Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I don’t normally go jogging/running.

In fact, I haven’t gone jogging in years. I have good reason though.

Years ago, I took up jogging, and after a few months of jogging regularly, I got patellar tendonitis in both knees and had to do six months of physical therapy before I could bend my knees/walk up stairs/crouch without pain.

Basically I just have bad knees. It’s a genetics thing. They grind, crack, pop, and make a whole lot of unpleasant noises. The only way I can keep from having problems with them (i.e. pain) is keeping my legs as strong as possible. If I have the proper leg muscle to support my knees, I’m good. If I don’t, pain will follow. Talk about motivation for working out, huh?

This is why I don’t jog. My knees can’t handle the high impact of it. Instead I swim laps (best exercise for anyone with joint problems), bike, and do other things besides jogging.

The other day, however, I decided to go to the track with Hisa, who was going to jog. He can jog. I can’t. I was going to walk. Well, actually I was going to rollerblade. I found my old rollerblades while packing things, and decided to give them a whirl. I used to love rollerblading when I was in high school. Unfortunately, the track had a “no rollerblades” sign, so I walked instead.
I found it frustrating to walk while everyone else was jogging around me, so despite years of not jogging and having a fear of injuring my knees again, I jogged.

Not a normal jog though. I remember a while back my brother (who also has bad knees, but not quite as bad as mine) told me he jogs on the balls of his feet. It sounds strange, I know. But most of the impact ends up going to your calf muscles instead of your knees. I decided to give it a try, so I jogged several laps on the balls of my feet. Let me just say, it’s hard. Harder than jogging like normal. I got a fairly decent workout without any pain from my knees though, so I was pleased.

Until yesterday and today. The muscles in my calves, ankles, and feet are so sore…. you have no idea. When I got up this morning it hurt to walk. Not in an injured way, just in an extreme muscle sore kind of way. I can’t believe the small number of laps I did made me this sore. For someone who considers themselves to be in pretty good shape, it’s like a slap in the face. I suppose it’s just certain muscles I don’t use as much in my other workouts.

I may have to try this again just because it made me so sore.

Or maybe I’ll just stick with swimming laps…

I love lemon poppy seed muffins.

I hadn’t had them in years until I made these, but I was just craving the lemon poppy seed muffins from my high school days. Of course, the lemon poppy seed muffins from my high school days were those packaged mixes that you just had to add milk to then bake. Hmm, yeah.

This time around, I wanted to make homemade lemon poppy seed muffins, and they did not disappoint. They had a wonderful lemony flavor, were sweet but not too sweet, and were generally wonderful.