Things are looking up.

Relatively, yes, they are.  I did my double runs of 7 and 6 yesterday.  I was concerned about that left hamstring.  It was quite sore at the end of my 13 on Tuesday.  I wrapped it before my run.  Thankfully, except for maybe the first tenth of a mile, I never even felt it (on either run).  And it was just stiff then.  Of course, being this close to taper, I did notice to other things:  my right knee and my right quad.  About half way through each run, I could feel my right knee and my right quad.  Normally, I wouldn't give either of these niggles a second thought.  But I am extremely hypersensitive right now.  Everyone warned me this would happen (though I didn't think it was supposed to happen leading UP TO taper).  I just keep asking myself:  Am I injured?  I'm not.  I just have some soreness and fatigue, which is very appropriate for the peak week of training.  But I'm freaking out anyway.

As for the abdominal pain--it was much better.  I was definitely sore from the cortisone injections, but it felt different.  This morning, it feels even better.  Maybe we did the right thing by injecting an entire 10 ml into one spot.  I'm not counting it a success yet, though.  I need to see how Saturday and Sunday go.

More good news:  I FINALLY got IRB approval for my dissertation.  The IRB at Indiana University is, well, having some problems.  Some challenges.  Which happens...but it was starting to affect my (and others') life way too much.  My advisor finally emailed the higher-ups.  Within 14 hours, we had approval.  I wish we'd done this earlier.  So now the real work begins.  I will begin recruitment immediately and begin collecting data for my study.  Which means I'm getting closer and closer to GRADUATING.

Trail run tomorrow (with Wes, Scott, Emily, maybe dad?, and possibly Tim...depending on how his foot feels).  Then it's the LAST LONG RUN OF THE CYCLE!  Crap!  The last one!  22 miles.  It's going to be hot, so we're starting earlier and I'm hoping to take it pretty easy.  Keep my head down and make it to taper.