Hits and Misses

You know how it is with running. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. Or maybe that's baseball. Anyway, it has been up and down.

Ups--I was able to start running again. *Finally* My muscles are feeling much more balanced than they were before my injury, and my knee is feeling very strong.

I picked up some new kicks at Finish Strong yesterday. Raymond's guy hooked me up with a new pair of Asics 2140s.

I ran in that Asics line for a while, until one of the iterations didn't agree with me. I settled on Sauconys for a while, but the Asics just felt better yesterday, though it was a close "battle" with the adidas Supernova, which also felt pretty nice. It's always good to get new shoes...

I've been doing some cross-training in the pool and in the weight room to make sure that everything stays balanced. I switched to the YMCA, which has an outdoor pool rather than an indoor pool. I have to tell you, that makes aqua-jogging a whole lot more tolerable. I'd much rather listen to birds sing and watch the sun rise than listen to the echos of the other people splashing through the water and watch people come in to sit in the hot tub. At any rate, the cross training is a nice change of pace. I might even try to squeeze in a triathlon this summer. Or not. We'll see. I haven't been for a significant (meaning "more than just cruising to Antidote for a cup of coffee") ride since, well, my last tri.

Down--While my knee is fine, my left Achilles is starting to twinge on me a little. You may recall that I had a bone spur a few years ago. Well, that was my right Achilles. Maybe I've developed one on the other side. That? Would suck. At any rate, I'm only running every other day, and mixing in a lot of ice and a lot of cross training, and for now, that seems to be keeping it somewhat in check. Here's hoping that it won't turn into anything.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, it's hot. Really, really hot. Today they promised us some "rain and a high of only 94." I guess that's French for dry and hazy with a high of 101, because that's what we had today. Again. I'm really over summer.

So, other than just a few downs, things are going well. I did get an email from a friend here last week letting me know that one of the local teams was looking for a few runners for Hood to Coast. It was hard to admit that I'm really, really far from being in shape to do that again. Maybe next year. But, it's good to be running...

Carpe Viam!