Trodding on...

I've been feeling some pain around my left knee since I restarted training, but it only hurts when I'm walking slowly or standing for long periods of time.  It doesn't hurt when I run or walk briskly and especially when I wear my dorky knee strap.  This week I missed my Thursday run in fear of making my knee worse so I went to the doctor and it turns out I have patellar tendonitis aka runner's/jumper's knee.  Soo...weren't my knee straps I've been wearing a preventative for this?  Oh well...at least the straps help now.  The doctor prescribed 2 weeks of anti-inflammatories on top of doing rehab exercises at home and wearing my knee strap all the time.  Oh joy........

Today I somehow did something while running to inflict lower back pain on myself.  I have no idea what happened, but I really feel old.....I should have run this marathon like five years ago...

I'm still training...really...

These past couple of weeks have been kind of dead in terms of training.  I had a pretty terrible time with what I think were shin splits or the beginnings of terrible shin splints.  In addition my left knee was pretty sore.  I tried to ride my bike more to get my aerobic training in, which is actually really great for cross training in my opinion.  My knees and whatever do not hurt when I ride my bike and I'm training other leg muscles while I'm doing it so that my overall running is more balanced.

However, in the past week, I've been pretty terrible with keeping up with my training schedule.  My Ph.D. qualifying exam was this past Wednesday so I kind of skimped on training to prepare for that.  The skimping was justified since I have not passed and am now an official doctoral candidate!!! (FINALLY!)  This means I am in the home stretch (kinda)!  The next step to my program is to finish my research project(s), write up my dissertation, and defend.  I'm aiming to be done next December although any graduation deadline is always +6months according to my advisor... :(

I started up running on Thursday after my exam.  I did 2 miles and today I ran about 3.6 miles.  Unfortunately, with the big pause in training, my Nike + iPod touch is being wonky.  It was out of power on Thursday and today it didn't record my distance.  Maybe my sensor is dead.  I might have to get another one, but they're not that expensive.  My knees so far feel good as does my shins.  Let's hope this keeps up.