There’s still a day left in this training week, but tomorrow is a rest day but it’s already looking kind of crowded. The week is ending on a less-than-stellar note: first, I’m back over 180 pounds today, and second, I’ve self-diagnosed pes anserine bursitis in my right knee. But alas, it’s not all bad news.

I weigh myself every day, and one of the consequences of that is that my weight can fluctuate by as much as three pounds in a day. My body fat percentage went down, so some of that weight gain is water. Thus, it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s a powerful reminder that I need to be conscientious about my diet. The bursitis is beatable, too. The primary contributing factors to is are obesity, tight hamstrings, and ramping up mileage too quickly. I’m not at “obese” yet, but the extra weight isn’t helping. I know I’m terrible about stretching. And I’ve definitely increased my mileage recently. I can work on the body weight & I can stretch; the only thing I can do about the mileage is switch to walking on some runs. I taped my knee & took Tylenol before today’s run, and the knee didn’t hurt while I was running. I’ll stick with that & consider walking if the pain gets to be unmanageable/consistent.

I ran along the canal route on Monday. I was surprised to encounter a huge pile of dirt across the path. I had to carefully navigate crossing it as it was loose dirt that sloped into a pit the work crew had dug for the irrigation pipeline. My pace slowed waaaay down at that point. It looks like the work crew has driven a piece of heavy equipment over the pile of dirt, so if it’s still there the next time I run here it should be more stable.

The Tribe Core class started Tuesday. Brecken, the trainer who taught the class the last time I took it, is no longer working at the club. I miss him! This guy doesn’t communicate as much. Clearly, I’m going to have to keep reminding myself to engage my core while I’m doing the exercises. I hope he’ll point out if I’m doing something wrong. I don’t see much point in paying for this class if the trainer isn’t working with each student. He has six weeks to impress me, otherwise I’ll save my money & just plan to do the exercises at home.

Wednesday I ran at the cross country course in Pasco. I pressed the lap button on my Garmin 910 at the wrong time and screwed up the recording of the workout. I figure I ran about 3 1/4 miles, but that’s a guess. That’s embarrassing!

Thursday’s run was supposed to be five miles at steady pace (13:30-14:00/mile) but given that it was snowy I decided to change that to an easy pace (15:00-16:00/mile) run. I ran at Chamna. I followed tracks through most of the run, but I had the place all to myself. It’s kind of magical to run there in the dark – creepy, but not as creepy as Zintel Canyon. I didn’t see any animals, just their tracks. Very peaceful.

I had Friday afternoon off, so I ran at Zintel Canyon because it was bright & sunny. It was also snow-covered. It’s a little creepy even in broad daylight, but there were several other people out enjoying the trail.

I felt a sharp pain in my knee as I was arriving home Friday afternoon. I bit of searching around the web led me to the conclusion that I have pes anserine bursitis. Not an ideal way to end the second week of a 24-week training plan, but all is not lost. I need to be more conscientious about warm-up stretches & post-run stretching. I can beat this … I hope.