Man sabotaged by best friend

Those black lab eyes say it all - he didn't mean to do it. He was simply following his instincts.

And I, unfortunately, had a brief lapse in attention with about 500 meters to go during our 6-mile training run yesterday. As a squirrel dashed across the street, Dexter tried to sprint after him, pulling me off the curb and causing me to awkwardly plant my left foot and twist my knee.

Usually I can anticipate Dexy's lunges, but we were flying along and all I was thinking about was getting ready to kick for the final 400.

When I got home, I alternated ice and heat. Fortunately, I worked on my duff all night at work, so I was able to stay off it. It's a bit better this morning, but descending the stairs was still a bugger.

So I stare down the question that virtually every runner ends up answering at some point - how do I handle my injury? In this instance, it's crucial that I somewhat oppose my instincts.

If you're like me, the last thing you want to do is skip your cross training session, which I'm scheduled for today. But a cliche is very appropriate here - it's a marathon, not a sprint.

I could grind out an hour on the bike today, but I'm not going to. I know better. We've got a 3-miler tomorrow that I don't want to miss. But if it takes me 2 minutes to get downstairs again, I'll have to miss that, too. What's far more important is being able to tackle our longest run in the program thus far, a 12-miler, on Sunday.

Injury management is a day-to-day thing, but the bottom-line mantra is constant - if you're hurt, you have to heal. About 90 percent of injuries runners develop are cumulative. Aches and pains come with the territory, but if you have a recurring pain, get it checked out.

Injuries often are avoidable if we listen to our bodies and cut the machismo, feminismo, whatever -ismo clouds our vision of the long-term goal.

There's plenty of online resources where you can get more insight and, as usual, Runner's World has the inside track. That link is a veritable cornucopia of knowledge. Put it to work, so you can keep working out comfortably.