I can understand when I can't use my favorite athletic field because people are doing sports on it. After all, that's what it's there for. But today I couldn't use it because people were training attack dogs on it. Seriously. There were several people standing around in the corner of the field with their large and disciplined-looking dogs on leashes next to them. They were watching one man with his large and unleashed dog standing out in the middle of the field. He was wearing some sort of bite-proof casing on his forearm, and holding one end of a stick. His dog was biting the other end and they were wrestling over it and growling at each other. Then the man started screaming commands at the dog. In German.
So I found another field far away and did a nice distance run with six long striders thrown in.
Wednesday, July 30 (75 minutes)
Wednesday July 23 (25 am, weights, 45 pm)
Worked my way around to the gym in the morning to lift, stretching it out into a nice 10:30 AM run. Then ran again at 2AM after a counselors-only screening of The Aristocrats.
Saturday July 19 (70 minutes)
cruised on Wilbur for my longest run since the bike crash. felt good, smooth. wore a shirt since some of my campers were playing soccer, and technically speaking i'm not supposed to seduce them with my stunningly-nondescript physique.
A few more days
I took one day off in there. Yesterday I started doing doubles, and in the afternoon I ran with one of my students, Christian. He told me he had run 10:57 for 2 miles, so I was a little surprised he was comfortable with the pace, until I learned he had only run 2 miles once, but was a 4:36 miler. So I have a running partner now. I'm planning on doing the morning runs all very easy on the grass field across the street, which is fantastically convenient. I'll probably be exceedingly tired the first couple of weeks of this, so I'm going to keep the pace easy and not attempt any workouts at first.
2 more - streak up to five
60 minutes each of the last two days. Yesterday in shoes because my calves were a bit sore, today barefoot on Wilbur.
As I predicted, I was sore pretty much all over after lifting last weekend. I'm almost recovered now though and ready to get back into this whole fitness thing. It also looks like three or four of my new students are cross country runners, so I may have people to run with at least on easy days.
3 days in a row
After hitting three consecutive days with exercise for the first time in a while, I feel like I'm finally back in the mentality of a runner. I did an hour each of Thursday and Friday. Today I lifted for the first time in a month, then ran a very easy 45 minutes. I'm feeling pretty good, although a bit sore in my calves. I expect I'll be sore from lifting tomorrow, although I didn't go especially hard. Mostly I'm just glad to be back at it. And screw the bandages on my arm. I'm a runner and I'm going to run, sweat be damned.
Health Problems Continue
My infected arm was supposed to be better by now, but it wasn't. When I took a shower last night I noticed there was a large red patch of organic stuff, apparently created by my (slightly confused about what it should be doing) body pushing its way up out of the wound.
So I went back to the health center and saw a different doctor (the first one wasn't in). She rubbed a new kind of gunk on it and told me to come back on Thursday. But in the meantime, I'm not supposed to remove the bandage, which also isn't supposed to get wet.
It's so hot out I'm sweating just sitting here inside. Given that when I run in the heat, little beads of sweat literally fly off the ends of my fingers as I go, if I went running right now I'd mess that bandage up and have to put band-aids on it until Thursday. Then I'd get berated by the doctor when I came in again.
So I'm still not running.
Saturday July 5 (one hour)
Did my first test run on the new Wilbur field, built on top of a subterranean parking structure. It's very smooth and even, and softer than the fields at Caltech. It's also right across the street from where I live. Look like I'll be there a lot.
Thursday July 3 (40 minutes)
A wound on my left forearm, leftover from the bike accident, became infected. I'm on antibiotics for a while, and showering is difficult due to the wrap covering that area. To add to my health problems, while awkwardshowering the other day, I managed to contort myself sufficiently to pull a muscle in my back.
Nonetheless, it was my day off today, and I finally got myself together enough to go for an easy run on my standard out-and-back to El Camino and Palm Drive. I haven't run more than twice in the past few weeks - once on a semi-adventure run with Katherine and Ian and once at night before I was beset by a bee sting/reopened throbbing hand wound.
After the run, I feel out of shape, but that seems to be the worst of it. The back muscle I had pulled started to get sore towards the end of the run, but didn't seize up or ache afterwards. Except for my forearm, the wounds from the bike crash are no longer a major issue. The worst spots were on my hands, but now even those have fairly-healthy looking patches of skin over them. They wouldn't hold up to gripping weights, I think, but daily life is not a problem.
The course of antibiotics finishes next Monday or Tuesday. After that I should be almost back to a normal person again.