the studyfest continues with just over 24 hours to go before my final. i'm antsy as all get out. this is the first year in six years that i haven't had a marathon to run BEFORE my final(s). generally at this time of year, i start tapering during the last week of classes, which is convenient because there are lots of deadlines and i need more time to work. then, i get to race and recovering from the race makes me want to sit and study. the late thanksgiving holiday this year messed with the schedule, although as i'm able to sleep 9 hours a night right now, i can't complain too much.

i saw the doctor today and got cleared to run on sunday with the understanding that i was to recover properly afterwards for the sake of my knee. she seems to think the bump is going to go away and that the irritation is due to having moved everything a tad out of place when i fell. she said i can ski...as long as i don't fall. i'm looking forward to sunday, but i can tell i'm still in the midst of a taper because my legs feel heavy when i run.

for the anatomy nerds, here was the interesting thing from that visit that i hadn't noticed. your muscles can start to atrophy (shrink) after 72 hours if not used. my muscles have been shrinking all fall just because i've been running so much (some people have fat and skinny jeans...i have cycling and running jeans because my legs are different sizes depending on which i'm doing more of). well, dr. merket and i sat and looked at my vastus medialis and vastus lateralis (two sections of your quad located on the "inside" and "outside" of your thigh, respectively). though you have to look closely and know what your'e looking for to see it, my right side is visably smaller than my left now. despite not taking time off to recover from falling, the muscle on the injured side still atrophied. i must have been using it differently than i was before. spending time in the gym and on my bike will fix the problem in no time, but i was pretty shocked to see that my muscle could change that much in a month despite not decreasing my activity level.

happy finals week to all! and now back to studying...