Sidelined by softball fall and running on a treadmill

Well, there was a lot that was supposed to happen that didn't. It all started Friday evening. My first at bat for the church softball game, and I hit it right to the shortstop. I tried as always to outrun the ball, but didn't make it. But when I did get to first base, my foot slipped off the base! At the high speed that I was going, I ended up tumbling on the ground and landed left knee first. It was ugly and an open wound full of sand, but I tried to blow it off. Actually the rest of the game went well for me (although not for the team) as I got 2 hits and scored twice. We still lost 16 - 7.

Anyway, the seeping knee became more trouble than I wanted. Saturday actually ended up being a busy day for painting, so I didn't get to try to run the prescribed 7 miles. I helped paint just about all day, and by the time we were done it poured down rain outside. Then by Monday, I really wasn't moving all that freely with my knee, and there was just too much to do as I was preparing to fly out to El Paso. That is a rather long flight. I was too wiped out to even think about running once I got to the hotel on Monday evening. I went to bed early with plans to run in the morning.

Well, bright and early this morning, I got up and ran on the treadmill. I couldn't remember the prescribed incline to make treadmill running more simulate real running, but I set it at 1.5 (which I think was enough). I did a 0.25 mile walk to warm up and then ran exactly 3 miles at a pre-set 9:13 pace. Talk about weird. Then I did a 0.25 mile cool down walk. We'll have to see how running speedwork tomorrow will work. It is supposed to be 2x 1600 with an 800 jog in between. My problem is more of a coordination problem with trying to set my stopwatch (which I probably really don't need) and then change the speed on the treadmill. We'll have to see how I survive maintaining a "speedwork" kind of pace for a whole mile at a time. I'll have to study my past 800's to see what I think I can survive.

Then I'll have another treadmill workout on Thursday for an "easy" 3 mile run. Thursday morning (mid-morning) I begin the longer trek from El Paso back to Ohio. Should be loads of fun. Then we'll have to see if I can make 7 miles on Saturday with my family coming in. Sheesh, I need to find out when they plan on being in town.

Oh, since I put the "travel" tag on here I should say something about my first foray into Mexico. It's definitely a 3rd world country. Not that bad really. Amazing how close it is to the USA, but it is still a rather different world there. But everyone I met was really nice and my American Express card worked fine. I'll say more tomorrow.