Three Runs, Two Pain-free...

Forgive me for I have not blogged. It falls into the category of the advice given to Thumper by his mom, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." The last two months have been punctuated by foot pain (right) and calf pain (left) and, rather than grouse about them ad nauseum, I chose to remain silent...well, as silent as I can be.

Serendipity

So, after multiple visits to Lino (AKA the miracle worker) I strapped on the shoes and went for a run on Saturday morning giving myself nothing better than a 40% chance of completing the run without another blowout. I "warmed up" (euphemism for "walked") to Land Park and ran into Kris Levy and her running partner Sharon Saltzman and begged them to let me tag along. Kris is a regular in the Sacramento half-marathon scene and Sharon is a veteran of multiple marathons (Chicago, Marine Corps, etc.). As I hobbled to catch up to them, I felt my calf getting chatty and my hopes of completing the run, not to mention going to Boston, were at an all-time low. Once I caught up with them and backed off the pace, my calf loosened up. Thank God. I was relieved to have someone to talk with during the run so I could take my obsessing mind off my calf. We meandered through Land Park and Miller Park for about five or six miles (longer than I wanted to go) and it felt great. From this run I found my Boston pace and gained confidence that I might actually make it there in one piece. It was pure luck that I ran into Kris and Sharon and boy am I glad I did. Had I not, I would have picked a stupid pace for my Saturday run and surely blown something out. I'm smart like that. :-)

Since the Saturday run, I've contiued my strengthening regemine and had two pain-free runs. Heck I'm almost optimistic.

Boston

I got an email from the Boston Marathon this week talking about a new feature: text tracking. All you need is my bib number (8599) and date of birth (4/5/1969) and ATT will text my progress to your phone from the start, 10K, half, 30K, and (if all goes well) the finish. Of course, my approach to this run is, "Start out slow and back off from there." So, expect there to be a wide range of splits and a LONG time between texts. I'm going to see if I can get them posted to my blog as well.

Chocolate Milk

At the risk of sailing off the edge of the Earth, I want to talk about Chocolate Milk as a sports drink. That's right: chocolate milk. There's an increasing body of work extolling the benefits of Chocolate Milk as a sports/recovery drink. I know my two daughters enthusiastically embrace this school of thought. Anyhow, I'll stick with HEED and Recoverite, but it's certainly interesting. Has anyone experimented with this?

Random Thoughts on Anger Management

Sacramento DEFINATELY needs a smash shack. Who's in?

Back to the wheel...