Distance: 33.7 kilometers (21 miles)
Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Comments: Shortened week due to my return from traveling. Overall, though, I think the effort ended about at the level of my normal training week.
The main reason is that I spent the last weekend hiking up and down the steep trails of Macchu Picchu which gave me a pretty frickin good hill workout. Monday was spent walking all around Cuzco which, at close to 11,000 feet in elevation, certanly was tougher than wandering around the mall.
My training guilt kicked in when I got back and I found myself running the first few runs at 3/4 race pace rather than a more leisurely 8.5 minutes per mile as I had planned. Which felt great... until afterward.
This pain in my knee has been with me for a few days now and it is starting to worry me. It is not at all like the former IB-related pains I had in sensation or location. This is more like a muscle soreness in the meaty part of the quad on the right upper side of the knee. It's not painful, per se, but it is clearly not happy.
I am applying ice and have a good rest day tomorrow to see if it sorts out. If not, I'll probably cut out hills for awhile as a start.
The focus this next set of runs seems to be speed or as close a facsimile as I can muster. I don't know how well I can hold to the prescribed paces in the training schedule so I will most likely be guestimating and trying to get a better feel for my pace.
I am still a bit nervous about this knee thing. It tends to ache when I am going to sit down or get up which lends me to think it is a reaction to my excessive hill action. That being the case, the emphasis on speed this week (and absence of inclines) should help some.