've only got two wins in each of my leagues. That's just shameful. I blame grad school for my lack of time to spend on the waiver wire every week.

I think that's all I've got for now...I have to go run and study for a midterm.