A Good Way to Finish the Day—Another Canyon 10K

Thursday was a pretty good day. It started out kinda cold and rainy, which made me wonder if our Sheepherders race would be cancelled -- but ended up rather sunny and pleasant. And having the weather cooperate, by itself, would put the day solidly into the "good" category, but when you add that I felt good about what I accomplished at the office and that our company won a major proposal that I had worked on...well, it was a pretty darn good day.

My knees were the big question mark. I started the morning with a light weightlifting workout in the gym, and heard from my knees frequently during each set. "Don't make us run tonight!" they cried. "We'd prefer that you find a nice hot tub somewhere and soak us for a few hours!"

"Shut up, knees!" says I. After all, nobody else in the gym wants to hear conversations between some weirdo and his appendages, right?

Throughout the day, I tried to do a lot of stretching and leg movement to keep my kneebones loose and lubricated, and by the end of the workday, was feeling far better than I had in the morning. But I'm afraid that the real secret is performance-enhancing drugs. That's right, my friends -- I'm not proud of the fact, but I ended up succumbing to the siren call of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.

As soon as I left the office, I downed some Ibuprofen. And by golly, it worked. I was still feeling some discomfort during warmup, but by the time I started my run, I was able to handle it. More or less. My hamstring still wanted to make me loop my foot around as if my leg were a Will Rogers rope trick, but the knees weren't screaming too badly.

I started about a minute and a half behind my brother, and was hoping to catch up with him by the end of the race. I could see him the entire way, but I didn't seem to be able to close the gap more than a fraction. Oh well, considering how little confidence I had in my ability to even run the race, I was happy with the result. I was about a minute and a half slower than last season's 10K, but not so slow that I was disappointed.

After the run, I came home and had a toasted peanut butter sandwich for dinner. (Yes, I know, I live the high life -- this is true.) And after that, I slipped myself into a decadent hot mineral salt bath. Ahhh. My life could easily be mistaken for that of a powerful sultan if I only had a couple of eunuchs with palm frond fans standing off to the sides, right? Except that a sultan wouldn't have to go straight to sleep in order to be ready to coach the next morning's swim practice...

Friday will be all about household chores, grocery shopping, and might just feature some adventures in the kitchen. If I whip up some sort of culinary masterpiece, I shall be sure to let you know. In the meantime, keep smiling, and have a great day!