Running Commentary

Despite the optimistic assessment of my left knee that I made in my last post, I am still injured and still not running. Looked back on this last day of the year, my running life in 2009 was a disappointment: lost a week when I broke my rib in February, was down for five weeks in April after I fell and bruised the bursa in my left hip, and am currently biking, swimming, and going round and round on the elliptical trainer at the gym rather than running on real live roads the way I’d like to be. So I enter 2010 with the wish that I’ll recover soon and run a lot. Along with this wish, however, there rises within me a wish of another, gentler stripe, and that is the Zen prayer, “May I be happy with whatever is happening.” In other words, may I be ever mindful of the joy of being alive. In other words—at the risk of descending irrevocably into cliché—may I learn to make lemonade from all those doggone lemons falling into my lap (or onto my knee). Recent bike rides have been far from the wor...

Singin' in the Rain . That was me this morning when I biked over to Emeryville to meet my friend R. for breakfast. Weather.com said a 10% chance of rain. I think I missed the dry 90%! I was smiling through the raindrops, because my knee is so much better than it was when I posted yesterday. I smiled when it started to rain, even though I had no slicker. I smiled when I saw this car. When I last met with my friend R., a couple of weeks ago, she suggested the pain in my left knee might have been caused by my new shoes. Seemed ridiculous, but in desperation I went out and bought another new pair of Sauconys, these a less rigid, cushier pair. They felt so good in the store that I wore them out the door (yes, first I paid for them). By the time I had walked to the end of the block, my knee was noticeably better. Now, a day later, I am practically pain-free. It is hard for me to believe that a short plastic stability strip in the sole of a shoe was responsible for so much pain, but it ...

These are stressful times at Running Commentary central. I don't really feel like a whine and gees session, so will try to make my update calm and descriptive. AARGH! (Who was that?) I am out of running commission because my left knee has gone wonky for no apparent reason. Here's how it felt toward the end of a run last week when I realized a dull ache had morphed into something obstructive. End road work, indeed. And previous to my sudden, unplanned hiatus, I'd had a great couple of running weeks. During that time the weather was, um, interesting--a hard frost one morning made for a challenging and exhilarating run. Note the frozen grass. (I think my friend in Minnesota is laughing at me--frozen grass! Oh dear!) Not only did the grass freeze, so did the water fountain on my regular running trail. Still, the weather was not exactly Arctic, I admit. A few days after the freeze, the skies opened up. Yes, I was at the farthest point from home during an 8-miler when the deluge...