The road...

So much of time these days is spent on one road or another. Once it was just a road away from my own head, thoughts and emotional state. For a long time its been pounding pavement, logging miles run and building stamina and fitness. In this last week, I have been trying to find the road to a different kind of recovery...overcoming injury. Its so crucial right now to be getting stronger and this calf "thing" may keep me from running but I cannot allow it to prevent me from growing stronger. Tomorrow will be one week of not running. The longest for me in at least 2 years. It hasn't made me idle but it sure has changed things. Yeah, I'm addressing fitness issues long left on the back burner. Its so easy to continue to do what you've become comfortable with, all the while neglecting things of importance. In training and in life. There was never any doubt that other aspects of my fitness were in need of tweaking but when standing before the workout buffet...I always chose running.

The yoga has been more challenging than I remembered. Its been daily. I did a marathon on the bike Sunday. 2 serious power miles yesterday morning before work and 15 miles on the mountain bike tonite. Every lunch time I have been working a VERY challenging ab/core workout. In essence, I dread a good cough for its crippling effects! I'd forgotten what it felt like to have to use un-trained muscles. To work the unfamiliar and to succeed. Its important to be reminded what it means to overcome an obstacle, to face and attack a challenge.

I'm trying to count the positives of recovering from this injury, while await the next piece of news tomorrow. I'm back to working the diet and evaluating the muscles that running doesn't engage. In short, I hope this will make me stronger, better, faster. I'm still on the road, just using a different vehicle these days!

Catching Up...

It seems almost impossible to try and back track so I will do the cliff notes version. I finished a few 5ks, the Race For The Taste 10k and Disney Princess Half marathon (with my daughter). May 23rd will mark the entrance into the marathon world with the Edinburgh Marathon in Edinburgh Scotland. I say that today with a renewed sense of fear as I contend with my first running related injury. Granted, crawling across the finish line was not how I envisioned it but if that is what it takes to FINISH than so be it. I started something in the UK a long time ago. Finishing this will culminate goals on so many personal goals they cannot be counted.

I have (probably) a micro tear in one of my right calf muscles. The impact or running is not to be tolerated at the moment. Its better than it was last week, but not usable. I will know more after a visit to the sports massage therapist on Wednesday. The up side? I can cross train. I did a marathon on the bike Sunday. Have re-attacked some much needed core work. I can do yoga daily and tonite I discovered I can manage swimming...well, it doesn't hurt my calf but it sure as hell hurts everything else! This is a time frame in my training where I need to be accumulating fitness, not losing it and if anything I think the realization that I have this obstacle may well have renewed my commitment. Maybe that is why it has happened? A test. Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you have to do this? It seems so ironic. I've been injury conscious to the extreme! I put martial arts on hiatus to avoid injury. Everything has been about focusing on the running, the marathon, the goal.

To answer the above questions....YES, I'M SURE!

Return!

Its been a really long time since I have been motivated to write here and that is both good and bad. At one time, this was a venting board for me, an outlet for hurt but as time often does, those wounds are well scabbed over and becoming little more than conversational scars. There are new horizons in view, new challenges to attack and currently, new obstacles to overcome. A lot has happened in the last few months but most of those events have been internal, not external. I've completed many facets of recovering a broken heart but more importantly, I think I have emerged from the experience better overall.

Next month (hard to believe so soon) I will be travelling to England/Scotland to tackle the "big fish." The Edinburgh marathon. Perhaps some of the reason I have renewed the blog is out of my current frustrations with a training issue. After much caution and precaution, I have sustained an injury. Minor I hope but still no less dramatic in my view. I am forced to maintain (at a time when I should be accumulating) fitness via cross training. 26.2 miles is a big undertaking and I'm frankly scared shitless by the simple fact I am currently unable to run. Biking is the new standby with tons of yoga and core work. I'll update more soon....not that it will afford much interest for anyone other than myself retrospectively!

Holiday!

I've taken a holiday from my own blog, lol, and I think it has paid off. Things have been moving steadily forward with some new goals on the horizon and some additions to the training plan. The future is so bright,,,we better wear shades!

I've been down with what may have been a mild case of the flu for the past few days. Equally possible it was just training burn out as I have certainly been pushing the edge of the envelope. Around 45 days until the 10k race. A few months before we face the half marathon and now considering a sprint triathalon AND a full marathon on the international level for mid 2010. After a 20+ year hiatus, surfing is back in the game plan and it seems like pushing myself to newer and higher heights has become the status quo.

With three days off, daughter and I will surf in the morning. Really looking forward to this and hoping conditions are good here in the shark bite capital of the world! Sunday will include a 44 mile round trip bike ride on the paved trail from Highbridge to St. Augustine and Monday will be trail biking in Geneva. I got nuthin but love for these plans!

Current hope is to drive the running miles up by about 10% and get the weekly biking miles up to around 100 a week steady and increase from there. Surfing beats lapping the pool any day but should accomplish the baseline for triathalon fitness in that department. Hurricane season usually makes for the nicest waves of the year with offshore pushes bringing the waves in close and big.

I've been taking photos like mad and hope to have some great ones to post by the end of the weekend!