And I Can't Do Squat(s)...

I did the Music City Half Marathon in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, but it didn't go great.  At about 8.5 miles, I hit a bit of a wall.  Pace dropped WAY off, and I ran/walked the rest. It wasn't because I went out way too fast.  I'm not sure what happened.  I took these pre-race:

It had been a tiring week. The time change really messed my sleep up.  I would say I had a very hypothyroid week!

After that race was over, I decided to really focus on strength training.  I had stopped most of my strength training due to a knee injury-- chondromalacia patella.  For some reason, for about two years, anytime I do squats regularly, I get knee pain.  I also get it from running too many long runs back to back.  So, I gave up squats after my physician's assistant told me that loading a bent knee was a bad idea.  But I can tell the DIFFERENCE.  I loved squats.  I felt strong when I did squats.

After 3 months of pain-free running and a sub-par half marathon, I declared myself healed and started doing squats again.

Sigh.

Nope.  I've had knee pain for a week and a half now.  I've just got to accept that I can't do squats, and I can't do squat about it!

I will have to find other ways to strengthen my legs.  I already run hills and trails.  Maybe that's enough.

I did have a great hike (with a tiny bit of running) this past weekend at Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.  I loved the rocky trail!

I am going to run a trail half at the end of the month, and then I'm going to ease off the distance running and focus on 5K and 10K.