Ouch (or, Holy $%$*&, that hurt!)

So, because I was really tired on Thursday (like, almost no sleep on Wed night), I decided to skip my scheduled hill workout and make up for it today on a trail run.

I wanted to get in 16 miles, which would be two loops of the red trail at the Fort Custer Rec. Area. The red trail is a fairly technical bike course, and is actually pretty fun to run. I finished up the first lap in a reasonable time, noting that (1) it was just about 8 miles, so I was good with my plan; and (2) my Garmin lies. I'd be running a section, and suddenly notice that my average pace was 4.1 mph. No, it's because there are many series of switchbacks, and on the "take a reading every three seconds" setting, the Garmin just wasn't keeping up. On the other hand, it did a passable job of telling me afterwards that some of the hill sections are 40% grades, which feels about right.

So, on my second lap, I am going through an area known as "Granny's Garden," which can be described as "up, down, left, up, right, down, up, left, down, up, right, up, down, left, up, right, down" and so forth - but that section only describes about 50 yards. Somewhere in there, I must have landed poorly, because my knee started bugging me. I kept trying, but eventually switched to a jog/walk routine, and took shortcuts to avoid the technical sections of the course.

I still finished 13.41 miles or something in about 2:10, but the last 3 miles or so are pretty ugly. I think that I stopped early enough that I will be able to bike for the next couple days and not suffer a long injury. I'll avoid speedwork or hills for the next week, and maybe, if the weather holds, go back and try it again next weekend.