Confession: I'm not the most graceful trick on the planet. Last Sunday, I fell down in the locker room at the gym. Yeah, there was a bright orange Wet Floor cone in the middle of the floor that I completely didn't notice until I flattened it. And yeah, I bailed in front of a gaggle of 17-year-old girls.

At the time, my pride was hurt the most. But over the next couple of days, my knee got more and more stiff and sore. A big purple bruise bloomed over my knee and something inside felt all twisted and off every time I bent or straightened my leg.

As a result, I took an unplanned rest day last week and didn't push myself too much all week with hills or trying to be too speedy. Things are feeling a lot better now - still a little stiff, but I was able to do my long run on the weekend and will try to incorporate some hills in my short run today and hopefully not cripple myself completely.

Last week looked like this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 miles, 26 minutes. This was post-Shrove Tuesday pancake supper. I swear those pancakes turned to lead as soon as they hit my stomach. Woof.
Wednesday: 4 miles, 36 minutes. In spite of a decent 9:00 pace I was in agony and felt like crap for the last half of this run. I went home, wimped and whined around the house, and finished off the night with an ice pack on my knee.
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 3 miles, 28 minutes. This was an easy run to test out my knee and make sure it was feeling OK. I capped off with 20 minutes on the bike.
Sunday: 8 miles, 1 hour 13 minutes. Surprisingly, this felt a little easier than my 7 miles the weekend before.

The course for the Blue Nose half-marathon has been posted here. Unfortunately, the map isn't up yet, and I don't know where half these side streets are. But this route sounds looooooooooong. And confusing. I can definitely see myself being super slow, getting separated from the rest of the pack, getting entirely lost and ending up in Cape Breton or something. On the other hand, maybe I'll discover a sweet shortcut and get a massive PR. I've never done an organized race before. How do they keep everybody on track? Are there route police making sure nobody tries to pull a Sneaky McSneakerson? It looks like there are a couple uphills, but mostly a pretty level course which I am grateful for. There's also a spin through Point Pleasant Park which is one of my favourite places in the city.

This is my sixth week on the schedule which means I'm about halfway done training. It calls for a 5K race this weekend, but I'm planning to do another long run instead, hopefully outside if the weather cooperates. Anything more than five miles on the treadmill makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty fork.

Gap Body had a super sale on recently and I ordered some fancy new shirts with !!THUMBHOLES!! which arrived yesterday. Getting new workout clothes actually gets me excited to go for a run. New clothes + new music on my playlist are the best motivators. That being said, what's one must-have song on your workout playlist?