Running Commentary

Rampaging runners all finished and fled, a Lake Merritt goose takes a gander at this salubrious scene. (Click to enlarge.) Ran my first Fourth Sunday Run of the year! The infrastructure held--my irritating IT band and pernicious piriformis (not to mention my clamoring calf) all decided to behave. It was a warm, breezy day. The turnout was great--and all the components of the race functioned in concert and functioned well. I am so impressed and encouraged by the way LMJS has grown and thrived since the days I was much more active member.  A sunny day, a good run, and an almond butter and blueberry jam sandwich on a whole wheat bagel are sure-fire ingredients for a dreamy Sunday. I find the funnies are icing on the cake. Not to mix my metaphors, much . 

Maybe I should add some hygenic people food to my diet. Today was a run day. If all I did was post in this space on every day I ran, I'd write a lot more than I do. I could just say, today I ran.  Today I ran. I left the house about 5:45 am and did what I've come to call the EMX run, that is, the Elaine Merrill Express run. (Be it known that any context in which I pair me and the concept of speed is highly suspect. Which is to say, usually the pairing is done with gentle or not-so-gentle irony.) It's an expressway, an out-and-back along Ninth Street, because it's long and straight and gives me the opportunity to shake off a bit of the rust and go a little faster than usual. Today I did 3 x 3 minutes at approximately my 10K pace and then 2 x 6 minutes just a hair slower than that. All this with the intention of running the LMJS Fourth Sunday Run 5K this weekend without beating myself into the ground.  I might or might not have learned my lesson last month w

Many days have come and gone since I last posted, but today is what I have, so today is what I'll write about. Funny thing about today--it seems to need context, which consists of days that are gone and days yet to come. Hmmm. Anyway! During some of those gone days I've had good runs and bad. In the most recent days I've felt mentally strong but physically out of sorts. I ran Friday and cut my planned 4.5 miler to 3 miles because I was running like a triceratops who laces up its Sauconys and sets out to run gracefully. So this morning, still feeling somewhat less than fabulous, I set out around 6 o'clock to run as far as I felt like running. That was my stated purpose--in contrast to my usual obsessively set specific mileage goal. Today I had 8.0 in the back of my mind, but veered homeward early and then stopped when my watch said 5.25. It wasn't a great run, but t wasn't terrible. My feet, which for reasons unknown have been hot and aching lately, behaved.