Misty Tuesday

The dog and I got out before the refreshing shady damp turned into sunlight steam.  1.5 miles together, and then he ate and napped while I jogged 7.75 miles on the treadmill.  Then I did some shoulder exercises.

Prosaic post = every day activity.  I wish!

holding pattern Sunday, holding pattern August

Yesterday: All sorts of dark clouds went by, but not a drop!  My run was likewise suspended.

Today: still waiting but I did Zwow #31.  Mostly.  I kept up with the squat jumps and mountain climbers, and I mostly kept up with the sit ups until the last ten of the last rep (did she get faster, or did I wilt?), but I did about 80% of her pushups and burpees.  She is so strong.

And I am so weak.  I am even more wrung out by the weather.  The promised deluge didn't come but jacked up the humidity anyway.  We're back to highs in the mid to high 30s C and shitty air quality.  All I want to do is sleep.

Getting a bit of rain

But the Tonganoxie split is apparently still in action, and we're part of it.  The radar is sobering.  Huge clumps of thick clouds with serious punch into the scary oranges and reds heeding an invisible border around the town.  Occasionally we get a wimpy green straggler wander over and spit a few times before rejoining the herd.

So it's been drizzling on and off, and I'm sparing some strength for a (hilly, of course) long run tomorrow, if possible: 7 miles in 75 minutes on the treadmill today.

How are we not getting any rain?

Storms have been circling to the north, south, and west all morning.  The sky has been an odd hazy yet scintillating yellow-grey under darker clouds.  I took the dog out for 1.5 miles fully expecting to feel rain, and then I jogged on the treadmill for an hour fully expecting to see rain, and 5 hours later, the ground is still dry.  Oddly enough, the temperature has risen almost three degrees Celsius in the past hour.  I cannot interpret the significance of this despite my weather-related obsessiveness because I am actually meteorologically ignorant.

The treadmill run was ok.  My energy level was very low yesterday--I didn't do anything except whatever I did at work--and though both I and the air quality felt much better today, my legs were still slightly sluggish.  No matter how I adjusted my form, I couldn't hold onto a truly easy level for more than a few seconds here or there, even though my breathing remained calm.  However, almost exactly 51 minutes into my run, I recaptured that special hip-piston feeling, wherein everything above and below is stacked properly, reducing apparent movement and effort to a slight tilt of the right hip and of the left in alternation.  That's probably the best way to describe it yet, and so from now on, I suppose I'll just be talking about the hip-pistons and if they're firing or not.  Anyway, once they had been firing for a few minutes, I realized that I should then focus on the opposite side lifting up.  Give that stuff a bit more space.  Then, and only then, did everything else loosen.  But it all still felt a bit heavy.  Still, the pace was the same as my last TM run, and it was otherwise an easy run.

And then I did the regular shoulder/clamshell thing I do when I'm not quite up to a zwow.  I also did these exercises on Wednesday.  This hasn't been a zwow week at all, although I have done 1/2 of a MarC workout (mainly core) 3 evenings this week, which has been feeling effective.  Maybe that's sapped some of the zwow juice, but it seems good to do a little something in the evening.

Time for some rain!!!

So the air is crappy and I was feeling crappier

But I got on the treadmill and had the airiest easiest jog in a long while.  I was suspended in another dimension for an hour, with thin tethers to a quiet piston-like hip flexor action, the soft hum of a well-tended engine pulling my weightless limbs and core along.  Does this make sense?  Where the heck did I go?  My body fled discomfort entirely.

drained again

And I seem to have a slight cold.  So much for the restorative effect of a 4 day weekend.  Maybe running outside umpteen days in a row is a bit too much, too soon.   Unfortunately, there is no true easy run out there, but I have to take the dog out every day; the inefficiency of running on the treadmill and walking the dog in the same morning tends to mire me somehow.  And the air here is still just plain disagreeable.  This astonishes me: we are in a small town, not close to major industry--why am I having more issues than I did in Bucheon and Seoul?  Where's the convenience, then? The diversity? Or the excitement?  The recent theft of my husband's bike and numerous encounters with drunks/druggies don't count--on that note, the local police has recently become kind of sloppy about releasing them in the ER.  Take them home! or somewhere else so they don't hang about sitting in the parking lot and asking me about someone called Amber who got shot in the head.  That's the best story I've gotten so far here, and it was just a scrap.  Turns out that his friend Amber went to a different hospital, and survived, almost two years ago.  Some friend he is!  He could phone her.  

But this town is still probably better than most, and there is Amazon and the local farmers' market and a recently-launched monthly art gallery/reception series, and after a couple of hours at work in super-duper air filtration, I feel so much better; at least I'm getting a bit of a break.  And Amber survived!

Monday: 1.5 miles with the dog in the morning, 1/2 of a MarC workout and stretches in the evening.  I've been wanting some sort of something after work, nothing too strenuous but engaging enough to dampen post-work hyperactivity, and I also want to resume some yin yoga poses.  I'll see if this does the trick.

Today: walked with the dog, did zwow 28.  Sluggishly.

numbers escaped through my fingers

But not much cheese or alcohol.  Yes, it's been that kind of weekend, but we did run yesterday (4ish miles) and today (6ish miles), and that's the important thing.

I will try to be tough this week.

The big hill

It was 13C when I woke up this morning.  That's as good and cool as it's going to get this time of the year, and better than would be expected.  I got ready and turned to the dog, "let's go."

Actually, he was telling me that the moment I got out of bed!   Letsgoletsgoletsgo.   Recently, I've been appreciating his evaluation of the weather.  The dog who hardly budged out of bed during the heat waves is so very anxious to go out whenever the weather's nicer and cooler than normal.  He didn't use to be so attuned.

We enjoyed a very leisurely downhill warm-up for about half a mile, and then the hills started working against our favour.  First there was the little series of four that we also run on the 3 mile route, and then it was on.  I managed to catch some of my breath on the downhills--heck, even on slight uphills because my treadmill is also slightly uphill (1% grade, I think)--and I managed to remember to relax parts of my form and avoid excess right shoulder tightness (a long-term issue; I have to be doing more shoulder exercises).  However, the level of effort pretty much stayed in the long tempo run range--and got solidly into the lactic-acid buildup range--until I was up and over the large hill and down about 3/4 of a mile on the other side and looking at yet another, though smaller, hill, which effectively snuffed out recovery.

This is what running here is like.  Hill after hill after hill.  I am hoping that, if I manage to get in shape enough, I could recover completely, or almost completely, on the downhills, but I have only 4 months left here.  At any rate, I'm going to try to do that 8 mile loop at least once a week, and I won't feel too bad if that takes the place of a zwow workout, as it probably will do this week.  I was way too tired by the end of it, and my core is still burning.  Actually, I am missing another zwow workout as well...I guess I'll call this a major recovery week and just run to loosen up tomorrow, and start afresh on Sunday.  Oh, well!

We ran 7.8 miles in 75 minutes and then we walked the last 0.4 of a mile.  9:36/mile while running all these hills, I'll take it!  Even going up the hill was under 10:00/mile and though things were feeling pretty sore by the top, I wasn't losing as much heart as I'd feared I would.  It went better than I'd expected.  I was especially impressed by the dog's stamina.   He hasn't run more than a lackluster 2 or so miles in well over a month, but he was game today.  At the top of the large hill, I offered him water and part of my Gu gel, but he declined in favour of pissing on choice clumps of tall grass like a boss.

Temp: 16- 20C, kind of humid, but WAY BETTER than what it has been.  We lucked out.

It was so nice to check out the sights again instead of trying not to stare at treadmill display numbers.  We ran by a restaurant with one of the scariest signs I've seen yet in town "Welcome, Skeeter the Clown."  Yes, I share that oh so hackneyed distrust of clowns, and "Skeeter" is not a name that comes even close to overcoming my prejudice.  Later on, we also ran past the Miracle Trading Post.  I'm not sure if this is a new establishment.  Sadly, I forgot to enjoy the view at the top of the hill, where I can see things on the top of other tall hills in the distance, and other things too like the particularly classy looking local federal prison.  We did admire someone's pretty fish pond, though.  It looks better than mine although mine has flowers.   But no visible brightly coloured fish.  Due to feral cats and the possum in our backyard (and occasionally a skunk passes through and my husband once saw a coyote in front of our house) I have given my koi plenty of places under rocks; due to the predominantly sunlit location of our pond and the recent heat waves, I have bought enough plants to completely cover the surface of the pond as well.  So I never see my koi just swimming lazily about like the fish were doing in this other pond.  When they come to the surface at feeding time, they attack like sharks (I think of them as water tigers, most of them are orange and black) and quickly retreat back to the shadows.  However, two of them will flop atop of vegetation, mostly out of the water, and lie there for a few seconds while gobbling food.  Not coincidentally, these two have become the largest.

Enough about fish! http://www.runningmap.com/?id=435868  Not completely accurate--I left out some blocks and another small hill or two and the start/end points are not at my house at all, but this is the gist of our run.  Click on Show Elevation for the full scoop.

The big hill postponed

It was muggy and already 25 C early this morning, but the temperature was forecasted to drop, and it did, but not enough.  I did not do the tough 8 mile loop.  Instead the dog and I jogged/okmostlywalked 1.5 miles while I deliberated: should I take advantage of the overcast weather, which would make the dog's participation easier although he would be miserable in the rain and there was a chance of rain, OR should I trust in the forecasted low nighttime temperature and have a cooler and less humid but sunnier run tomorrow morning?  It is probably a more stunning route in the sun.  The hill is tough and I need something to look forward to at the top.  A good view goes a long way.

Hopefully we get some thunderstorms tonight to clear the air a bit.  I jogged 6 miles on the treadmill and felt a little congested at first, but the feeling subsided as I got distracted by other considerations.  Lately, I have been equating the treadmill to a laboratory: conditions are controlled, which allows me to delve into matters underlying changes in elevation/pace/footing.  I was trying to loosen up some parts, particularly my quads, while engaging others more, particularly my hip flexors and parts of my glutes; my ultimate goal was, as always, spurred by my laziness: to reduce strain and effort.  The stretch from 20ish minutes to 30ish minutes felt especially efficient.  For a couple of minutes, I actually felt a different downward stroke from my hips--this is a simplification of myriad minute processes, but they had all coalesced into an overall sensation of one side tipping downward and then airily floating upward, and then the other side tipping downward and airily floating upward, etc.  I didn't feel anything else going on, just the overall motion governing everything else going on below.  So efficient!  So fleeting!

The usual sloppiness crept back and I spent the rest of the run trying to ease this or that, but it was easy breathing and effort throughout at 5.7-5.8 mph.  My easy runs will stay at this pace for a while, I think. There's still more to learn from it.

Fall temps!

Well, highs in the mid 20s C and good cloud cover have lent a nice chill to the wind, and it feels like fall.  My favourite season (when not trumped by a superior winter)!  Fall reintroduces a poignant melancholy: I reconnect with my school-age self and my school-age fears and my school age hopes.   Will something amazing happen this year, or something dreadful or, more likely, more of the small same stuff, over and over again?  I view my former younger selves and their often puny concerns with amused pity, and yet we still share the same depth of expectation once summer ends and the distance between us narrows.  The cool weather comes, trailing the same something.  Unfortunately, as seen below, this generates some reflection.

Now, this is probably just a cool snap and we will revert to the summer weather more usual for this time of the year, but my body as well as my psyche has seized the change.  I'd written earlier about doing another diet detox last week, or maybe the week before...turns out I needed a shift in the weather to get motivated enough to give up dairy, refined sugar and carbs, and fermented things.  I eased into this two days ago.  Usually this diet lasts for ten days, but I'm aiming for 5 and 5, with a cheat day or two in between.  This weekend is a long weekend for me; I'd booked the time off well before I knew how long the heatwave would last, how it would affect me, and when it would end.  Good timing, really!  Almost! I would like to have at least one fancy meal during this long weekend, probably involving a drink or two.

I didn't buy a cleanse kit this time because I can't get the Canadian one I'd used back home, and I didn't like the last one I used here...after spending about an hour online reading reviews and whatnot, I got fed up with picking out all the weight-loss options (not my focus) or the blast-guts-clean options (definitely not my focus), and I ordered some liver and kidney detox pills instead.  Traditional stuff like milk thistle and that sort of thing.  I'm also taking more fibre, some chlorella and spirulina, and generally drinking more water and continuing to eat fresh fruits, vegs, and legumes.  This isn't necessarily going to be a vegetarian diet detox, mainly because we have some good grass-fed and organic meat in the freezer, and my new iron/protein pills are basically condensed liver, but it will be mostly vegetarian, like we usually eat.

Anyway, my new regimen seems to be working because stuff is stirred up and I'm congested and sleepy--a good sign.  One of these days, I really ought to dig into the biochemistry of this sort of thing, is detoxing really bogus, or what is going on? but usually I feel like crap for the first few days, and then I start to feel a lot better.  It feels like toxins are dredged out of secluded corners, set free to run rampant for a few days, then flushed out.  I am really really hoping that these will include whatever is still allowing the chigger bites I acquired at least three weeks ago (has it been four already?) to itch.  Some of them have healed, and I don't look like I have a gross disease so much as though I look like I'm recovering from a gross disease, but some of the spots still itch at random and inopportune times.   For example, after a whole day spent oblivious of my left thigh, I crawl into bed and it suddenly turns to prickly fire.  Or, I get into gloves, mask, booties, and gown at work and I start handling some sort of biohazardous thing that used to be inside some sick person, and then my right food begs, pleads, screams to be scratched.  My plan is to run the tough 8-mile loop on Thursday and then, if possible, do a zwow workout or something to get even more sweaty, and then sit in a hot bath and sweat even more out while I scrub off at least the outermost layer of epidermis.  At times like these, I really miss the scratchy Korean sauna mitts designed for this purpose.

Meanwhile, I have been WASTING the really nice weather!   Yesterday, I jogged 1.5 miles with the dog.  Today, I slept in late--I think I slept close to 11 hours--and after seriously contemplating avoiding all exercise, I did zwow #12 during which I included some shoulder weight exercises and deadlifts.  Oh, well, creatures generally don't exert themselves unnecessarily while shedding.

Meanwhile, I have been reading Meb Keflezighi's book:

http://www.amazon.com/Meb-Keflezighi/e/B00419KI0I

This guy has surprised me, and plenty of others--he doesn't have the best PBs of the field, and he's shown up to races not in the best form, but he fights so hard and ends placing so much better than expected.  He won the NYC marathon in 2009 or so, he won the Olympic trials, and he's placed well in other races, and he was 4th in the Olympic marathon.  He wasn't the American favourite, he was running against 3 Kenyans and 3 Ethiopians, and others with faster personal bests, but he moved up from the second chase pack, through the first chase pack which by then had splintered, from 19th or so at halfway to fourth.

He had won the silver Olympic medal in 2004 and yet was not among the runners introduced before this year's race, even though he was the only prior medalist in the field.  He used the snub as fuel.

!!!

He mentioned the book in post-race interviews and it was the first time I'd heard of it.

No more Olympics

So sad!  They ended with a good bang though, a very thrilling marathon.

1.5 miles yesterday with the dog, and 6 miles today on the treadmill in about 61 minutes.  We slept in too late for a long run--the temps rose to 35 C or so--and so I decided to run 8 miles on the treadmill, but the air was bad.  After twenty minutes, I decided to aim for 6 instead; after forty minutes, I decided to run the remainder as a tempo run.  I think the effort was actually below tempo effort although I chose the same tempo pace as before.   The poor air quality and the effect it had on my breathing dissuaded me from trying out a faster pace.

Finished!

My workouts for the week are done; whatever I do tomorrow will be a bonus.

Today was another cool morning, but I decided not to run with my dog because he'll need a bit of time to toughen up his paws; we'll run something tomorrow.  So, it was the treadmill this morning. and I decided to get the 75-80ish minute run of the week out of the way.  I haven't done a tempo workout this week, but the hilly run yesterday--or almost any steady run outside here--is pretty much a tempo run because the hills elevate heart rate and breathing rate solidly.

I was groggy again this morning, like every morning.   However, I've felt like I've turned a corner and started recovering this week.  The temperatures have dropped and we've been able to leave windows open for fresh air, plus I had a trainee at work for the last two weeks who has done some of the more strenuous stuff--hey, he's the one who has to develop endurance, not me! and I have been taking more bio-available iron/protein pills.  My easy treadmill pace is now 5.5-5.6 mph--it's funny how drastically 5.7 mph feels like a different gear.  I'm not pushing the pace on my easy runs because that's not the point, but now and then I try a slightly faster pace and test if it still allows me to relax.  Maybe by next month, 5.7 will feel easy.

Anyway, this morning, I took a while to wake up, but only about ten minutes or so to warm up, and I ran without issues until after an hour when I started getting a strange slow spasm in my left quad which momentarily threw my left knee out of alignment.  I tried to relax the offending area, and after several repetitions, the spasm went away, and I was able to complete the run.

And I have become stronger.  I did zwow #5 today, including the burpees that I'd forgotten last time, and I did over 4 sets.  When I started this workout, I was barely completing 3 in time.  It was a big push today, and I'm feeling pretty tired now, even post-nap!

More importantly, I can lift things up and put them down more easily.  There is a particular ortho kit at work that weighs at least 50 pounds, and lifting it is often not a clean or simple motion because the handles are on the short sides and it doesn't fit in the washer/autoclave sideways and the autoclave liner is inches away and scalding hot, etc, etc...but, yesterday, I was managing it fine.  When I first started working there, I could barely lift it off a table.

busted!

But not me, but the heat!  We had a short but violent storm last night--incidentally, my workplace has a pretty hefty generator--and it was only 20 C when I woke up this morning.  That's cooler than our house, even!  I decided to tackle the three mile loop we used to do, but I'd forgotten part of the route and went past a turn, and then we went down to the creek: total run was 4.6 miles.

The dog hasn't gained much, if any, weight, but he is out of shape.  The route has a series of 5 hills, and others besides, and gets harder and harder.   His pee break requests became more and more frequent.   Fortunately, he tends to regain fitness surprisingly quickly.  Since the highs for the rest of the week should be only 30 (!!!), I'll be able to take him out more often in the near future.  

Then I did zwow 28 again.  It didn't feel any easier today.

Caves and underground city

I recently found out that there is a cave system and underground city here.  !!!
I have been surfing for distractions because our next posting will be, uh.  Once again, we'll be shipped to a dumpy little town south of the Mason-Dixon line, but not south enough for citrus orchards or local tropical fruit or sarongs or beach combing or whatnot.  C'mon!  Give me at least a little something to work with!  However, I have honed a pretty good coping strategy during past similar postings: get leaner and meaner.  Last two times, I was lucky enough to live close to a forest with trails--admittedly, the second was more of a semi-abandoned army training area, but it worked.

Anyway~

Monday: nothing
Tuesday: 1.5 miles with the dog outside!!! Yes, the mornings are slowly becoming reasonable!! and Zwow #1, but just 2 rounds out of 3.
Today: I hr, 5.6 miles.

good temps, bad air

Today's promise of being cooler than usual held firm, so we slept in and started running at about noon.  Only 29 C and not humid!  It got up to only 31 C during our run and there were some portions that were truly comfortable.  Alas, the air was dirty today and that caught up to me.  The last forty minutes of the run were miserable.  My breathing was messed up.  I kept it to an easy rate, and by this point we were walking up the steep hills, but my lungs felt raw and compressed, grasping for shallow and quick panic, and I couldn't make things easy, but I managed to stay calm.  We stopped at a shaded spigot with about twenty minutes left to go, and I drenched myself in water and got my heart rate down to a more reasonable tempo.  We still had a few uphills ahead of us, but we walked up the steepest one and then, soon after, it was a nice downhill coast, and then a walk home.

Total: 18.8 miles.  I'm counting the walk.  That air was nasty.  Maybe it was like breathing through a dusty sock while wearing a corset, something which I won't be trying for confirmation's sake.  But, yeah, not a picnic.

Tomorrow, we'll find out our next posting.  I think I've held myself together pretty well over the last couple of months of heightened uncertainty.

Olympic wrangling

I think the new iron/protein pills are working because I had tons of energy at work and was able to push through a bunch of stuff quickly for the first six hours without a break.  I was trying to time my supper break with the womens' 10000 meter race, and not knowing the exact air time, I worked like blazes in between periodic TV checks.

Well, it wasn't aired at all because some African winning a race, and other Africans placing 2nd-3rd-4th-5th, means pitiful advertising dollars for NBC even though Tirunesh Dibaba won the 5000 meter and 10000 meter races in Beijing and ultimately is a joy to watch because of her breathtakingly fluid running form.   Hopefully she gets to run the 5000 meter race this year: apparently, there is still some wiggle room in the Ethiopian team selection.

Anyway, buoyed by my successful selection of a new non-buggy server (hello, BBC!), I got on the TM and ran an amazing first 20 minutes.  Not only did I slip into an efficient form right off the bat, but I was able to shift slightly within that form and experiment without losing it, while maintaining an exquisite economy of having to move only a couple of tiny little scraps of hip flexor.  Everything else felt weightless.  Even my footfalls were airy.  At times I felt a connection with my core.  Usually it takes me at least 15 minutes to warm up, and I cannot hang onto good form more than a few minutes or so.

Unfortunately, my treadmill doesn't have a water bottle holder deep enough to be practical, and I try not to go more than 20ish minutes without water in this weather, and so I stopped to drink and it took me at more than 20 minutes afterward to get close to the form I had before--finally, I was close (endorphins helped by this point) and I decided to see how it would feel to run 7 miles, if I could improve my form, regain the one I had at the beginning, etc, etc, and I did.  I floated to 76 minutes exactly.

I would like to try to run at least 75 minutes once a week, as a not-hard run, meaning that one of my other workouts will be tempo intervals, and if I do a real long run, that won't count either, maybe.  It's time to regain my relaxing 80ish min runs.

Afterward, I did resistance workouts.  My left hamstring was starting to feel tight and I find that deadlifts can loosen up that sort of thing, plus I should do these resistance exercises at least once a week.

Another successful week done!

Ah, I did

My last post jinxed the afternoon weather at least.  It wasn't hot, but it was heavy because the rains didn't return, and my breathing was constrained for the first couple of hours at work until the superior air filtration system there worked its magic.   I also have mouth cankers again so probably there's some wheat dust in the mix--there's absolutely nothing else that could account for those.  I haven't eaten anything new except for the new protein-iron pills that don't contain gluten, and the only takeout I have eaten this week was prepared by a cook and restaurant owner who also has a gluten issue.  Also, there's a cold going round at work, and I think I have it.  I slept through my husband's alarm and departure and woke up at 10 am, highly unusual for me on weekdays although that is close to my regular wake up time on weekends when I return to a monophasic sleep schedule.

So, I wasn't feeling too great this morning and I decided to call it a rest day, but today's the first day of Olympic track coverage, and I watched a prelim women's 400M round and felt inspired to try the newest zwow workout.  After all, working out can beat mild colds by creating an artificial fever.  And #28 didn't have an off-putting 'buy-in'.  It was a neat workout although there was a lateral movement element that took a while to get the hang of, but I think this might be something I'll do more often.  Thank you, and well done, Sanya Richards-Ross!

rain

And possibly more rain to come.

The infrequency of rain has hardened the dog's already formidable intolerance of sprinkles, and I didn't have the courage to tackle the hills outside on my own, so I ran in the discomfort of my own home.  I was fatigued as usual, but the air seemed better than normal, so I got the weekly tempo workout done: 5 X 6 min, with 1 min jogs in between.

70 minutes, 6.99 miles (okay, I walked to 7)...BUT my treadmill, the capricious flirt, wasn't content with wavering within a 0.4 mph spread as usual (just the displayed speed flits about and the belt speed stays constant, thank goodness), and the odometer dropped from 4.4X miles to 4.1X.  Just like that, a little electronic burp.   I was cheated more than usual.  I really ran 7.3ish miles.

Does it matter?  It's not like I'm actually going anywhere.  My displacement is actually zero.

I ordered a new type of protein/iron supplement.  Though I feel I've fully recovered because I have no more pain, I still felt more drained after slacking off the iron pills recently, and though I've been on my usual regimen for at least two weeks since, I'm still feeling a deficit.  So I decided to try something new.   It doesn't help that I usually feel drained in hot weather anyway.    But, shhhh, the temperature right now is actually below 30 C.  It's supposed to go up to 36 C, and the humidex is in the low 30s, but I might actually get to bike to work in 29 C (I'm still going to walk my bike up the steepest part until the humidex is at least below 30 C too).  And Sunday's high might only be

Mustn't jinx things too much!

Goodbye, July!

August, so far, is still too hot for my dog.  We walked about 1.5 miles this morning and he was wilting on the last block or two.  The air was thick and hazy, but it was a bit overcast and so I'd thought that he'd be ok.   He was glad to be out for most of the walk.

And then I jogged on the treadmill for 20 minutes, 1.75 miles.  I felt fatigued, but I'm trying to be tougher in general, and I figured I could really use a short recovery jog.  Immersed in the pulsing timbres of A Night on Tape, I loosened up a few knots in my quads that were probably tightened by yesterday's sumo lifts.