the bittersweet between my teeth / trying to find the inbetweens

I need to stop selling myself short. I could have been competitive in my age group (or rocked the Athena category, but I still refuse to believe that being 150lb+ makes me special in any way) at Club Nationals at Myrtle Beach (well, the super sprint distance anyway). I'm going to use this information moving forward.

Knee update: My doc says I have tendonitis in my knee (specifically, pes anserinus tendonitis). Basically, where the group of muscles that form the medial hamstring attach to the tibia. I'm about halfway through a course of Celebrex that's supposed to knock it out. If not, I get to start looking at cortisone shots to reduce inflammation. I'm not sure it's any better or any worse since I started. I did a fast-ish 3 mi (28:00) on Friday and a slow 7 mi (didn't even bother recording time) on Monday, with really no change. It's starting to get a little frustrating. Also frustrating is that, due to diving for a ball on Thursday at volleyball, I now have a nice angry bruise just anterior to where the tendonitis tends to flare up. Just to confuse the already muddled pain situation in that area.

It was fun to note though how much I had to will myself to hold back at the start of the 7 mi this past week. I was keeping a friend company on his Tough Mudder training run. As a non-runner his goal is to just build the endurance over the event distance (10mi, interspersed with obstacles), and not work for any particular speed. It was nice to note that my former 'race' pace (10-11min/mi) is now a comfortable 'conversational' pace.

Pittsburgh this weekend for Homecoming! I need to get out of here and have some time to think and recenter and refocus. Things have been a little manic lately.


earworm: The Naked and Famous - Young Blood
currently reading: Nine Hills to Nambonkaha - Sarah Erdman