Coping mechanisms

A nice little start to the Labor Day weekend. The heat wave is starting to subside, but it's been pretty nasty lately, which I know is all relative. Friday night I stayed in and had a few beers. Tried my first imperial pilsner. Big. Ate some ahi poke with that, a big salad, and watched my buddies' band play live online. They're called the Styletones and they are bad ass.

Saturday was about shopping for the tiny dinner party (does 4 make a dinner party?) we were having. Then I got in a 1 hour ride on the trainer in my garage with an inconsistent cross breeze. I was worked. Have not felt 100% lately. The heat, my feet. . .things just not quite the way they should be. Speaking of exercise, I got a message from Tim this week to see how close I was to Newport for a run. Didn't work-out but nice to see this blogosphere working its community mojo. I'll run into him in the bay area one of these days.

Talked to a personal trainer today and my problem might be the fascia. Tightness is occurring in my soleus/lower calf/achilles. This all started with the shin splint. Once that subsided more or less, I ran a brutal 15 mile (3500ft. of climbing) trail race. Felt AWESOME afterwards. The next day I ran for 30 minutes on the trainer and woke up to a bruised heel. WTF? Is this a stress fracture? I was freaked for a second. Just a bruise. I guess the hard descending and overall damage done during the race was enough to set that up, so a little trot on the tready pushed things too far. So. Then I proceed to walk very very gingerly on only the front of the foot for a few days, and really pay attention to recovery. But the walking on the front of the foot Fs-up my whole left foot/lower leg. I have like a mini ankle sprain and tightness. Bottomline, I'm still working-out but no "opening-up" on a trail. Actually a lot of attention is on the bike and more attention is going there in the future. But I can't wait to run pain free again.

Soon.

As for the dinner party. A blast. My wife and I broke out our Dutch Gourmet sets and chopped up a bunch of ingredients. Each attendee gets to make his/her own meals. So, steak, chicken, scallops and a ton of veggies makes up the list. Light the fire, add some oil, burn some food, sample some sauces and have a cold drink handy. Good fun.