Running Commentary

One advantage to going out for an early run is that you sometimes get the gift of a silver moon hanging demurely in the pre-dawn sky. That happened for me yesterday morning. It was a quiet little run, cloaked in darkness most of the way. I went out early to make sure there was room in my day for a lot of pending busy-ness, half of which never even came to pass. Later in the morning I was able to spend 15 minutes sitting in a chair just listening to my breathing and trying not to solve the world's problems, which had come to my attention over cereal as I read the newspapers. All the time the world has problems, but also all the time (so far, anyway) my breath goes in and out. I can choose which of those phenomena to focus on. I find the day goes best when I divide my attention between the two. Not too much world saving, not too much navel-gazing. Today all I did was walk around here and there, most notably around the Lafayette Reservoir with my friend B. What a bucolic scene there. ...

I caught a break today around 10 am -- a relatively dry window in a day of constant, gentle precipitation. I'd wanted to run short this week -- 17 miles -- but at this time am assured only of 10. Did 3.5 Tuesday and 6.5 today. And what a lovely 6.5 it was! The air was cool, fresh, like gin without the olives. And along the way I ran into an old work colleague who may be able to send some jobs my way! Endorphins galore, and networking too. Now that's a run. I'm going to try for a repeat performance tomorrow, despite the forecast for more rain. Don't know whom I might network with, but do know where to find the endorphins. I'll be happy if the networking works out. This is the off season in publishing, and I've been rather less busy this month than is good for my bank account. But I'm running four days a week, and this week have even made it to the gym twice. Who needs money? Since I quit my "real" job I've not spent one nanosecond regretting it...

...I know for sure that of the 65 (!) previous posts I've made to this blog, not all of them are works of art. Some might say none are, but, how snarky are they. Anyway, the above is my disclaimer. This ain't deathless prose, but I gotta scribble. What's been up with my training lately? Well, it continues. Right now I'm sitting here with an ice pack on my left knee, and earlier I had one on my left ankle. I'm thinking about getting up and fixing one for my right shoulder, but for now am putting it off. One thing about running for 29-plus consecutive years (oh, all right, I pretty much took off 1985) is that I've acquired a collection of ice packs, compression sleeves, and re-usable bandages that a physical therapist might envy. The ankle is the oddest injury. It's minor but persistent. I ran 12 miles last Saturday, and after the run was over, then the front of my ankle turned a pale yellow and began to throb a bit. I don't think I turned the ankle when ...