Sweep the Leg

Under cherry trees
there are
no strangers.
Issa

Well, actually, I am rolling the leg. Greg left a comment on my now idle running blog about how he suffered a similar injury while running 18 miles in snow. He revealed that using a foam roller helped his leg recover.

I did some internet research on foam rollers and found that some runners use their Nalgene bottles for the same purpose. Since I am not in possession of a foam roller, I decided to use the Nalgene bottle resting in my freezer.

I lay down on my side on a wood floor, balancing my right thigh on the frozen bottle. I tried to roll my upper leg, back and forth. Balancing required a good effort from my triceps, so I also got to work a bit on my arms.

I felt pretty good afterward, and have now rolled my leg 3 times.

I ran 1.5 miles today, same result, stiffness after 10 minutes which puts an end to my running visions.

The good news is I seem to be slowly getting stronger. Today I walked up and down stairs with no stress on the knee, which is an improvement. The only thing remaining is to get well enough to run. Even the soreness when I sleep at night has disappeared - I have to keep faith that this will heal soon.

Alas, not soon enough. It seems I am getting too close to launch date for my 2 spring ultras, and my longest run during the past 27 days has been 3 miles. I may as well admit, barring a miracle, that my next long race will be sometime this summer.

Today I contemplated getting back into the darkroom, but instead I worked on and finished our tax returns. Dull, I know, but I was motivated knowing that in a month I will be getting a check for a few hundred bucks.

I worked on 2 digital photos this evening, close-ups I exposed while walking home from work yesterday.

When I finish posting this entry I am off to the Embassy to hear Ben Bedford. I am going to bring the camera along and hope to get a photo or two of him performing to a packed bar.