Right before I left for Mexico I set aside my orthotics again and bought some low drop shoes. I tried running 5 miles everyday while I was there and icing my knees like crazy. Knees still hurt all the time, so bad that my runs aren't really all the much fun. But I'm running everyday which is more than I could endure with those nasty orthotics. Hopefully things will turn around.
I got a bit lazy mid-week while I was there. Late nights and the heat are my excuse. Came home yesterday and did my 5mile loop with Hunters Station hill in it. Started overheating a bit the last mile but it went pretty good. The few days I'd taken off had me pretty fresh.
Something I've noticed about my knees is that days off doesn't seem to help them. The only thing that seems to help (besides tossing the orthotics) is ice massage and lots, and lots of stretching. John pointed out that I ran all those pain free miles in the winter while doing yoga. So I'm inclined to think he's right and I need to increase my stretching routine. I've added 6 new stretches to my routine. Between that and my core work let's see if I can't get something going again.
I only had one wild night in Mexico. I emptied my pockets except for about $80 and handed my wallet to Zoya and strolled off into the night. It was pretty entertaining. Some of the locals went out of their way to show me the city and try to get me drunk. We went everywhere and I saw pretty much everything. I turned down a good deal of offers for things I'm just not into (drugs, paying for sex, that sort of thing) I did meet a nice girl named Wendy who seemed quite intent on sitting on my lap and staring at me even though I couldn't understand a single word of her Spanish.
There were only two times that I felt even the least bit unsafe. First was when we first entered the slum. They were burning some leaves to keep the bugs away and the folks who were mostly blinded by the fire reacted in fear at seeing 3 guys (one of them white) entering at 1am. Before long we were all sitting on buckets and they were telling me stories. It's amazing how educated some of the slum dweller children were. They roused them out of bed (well....cardboard on the floor) because they could speak English. The other time I got a bit scared was a bum on the main road who wouldn't leave me alone. I'd left my tour guides and was walking to get a taxi. I finally had to put my left forearm to his throat and push him against the wall letting him see my right fist cocked back. I think that's the universal sign for fuck off. He was too drunk is all, so it wasn't really that bad.
I had pretty good times with the Schaller family. I had a bit too much exposure to Alex in the last 2 weeks between Placid and Mexico so by now I'm glad to get away from that. Other than that the trip was pretty swell. We kept up a pretty good pace of activities and saw and did a lot. I think there's plans being made for a return trip someday :-)
2 videos today that make me smile. First is a short commercial from Nike. I have 2 co-workers I'm working on right now. One has lost 63lbs and the other 18. That's badass!!
The second video is the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech. It's a bit long but a really great tribute this guy gives to his mother. I don't remember him as a player...but of course I only sporadically watch football.
http://nfl.cpl.delvenetworks.com/player/yahoo/carousel/embed_code.html?channelId=de89a8aeb3e422bac4eb48567f10ebd0&channelListId&mediaId=38eb524c8ec7436c8375560a64dfa59f
Hey, you live with Alex, remember?
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