I've been writing a lot lately. Not a lot here, though, so it probably seems as if I haven't been writing to anyone who reads this blog. I even wrote a long entry that I had planned to post here, but opted instead to let it hang in the purgatory of the 'written but unpublished' section of my account.
As many of my friends know, I've been working on a book for the past year. It is coming along nicely. But it takes up quite a bit of time. And time that I spend writing this blog is really time I could also spend working on the book.
The book, as some of my friends know, is a story about running. It is a work of fiction. I hope to have it completed sometime in the next 6 months (definitely by the end of the year). And for now, that is all I'll say about it.
I just wanted to let anyone who might follow this blog know the reason for the sporadic nature of my recent posts.
In terms of running, my life has been pretty good until very recently. I have been doing 30-40 miles each week, and, for the most part, really enjoying the runs. Over the past couple of weeks, however, I started to feel some pain in my knee. Never a good sign. On a recent 12-ish mile run, I torqued it several times in mud. With 5 miles left to go on my return, I knew something was not good. I walked about a quarter mile and then thought fuck it. If it is ruined, it is ruined. And I hobbled the rest of the way home at a 10-ish min/mile pace.
I made an appointment with my sports doc for Tuesday. And other than walking around NYC, and a bit of swimming and biking, I took the week off from running. Yesterday I popped out for an easy three. I ran the entire distance with a non-traditional (for me) front foot strike (I am normally mid foot). I felt little to no pain. Today I plan to try 3-5 miles and see how it goes. I am keeping my Tuesday appointment regardless of the outcome of my run. I am hopeful that my knee was just telling me it wanted a little change in mileage every now and then; and that I shouldn't continually go bigger without taking some breaks.
In other news: I finally finished the Electric Koolaid Acid Test (oddly, a book I had never read). I bought a Camus book I had never read, and plan to take that with me to Geneva and Paris as fitting Summer reading. And I picked up John Irving's, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Kindle edition (to read right now). A quick note regarding that. Every day Kindle has a sub $2 deal on 4 or more books. The deal is only for 24 hours. You either buy then or you miss it. Usually the offerings are crap (at least for my taste). But once or twice a week, there is something really good. You can get on their daily email list and see for yourself. Write me if you want a link.
I'll try to have more sometime soon.
