Week ending 27APR2025

I missed Friday - work day got away from me and then I was feeling lazy in the evening.  The cold mist of rain kept me uninspired to get out.  But I ended up with 44 on the week.  On Thursday I even managed a workout of 4 x 2, 4 x 4 and then 4 X 4.  I didn't really keep watch - just pushed the gas a bit.  I did notice afterwards a few 45 seconds on the 2s.

I have described the knee as being "novicaned."  By that I mean that I can feel it is still fucked up but that the pain is under ... under something, under water, under ... just numbed.  But 44 miles with a workout is probably too much a beating for it in a week right now.  

Caught another Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers show on Thursday night.

For the first time I thought ... "hmm ... that was not an A+ show."  They played a few less songs than typical.  They had some problems with their sound (a bit of the outcome of the feedback thing they do now).  They did some choruses a bit too many times in a song.  They leaned heavily on the Refreshments roots more than anything newer.  There was hardly any in-tween song banter.

That said, an RCPM show is still 100x better than most bands for me.  I always have a good time and I always learn something.  Was my criticism of them based on the fact that I was not drinking at the show?   Or was it that I got a slightly less than awesome night I have become accustomed to.  Arguably if this was the first time I had ever seen them I'd have been blown away.  Guess I have become a bit of that kind of fan.  

 

Love that Gretsch that Roger has with the ripped out pickups.  

Oh yeah, 13.3 miles of walking.  I think that was all dog walking.

Week ending 20APR2025

The shot to the knee kept me from running for 2 days.  By Thursday the swelling had subsided enough that I was able to jog on it a little to get some blood flow going.  Ended up with 30.x miles on the week. 

For a moment on Friday I felt good enough that I was thinking about racing in 2025.  Wow.  There would need to be a lot of changes to get to that but the thought was entertaining.  We'll see.  Fairly certain I could do that "beat your age" thing at that 10k on Memorial Day if I wanted to lay out that much cash for a run.

I had a laugh at a memory of my younger ego self.  I recently came across a guy sharing that he had run a mile at the age of 70 in 5:46.  I remember when he did it.  I remember I thought "cool," but I really didn't appreciate the magnitude of that sort of thing.  I have a different perspective now.  

Boston tomorrow.  I know some folks running.  Some asked if I ever ran it.  Yeah, I did - but it was when a.)  you didn't really do marathons unless you were running 100 miles a week b.) you could run Boston bandit and it was not only not a big deal but sorta cool and c.) I was convinced to do so by a pretty girl each time (not a good idea fwiw).  So I don't really have a road marathon time even though I have done a bunch of marathons (at least PPM 10 times).  

I hope all of ya' running tomorrow have a blast, run fast and get everything you went for.  It is truly an amazing race - and I even got that when I did it in the 90s as a bandit.  

Ouch

I took a step backwards in hopes that it would be a longer term step forward.

In October I got a cortisone shot.  I worked well, but it had pretty much wore off by December.  I then took most of December and January off in hopes that a full rest could help address issues with the knee.  They didn't. 

I started slow jogging again towards the end of January, and have been doing about 30 miles a week.  That has crept up a bit to even north of 40.  I have issues with the knee but have negotiated with myself that as I am not training for anything pace doesn't matter.  So my runs have been slow, with frequent stops to take pictures or make calls.  It is really just about being outside, moving a bit.  I am sure I am not helping the knee with that but I am doing the runs more for the limited muscles above my neck.

I did talk to the doc who gave me the shot in October and proposed a treatment of Duralone - a hyraulic acid.  I got that shot on Tuesday.  

By Tuesday night my knee was grapefruit swollen and so I was more than gimpy.  I had difficulty sleeping most of Tuesday night.  So no running Tuesday or Wednesday.

By Thursday, it had subsided some but I was still pretty sore and stiff.  But it was enough in that place that I thought some movement would help.  I eeked out a slow 3 miles.   I think it helped even though it seems like a day of rest would have been fine too.  

Apparently, the amount of fluid injected can cause this reaction.  Fingers crossed it moves the whole thing in the right direction

Consequences

When TZ and I decided to marry, my father informed me that he and my mother would not attend our wedding.   She was not for me according to him.

Our relationship had been rocky, arguably broken by those who could observe it, but that edict put a nail in the door that closed things pretty hard.  He'd apologize years later, and with those recants we'd still have relations, conversations, and even laughs with each other, but that exchange left a hard long standing scar among other paper cut wounds.  

I am not sure what he had hoped to accomplish with that play.  It wasn't like I was in a book, walking away to be a baron of some land trust, forgoing that to marry some girl of non-royal stock.  "Yeah Dad, you are right - I decided to tell her we won't marry, but perhaps she could be my concubine."  Instead, it left me angry and my wife with a resentment.  

Even years later, when I'd try to explain the good he had done in my life, that choice by him was a bold-italicized-underline that was impossible to overlook.  I wonder if I ever got to truly forgiving him.  Or if I should have.  Or if I held that interaction as a way to keep him at arms length.  Perhaps that was appropriate anyway.   While there is nothing I can do about that with him now, I look at relations I have now where I have placed a person in the so called "penalty box" ... 

His choice on that matter of our wedding, and other decisions he made planted a seed in me that became a principle in how I approach our children (now adults) ... and that is to let them live their lives.  I recognize it sounds basic, but I have seen that it is one of those things that is "simple but not easy."

Week ending 13APR2025

Unexpectedly got a few more miles than "planned" and ended up with 43.  The knee seemed to handle that well but the "twinge" factor was up.  

I spent a chunk of time in Seattle.  Well, technically Bellevue.  

It was nice to come home and catch some of the first buds of spring.  Got in another dozen plus miles of walking too.

Week ending 06APR2025

More pix over on IG.

Started the week in Weifang.  I found a nice little set of inner city trails to run, and was not alone in the wee hours of the morning.  The early jogs did establish a good cadence for the day for me.   The runs were slow, meandering with stops for pictures, and with little concern for anything other than checking out where I was at.  

There is a lot to these trips.  Visiting the groups I work with over there, connecting with people I otherwise only interact with electronically, seeing how product is actually manufactured, and coming away with a feeling of gratefulness ... of the opportunity to be a part of it and to have the life I have there and at home.  It is basic but hard to explain ... seeing the broader world in this regard is eye and heart opening for me.  I learn a lot technically, but that is often washed over by a wave of recognition that there are a lot of people on this planet ... and most of us go home and want to just share a good laugh with friends and family at the end of the day.  

After a couple of days in Weifang (that was DEN-LAX-HKG-TAO to get there) we headed to Hanoi (that was TAO-ICN-HAN).  Weifang was huge city, but Hanoi was massive - or at least where I was.  

Similar running.  

And then the trip back home.  That was HAN-NRT-SFO-DEN.

Got some jogging back when I got home to shake the cobwebs and fight the jet lag.  And to recognize the insanity of world travel and the basic joy of your own place.  

I jogged with GW Sunday morning to get caught up.

39 miles on the week.  Probably another 9 of measured walking.