Running along a rising river, the pleasures of car-free commuting and an amazing hamstring stretch

Right now, sitting out on the deck of a Venice, Florida couple we consider to be friends as well as relatives, I’m increasingly torn between taking a few days off to let my hamstring fully heal and trying that 30-20-10 workout Colleen wrote about when we go down to the beach this afternoon.

I got in four great runs last week – including a quick 4-miler along a rapidly rising Wabash River that gobbled up more and more of the Greenway as my sister and I ran – as well as three extremely satisfying bike rides. In all three cases, I was riding either to or from Bluffton after hitching a ride in one direction or the other. Our son started his first real summer job last week, which meant I went several days without using my car keys.

No matter. I seem to have more fun commuting by bike than riding for training or pleasure. There are fewer decisions to make. I don’t tie myself up in knots figuring out where and when to ride, and it shifts my focus off our high-traffic, recently chip-sealed road onto the journey ahead. Even when I got caught in the rain one day last week, it was fun to view Bluffton through the perspective of various carports and overhangs as I leapfrogged toward my eventual destination. (I was early, so I had time to kill. Luckily, I had some reading material and a couple of yoga poses in mind.)

Riding several easy miles home after Thursday’s hard run helped loosen up my hamstring pretty well, and Friday night’s 90-minute slow jog didn’t bother it at all. I skipped running this weekend during our drive down here, so we’ll see what the next few days brings.

All I know right now is that I’m definitely going to be doing this fantastic hamstring stretch I found on a YouTube series called Dirty Yoga (as in quick & dirty, not anything R-rated). It works my hamstring like nothing else I’ve tried before.