recovering from injury - good long run

Okay. So Monday's run put me out of commission for four days. I skipped Wednesday and Friday's workouts, but I think in some strange way resting up and concentrating on stretching for the week helped me out at the Fifth Avenue Mile (see other post).

Today I did 8.5 of the planned eleven. I warmed up for a mile headed uptown, did the Fifth Avenue Mile (astounding run!), and did the Central Park Loop.

I brought along my iPod Nano, which was a recent purchase because THAT is the player I've absolutely been waiting for. The little guy performs magnificently and is easy to manipulate on the go. I like being able to see what I'm playing and have control over playlists, something not possible with the Shuffle. And the OEM armband works quite well, too. I brought some cheap earbuds and they stayed put, especially once I'd knotted my cord in half and pinned it to my shirt at one corner of my racing number. I didn't listen to the music during the race, but I did listen the rest of the time. I really need to rethink some of my running music choices, and need to separate the list out into three lists: warmup, run, cooldown.

Anyway, the warmup jog up to 80th street was not without drama. At one point, after watching a cabbie consciously DECIDE to run a light to get his precious left-hand turn in, I pounded on his hood as I went by. He practically hopped out of his car though his window - or at least half of him - and started cursing me out. Fuck him. I yelled right back about the red light he'd run. I didn't stop, so it wasn't a very long argument.

The park loop was lovely today. I relaxed into a good rhythm and let my legs take me around. I walked briefly to hydrate a couple of times, but other than that, a good run. I could tell by the end, however, that I was right in consciously deciding to not go the full 11 miles today. Didn't want to court more injurty.

My shower today felt like a sweet, sweet reward. Healthcare done right, and all that.

BTW, upon arriving at home, I met my upstairs neighbor, Mark, and he inquired about the running, since I was wearing the race t-shirt. We got to chatting and it turns out that not only does he WORK for NYRR (with the kids' outreach programs), but he has also ALREADY QUALIFIED for Boston! He looked a little worried there and said something about plantar fasciitus. I asked him if he knew about the golf ball trick. He didn't...so I described how I rolled the golf ball under my foot to treat my own bout of plantar fasciitus while training for the marathon. I hope he gives it a shot. Could be something as simple as that will get him back in his running shoes. Maybe we could run together some time.