Backslide

With just over six weeks until the marathon, I've hit a bit of a wall in my training. Instead of exacerbating the leg injury that's been bothering me, I've decided to be smart for once and shut it down for the week. So this week I'll put in a total of 3 miles. I think the actual injury is to the tibialis anterior, which runs down the front of my shin. It's definitely not shin splints, but something different altogether. I've been massaging and icing it, but it's the rest that's key. Of course, it coincides with the nicest Saturday we've had all year. It's friggin' amazing out right now: Sunny and 60. And I can't run. But I have to take a long-term view of this and hope that resting now will help me prevent this from getting worse. It's just killing me not being able to do anything.

Looking forward, I'm going to be participating in the Reach the Beach Relay in NH this fall. A friend of mine from work ran it last year and her team needed another runner, so they asked me. It's 200 miles in 24 hours, starting at Cannon Mountain and finishing at Hampton Beach. Each runner does in the neighborhood of 15-20 miles over the course of the event. Should be a good way to ring in my 42nd birthday, which is a few days afterward.

Speaking of birthdays, Lily turns 5 tomorrow. Man, it seems like just yesterday she was born. No big party this weekend, though; we're doing a combo 5th birthday bash in a couple of weeks with her buddy Connor, who's in her preschool class at Harborlight. In the meantime, we're going out for lunch tomorrow at her favorite restaurant, Bertucci's.

Melt and thaw:

• Poor Coolio. He was busted with crack at an LA airport. I can't help but think this is a crucial part of his upcoming reality show pitch.
• There are few bands I hold in lower esteem than the Eagles, mainly because of Don Henley's douchebaggery and their insistence on jacking up concert ticket prices for the poor saps that want to see them live. But I had to laugh when I read that an Alabama radio station censored their old mid-70s hit "Life in the Fast Lane" because of the use of the word "goddamn." It's just funny because the song has probably been played 800 kajillion times on the radio in the last 30 years, but only now someone's censoring it? Of course, this has happened with other songs: The Who's "Who Are You?" includes several instances of Daltrey singing "Who the fuck are you?" and used to play intact back in the day because he sang it so fast, it wasn't entirely clear. Of course, it was to me and other kids who giggled at hearing a swear word on the radio. But the songs played and somehow the world didn't end. Apparently, now things are different. As for the Eagles, I would have no problem if radio stations didn't play their songs for different reasons: because they suck and are overplayed.
• Hey, baseball fans! Are you watching the World Baseball Classic? Yeah, me neither.