Since the weather's been so indisputably fine (ah, fall), the dog requires two generous walks a day, and stores in the neighborhood seem to be courteous to canine customers, I decided to make one of Mister President's evening walks last week a book shopping excursion. There's a small bookstore on Court Street called Book Court that I especially like, maybe because they specialize in fiction or because Mister President is allowed to browse the entire store rather than confined to the area that does not serve food. It's also small, but abundant and well-organized, with a shelf of staff picks and a warm, inviting display window that, if it had a smell, would be of warm gingerbread.

As the water cools across the East Coast, triathlon season dwindles and by early October, comes to a quiet close. The rest of my season? I'm doing a sprint-distance this weekend, which is more like a long workout than an actual race. You register the day of the race, no racing numbers to pin on, no marker on the arms and thighs, no timing chip and no hills. That's my kind of tri. And I'm considering traveling to Phoenix in late October to visit my sister and compete in a Quarterman (that's got a nice ring, no?), but that depends how the my hip/thigh feels on the run this weekend. And that concludes the season. Mentally and physically, I'm ready for a break. Tennis and ballet sound really good to me right now. I'm also feeling a little beefy in the arms and legs, not what I'd been going for at the start of all this.

Here's a phrase I hear a lot in my training: kinetic chain. What this means is everything's connected. Especially pain. That one pain leads to another. A pain in my right heel that started in December is related to a pain in my left iliotibial (IT) band and hip that started three months ago, and the hip and thigh pain is related to a recent nagging backache, even though the backache immediately followed two sessions of hog wild tennis (played when I was supposed to be recovering from a race) and one damn long yoga class. At least this is what I learned last night after meeting with a physical therapist in Long Island. I think he's on to something.