Oh to be responsible...

Well, let me begin this blog by saying my previously gremlin-filled knee is doing QUITE a bit better. So much better in fact,that I felt a little weird getting it checked out this Tuesday. However, in a brief, responsible moment, I decided there certainly wouldn't be any harm keeping the appointment, where the doctor told me.....

"You're really tight. And need to stretch. Doing that should pretty much take care of the irritation in the knee." What? You mean that when Jack said cross-train, he didn't mean hours of hoops, and when he said stretch, he didn't mean...not stretch? Well, shit. Color me chagrined. I'm kind of embarrassed at the thought that I'd somehow managed to put these things off (for going on 3 months--yikes), end up with a sore knee, and then find that the two were, in fact, inextricably intertwined.

So today, like a good little marathoner, I convinced myself that I must go to the gym! Oh, the gym. Cold in the winter, muggy in the summer, with a year-round funk of stale body odor. Half the machines don't work, a third are occupied, and the other third appear to be a modernized versions of the Rack and the Iron Maiden. (Yes, I am aware the math doesn't work there; you can see how dismayed I was at the tableau that I knew surely lay ahead of me.) Still, I was committed! To the GYM!

Despite a few touch and go moments as I neared the exit for the gym (Get off the exit? Continue driving toward home and the vast and wonderful, though rainy outdoors? Meet Allison for a movie and dinner?) I made it to the haven of Biffs, Buffs, Amys, and Ambers.

And it wasn't that bad. Despite realizing within the first 10 minutes that an arc trainer is quite possibly the most boring apparatus I'd ever clambered onto, it made me appreciate....that's right--TEAM INJURED. B*--you stayed on this thing for more than an hour?? I salute your fortitude! I salute your endurance! (I also salute my own foresight in bringing a book.)

All ended well, with another day of rest for She With the Once Sore Knee Who Does Not Stretch or Crosstrain (can be shorted to Idiotface for usability), and some miles still in.

See you Sunday, folks, for some beautiful, beautiful miles on the big open road.

*To check out this stalwart soul's blog, hit the following site: http://marathonbrenda.blogspot.com/