Running Commentary

Just about every week I'm still getting out one weekend morning to practice the old left-right via walking/running, and calling it my "long run." In that spirit, I'm trying to extend both the running portion of the outing and also to increase the speed to accomplish the transition from "short jog." Yesterday, Sunday, I covered 7 miles with relatively little pain in the posterior (both the figurative and the actual kind). My overall pace was under 13 minutes per mile, which in my mind is more like running than it is like walking. Oh, who cares! Well, I seem to--insert smiley face here if you're the whimsical type. At more or less the beginning of my run (sounds better than "at a point not quite to the middle but not in the first mile, either"), I went onto the grounds at the VA Center. It was still quite dark, but I easily found a small rehabilitative exercise center in an open courtyard, which I'd remembered coming upon a few years

That I haven't posted in a while doesn't mean I haven't been working at getting back to running. I have!  In the month and two days since my last post I have progressed from walking a minute/jogging a minute to walking a minute/almost running three or more minutes. It's been slow progress, but I've focused on paying attention to pain when it starts and then backing off, that is, walking and stretching, until the pain subsides.  I've also been religious about stretching and doing strengthening exercises, recognizing that this last return to the DL was largely precipitated by my slacking off on the stretch-and-strength component of staying active.  Last but not least, I've found a wonderful sports chiropractor in LA (where I am still living these days) who is skilled in ART and is also infectiously upbeat about exercise and about life in general. I told her I have run nine marathons since the month before my 50th birthday and would like to make it ten--