Where I Am

Here's where I am. Slowly learning to love my new city.

Long time no blog. Welcome back, all three of you!

 Where I am running-wise is injured and very cranky. This is no new condition for me. After averaging between 600 and 1,000 miles per year for decades, on this day, if I can get in 4 more miles, I'll finally have run 200 miles in 2018. Boo hoo.

 But today's post is not all whine and jeeze. It's kind of a giggly day because I get to say "fartlek." Hee hee. Anyway, this morning, I had the fartlek eureka moment. I finally went to a sports medicine M.D. a couple of days ago, and she showed me my recent MRI. Scary to see my glute tendon as a stark white bulge between some big muscles--yup, tendonitis. 

 The nice thing about sports docs is that they hardly ever tell you it's essential that you stop running immediately, but ONLY for 6 months. This doc, who is a joy, prescribed some therapy she thinks will help, and also told me not to stop run-walking as long as the affected area didn't get too sore during the outing.

 So this morning I put on my running clothes (in itself a comforting action) and headed out the door with my Gymboss set for 30-second intervals. I decided to walk 60 seconds and run 30, then repeat, just to minimize how much impact I was subjecting my tendon to. After about .75 mile, I started feeling the familiar pain in the butt (almost as fun as saying fartlek). That was when fartlek inspiration struck. What if I did some alternative activities, activities that kept my heart rate up but were low impact? So I did. I ran for 30 seconds and then spent the following 60 seconds playing. I skipped. I did carioca. I jogged backward. I teetered like a balance beam athlete on low walls and high curbs.

 Heartbeat: up. Spirits: up. Felicitous ending to workout: A large flock of white pelicans lifted off from Touchstone pond just as I loped by. First outing with no discernible down side in a long time!

Moving whimsically through the playground of my golden years Uh, yeah.


Keep on running, y'all!

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