3.65 miles, 27:57
There was a wicked headwind at Crissy Field in the late afternoon today. However, that resulted in a pleasant tailwind on the return trip. The leg didn’t hurt today but everything else ached a bit. I’m definitely a believer in the foam roller now. This the longest I went without pain in weeks (or at least it seems that way).
After purchasing a soccer ball, shin guards, and socks in preparation for playing some soccer this week I headed up and around the North Beach festival to Fort Mason. The little one was up there all day for an Italian wine tasting and I usually like to pick her up after such events so she doesn’t have to haul her butt home on the bus. Today I felt even more obligated because two morons got in a fight behind her on the 22 line bus ride up there and managed to clock her in the back of the head. She managed to get out of harms way by quickly dashing off of the bus and waiting for the fight to sort itself out. The number of aggressive, unwashed, pseudo punks in the city of SF is truly staggering. The Haight Street gutter punks are more about the fashion of punk than any particular belief system and they are as hateful as the yuppies that they ridicule. Anyway, I went up there to give K. a quieter ride home.
There were plenty of wind-surfers out in the bay as well as the usual cadre of runners. Unfortunately, I’ve already decided to skip the race here next weekend. It is not early enough in the morning for me to run and then get all the way back home, shower, dress, and then head back up north to my friend’s wedding at 11:00 AM. Not going to happen. Regardless, I don’t think I’m ready for it. The foam roller is helping but it is not a miracle worker. I have still not run past 5 miles this week and the race is 10K so better not to push it. This sucks because I really like running at Crissy Field and Land’s End. Definitely going to run this race next year.
We played soccer yesterday at a picnic for the product development team at work. I’ve brought a soccer ball to the last few picnics we’ve had and never got anything going. We’ve finally reached critical mass where we have a lot of folks interested in soccer. Enough for 5 a side with subs and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at soccer even though I watch hours and hours of it. Also, I tend to be slightly competitive. Heh. So, I think the manager I slide tackled in the first minute of being on the pitch was a little surprised. My boss however, who is English with a capital E, will be proud to hear this (he was on vacation). He’s been urging me to play indoor soccer and from what I hear he also plays um, competitively (i.e. he probably would have been slide tackling anyone and everyone as well). Thankfully I only hurt myself. The ball ricocheted up off the ground and directly into my thumb causing the thumb to jam and later to swell to the size of a small foot volley ball.
Today I took the plunge and invested in some soccer gear. Stupidly I bought black socks to wear over my shin guards. I was thinking at the time that they would match my shorts, also black, and not show grass stains. Instead I look like a daft referee on holiday (see the British slang is coming along as well). Interestingly football seems to work different muscles than full on running. I knew this from school, I ran cross country and occasionally we’d play soccer against the less teams or one another, but I definitely relearned it today. My upper thighs hurt a lot more than usual from yesterday’s activity. There is a regular game down the road from work on Tuesdays so I’m going to use that as a cross training day.
