Something isn't right

Greetings from beautiful Oak Ridge, Tennessee! I have been down here in the Volunteer State since Friday training with the women's rowing team that I coach during our spring break. The trip so far has been pretty good from a training perspective, but the rest of the trip hasn't been great for me from a school or running perspective.

On the academic side of things, I just haven't gotten enough done. I've done some reading and some writing, but no research on the two big papers that I have to do. Between two extended practices a day and trying to get in some runs, I don't have all that much motivation left to study. Oh well, it is "break," right?

On the running front, I haven't gotten in as much as I should have. I missed a little running with the travel days down here, and I will miss some with the travel back. The bigger problem, however, is that I'm having a goodly bit of pain in both of my legs. The right shin is a bit sore, but I'm not too worried about that. More concerning is the pain that I'm having in my left calf/shin area; the pain here is much more acute. Today will be a day off and I need to have the team trainer take a look at it and see what she thinks. My guess is a strain of some sort, hopefully nothing more severe than that. Odd that this would happen when my mileage has actually dropped off.

The running down here hasn't been great as there isn't much of anywhere to run. There is a small park near our hotel that has some nice paths on it, but you are essentially running in circles all over the park. There is also a nice new bike/run path near the river here, but the 4.5 mile run over there is on busy shoulders with strip malls and redneck good-old-boys passing you too close while leaning on the horn. And the girls on the trip with us who go for runs get it even worse. Ahhh, the South, sometimes I wonder if we should have let them go....

Early tomorrow morning we pack up and head to Indianapolis for a day of training and a day of racing, then it's back home to Madison where I hear it snowed over night. Not cool - it is April, it shouldn't be snowing any more!