Injury is my middle name

Shoutouts:

• To Running Rocks, who set a PR in 3:56:08 at the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon!  
• To Dangle the Carrot, who set a10K PR in 40:20 and took home first place overall! He also set a 5K PR in 19:11 at another race!  He has his 3:10 BQ time in the bag next weekend.  
• To Canadian Runner in Exile, who set a PR in 2:21:17 at the RnR Pasadena half marathon!  

Grammys:
As said in my last post, I was excited to watch the Grammys.  Always fun to see who performs and the collaborations they put on.  While overall I thought the show was good, some of the performances were really bizarre.  Take Nicki Minaj's performance, she basically did an priest exorcism on stage.  Considering how conservative the major networks are, I'm shocked they would allow her to do something like that.  I'm Catholic, and though it didn't bother me, I bet it bothered some people out there.  If you are going to spoof religion, at least make it entertaining, it was just a bad performance all around.  I did like the performances by Adele, Rhianna and Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift.  It was nice to see Adele sweep the major awards!


Whitney Houston National Anthem:
As everyone knows, Whitney Houston unfortunately died recently.  Her performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 is still my favorite performance of the anthem ever.  I don't think anyone will do a better performance.  It's just unfortunate that she started dating Bobby Brown, that is about when her life started to unravel.  What a voice she had.

Sh*t Triathletes say:
You may have already seen this video, but even though I'm not a triathlete, I was dying listening to this, lol  I've said a lot of stuff on this video, haha

Sh*t Cyclists say:
Another funny video that even though I don't bike I thought it was hilarious =)

SF over Presidents day weekend:
My cousin came to town over the Feb 25 weekend, we went up to SF to hang out with her for the day.

First made the customary stop to Ghiradelli, the sundae was indeed awesome!

Headed over to Fisherman's Wharf, the crowds were massive over Presidents Day weekend

The sea lions are pretty entertaining to watch play around, with some trying to get back on the platforms, but other sea lions pushing them back off, haha

I thought this was funny - it is their 22nd anniversary of being in this area, and they have a sign made for them, lol  But the seals can't read the sign!

Alcatraz - The Rock, it was a gorgeous day out

Fremont Older hike/run:
The next day, I decided to do sort of hike/run at one of my favorite places to run - Fremont Older in Cupertino.

This pic here is the very start of the run, it starts out super steep.  Generally I would run this if I was fully healthy, but I just hiked it that day.

This is a better pic of how steep it is, legit!

From the top of Maizies Peak you can see all over the Santa Clara valley

I ended up doing maybe 3.5 miles or so of half hiking, half running or something like that.  I tried to take it easy, and not go too hard out there.  It was just nice to get outside and back to the trails I used to do when I was healthy

This is a pic of the park where I like to run from my house, the weather around the bay area has just been insanely nice this winter.  I bet it's rained maybe 8 days total all winter, crazy!  Last year I'd say was the wettest winter the bay area ever had, and this year is probably the driest ever.  Bizarre how it can vary so much.

Left knee problems:

The main thing that has been bothering me physically recently is the inside part of my left knee again (same knee I hurt last March 2011).  When I went snowboarding over Super Bowl weekend, I think I tweaked it unfortunately.  At one point I was trying to get up from the snow with my feet strapped into the snowboard, and felt a slight pop in my left knee.  I may have also slightly twisted it while on the slopes too.  Also, I have accidentally banged my left knee against my desk at work.  So maybe it is a combination of these things.  My left knee has been giving me problems for about 2-3 weeks it seems like now.  Today I actually ran at the park with my gelband patella knee strap, on my left knee, and it actually seemed to help.  Maybe it was just my imagination, but my knee felt better when wearing it.  I was experimenting with how tight to wear the knee strap, in the end I wore it just below the knee cap or so, and had it tight enough so that the strap wouldn't accidentally rotate around my knee.  It is just annoying that I feel like I got semi-injured again, seems like I can't stay healthy for whatever reason.  I knew going into snowboarding that there was a risk of getting injured, but if I didn't go out there, I would have regretted not going.  So I just need to take care of my left knee now.  

Have you ever worn a patella knee strap to help knee pain?  How tight are you supposed to wear it?