Too Tired to Work, Too Keyed Up to Sleep

I can't sleep right now.

Part of it because I am only now recognizing the magnitude of an error I made about six months ago, which has been causing a lot of angst and heartache recently, and is simultaneously giving me a numb, sick feeling while making me want to tear my hair out while I tear ass screaming down the street.

The other reason is because I ran two miles today.

I'm only going to talk about the second reason.

For the longest time, I've been unable to run distances greater than a mile. At almost exactly the one mile mark, the outside back edges of my knees start hurting, and going much further than that just hurts too much.

It's odd, since I can go 20 minutes on the jump rope with no problem (well, back when I could go 20 minutes on the jump rope), which you would think would be harder on the joints. (Low, fast jumps and landing on the toes seems to be the key.)

I also have some orthotic inserts, but I never tried them.

This time around, I finally decided to try some barefoot running techniques. I picked up a pair of $10 Body Glove Aqua Socks, took out the insoles, and tried them out on the treadmill today.

I tried landing mostly on my toes, and yet again, at around the mile mark, I started getting knee pain. So I changed my stride, trying to use more of the front of my foot with only a light heel strike, and that seemed to help.

I was able to get through 2 miles without getting winded (maybe all those Tabata intervals really are helping my V02 max). There were twinges of knee pain in various spots, so I'm still feeling my way around. Also, I'm pretty sure I have a few blisters now, too.