This one's for "Ned" Baker

Sorry, Ed. In this Runner's World brief chat with Pat and Casey Moulton, my friend and former BAA teammate, Ed Baker, is incorrectly - and continually - referred to as 'Ned Baker'. An honest mistake, one might say. The humorous kicker of this nomenclature snafu, however, is that halfway through the interview, the following editor's note appears: (In Austin, Shea was 20th in 2:20:52 and Baker, listed as Ed Baker, was 22nd in 2:21:35). Call me conceited, but I got a good laugh out of the whole thing. In fact, I'm sure some of my other well-informed New England running buddies did as well. It's good to see the world's leading running publication pays close attention to detail. Way to go.

With that out of the way, go read the interview. It's good to see the Moulton boys get some well-deserved press - they certainly earned it. The state of New England running, and American running in general, for that matter, is certainly taking a turn for the better and these two are quietly making their way to the forefront. Hopefully, the trend continues among the rest of us as we run towards the Trials in '08.

While I'm on the subject of running, I might as well give a quick recap of my day's toil. I covered 10 relatively flat miles this morning in 67:25, which is a little further than I planned on going. My Achilles was tight for the first two miles or so before loosening up, so I took advantage of my good fortune. I'm not sure how bright of a move this will end up being, however, as that bastard of a tendon was rather sore, tight and sensitive the rest of the day. After the run, I decided to call Dr. Sjogren at Elm Park Chiropractic to see if he could take a look at my alignment and see if anything there might be contributing to my problems. Luckily, he had an opening this afternoon and was able to see me almost immediately. I was having some IT-band issues in the summer and Dr. Sjogren really helped to clear things up pretty quickly and keep them from returning. It's been a few months since I've been in for a checkup though, so I wasn't too surprised to hear that my hips were out of whack and my back was a tight mess. Doc thinks my right hip is overcompensating when I'm running and putting some extra undue stress on my achilles, which is likely slowing my recovery. He made five or six adjustments to my neck, hips and back and I was on my way within 30 minutes. I've got another appointment on Friday morning to finish straightening out my biomechanically-challenged gimpy ass. After today's appointment, my back felt noticeably better right away and my achilles doesn't seem to be as tight or sore as it was earlier this afternoon. Maybe I'm imagining things, but I'm OK with that at this point. I'll attribute it to the power of positive thinking...or the power of 1600mg a day of ibuprofen. It's likely one or the other.

In other news, Manny reported to Spring Training today and is reportedly in phenomenal shape. This is a good sign if we can keep him around this season - and at 23 or so million a year, I don't see him going anywhere else anytime soon.

And that's gonna do it for tonight. I'm gonna go watch "Cinderella Man" on Christina's recommendation. Possible review to follow in tomorrow's entry if time allows. Till then, take it easy.

Quote of the day:

Runner's World: You had your top 20 finish in Chicago, but this 2:15 in Austin lifts you to a whole other category of runner, wouldn't you say?

Casey Moulton: Yeah, I'm getting contacted by Runner's World, so it's pretty great. I never expected that.