Takeoff in T Minus 4 Days

Dang, my ass is killing me! I'll explain that in a minute, but first I wanted to alert everyone to the fact that Old Coot Blog (a subsidiary of Old Coot Productions) is quickly approaching its bicentennial posting. You heard it right, folks, this here is number 192. Considering I have the attention span of a horsefly, it's amazing that this documentary has gone on as long as it has. If I can remember, I'll thank people during the 200th posting. Until then you'll just get the regular old business.

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Flight is Booked

Okay, so I'm flying Standby so it's not exactly "booked", but it's looking more and more like I'm going to be flying First Class for my first time ever. I'm going to order all the champagne they'll give me and use it to wash my feet, just because I can. I'll also wash my face over and over again with warm towels simply because the option is there. It'll be sweet.

For those of you who might be interested, I'll be making a special guest appearance in Phoenix, AZ this upcoming Friday. Actually, I'll be there all weekend soaking up any extra heat and sunshine they have to throw my way (although it's probably been warmer here the last few days). So far the plans look like this:

Fly out on Friday, arriving somewhere around noon (ahh, time difference how do I love thee?) whereupon I'll be hitting up the Race Expo to pick up my goodiebag and make any purchases I might like to make to commemorate such an event.

Saturday will be a fun-filled day of visiting a Frank Lloyd Wright house (Taliesin West), then hiking in some sort of desert hiking environment.

Sunday is race day, which I can only assume will be packed with activity. The race starts at 8:30, and if all goes well I should be done by 10:00 or so. After that, there's a bunch of Rock 'n' Roll related events, including a concert headlined by the Gin Blossoms. Okay, so I don't care much about the Gin Blossoms but I'll go with the flow.

NOTE: I mentioned in a previous posting that the concert was headlined by The Goo Goo Dolls. This was incorrect, I apologize.

Monday will probably be a lazy day, with the flight home commencing in the early afternoon. If the flights all line up correctly, I should be home again in the late evening, refreshed for a nice week of work. Ahhh!

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In Need of Ass-pirin

Last week I belive I regaled you in a story involving my left leg and its soreness. I then mentioned that I rested it for a day or two, then ran too fast on hills resulting in re-aggravation of the aforementioned muscle(s).

I took Friday off (from running) to get a buttload of things done, including, but not limited to, applying for my new mortgage. Saturday I was tempted with the idea of a short, easy run which turned into two short easy runs bookending a race. Not so good for the hammies/glutes. To ensure that it was as well rested as can be, I gave it another healthy dose of rest on Sunday morning when I joined the ole RRF group for an "easy" 11.5 miler. Any incline was causing me extreme discomfort, and the pain slowly crept up the back of my leg to my "sit bone", where the hamstring connects to the hamstring bone (or ass bone, pelvis, whatever).

As directed by a nurse friend, I applied the "sit on a tennis ball" technique of massaging the muscle. You don't actually shove the tennis ball up your ass as I'm sure some of you are imagining, you roll one cheek around on it until you find the sore spot. The reason for this is that the hamstring is buried beneath layers of muscle and it's damn near impossible to massage it without really putting some weight behind it. Conveniently, you can use your body weight to do this and it works pretty well.

If you've ever had a sore shoulder or neck and had someone massage it, you'll be familiar with the clunking feel of rolling over the knot of muscle fibers. You'll also be familiar with the way this can take your breath away. It was a similar experience with the hamstring muscle only with much more weight and more clunking. Today it's still sore, with the added soreness of having massaged it. Sweet.

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Pats Won

If you haven't heard, the Patriots won yesterday. End of story.

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I guess that's all I have to tell you today. It was a pretty lazy day yesterday, involving lots of sitting around and eating, and watching TV. Oh, two words for you: "Corn Bread is Awesome"! Yum, I love corn bread.

Over and Out,
Old Coot