Agony and ecstasy

I've calmed down a little since the last post. Granted, I didn't run at all this weekend but I found ways to keep my body working. Friday I worked the upper body and Saturday I biked 12.5 miles while studying. Sunday normally would be a long run for me but a) my foot wasn't back to 100% yet and b) it's effing FREEZING outside! So I just made it a somewhat relaxing day. This morning I was going to make up for it at the gym. My foot was feeling much better but I couldn't tell if it was all the way better or not, so my plan was to go 4 or 5 miles on the elliptical and if all went well, I'd do another 5 or so on the treadmill and call it a long run. Well, it sort of hurt on the elliptical, though not so much that it was alarming, but my thought process was erring on the side of caution. If it sort of hurt on the elliptical, it was going to hurt on the treadmill. So after doing 4 on the elliptical, I hopped on the bike for 12 miles. Quality long workout, check.

In all my grumpiness of the last post, I forgot to mention that they're retaining me at Playmakers! Last Monday when I came in, one of the higher-uppers came up to me and told me the news, and we figured out a training schedule for this week. Today was the first day of getting to know the basics, and it's going well so far. They retained me and another kid who I happened to go to high school with, so we're both happy about that.

Yesterday was the Super Bowl 5K, a race that starts right behind Playmakers and goes through the neighboring subdivision. Have you heard how cold it is here??? I checked out the results and they were almost laughable. The winner ran it in 16:41, but he recently ran a 15 minute 5K. The second place guy (18:08) won most of the Playmakers-sponsored races last year with times around 16 minutes. My buddy Tony came in 6th with a time of 18:56, and he said he fell twice during the race. So you can just imagine what it was like to be out there.

Anyway, the foot is feeling better. Not all the way yet, but it's a lot better. I'll end with this quote - I find it to be pretty ironic because it came from the Phedippidations podcast that was uploaded on the day I ran the Detroit Marathon. And, as you all know, there definitely was agony and ecstasy involved with that race...

"Running is both an agony and an ecstasy. It's both solitude and companionship. It promises great joy and enormous disappointment through setbacks and injury. Running is with us through the good times and the bad times. It offers us a chance to live a life of real fulfillment at the terrible risk of crushing failure. But, as runners, we've accepted that risk, we've taken the challenge and we fight a good fight for a noble purpose." --Steve Runner, Phedippidations podcast, 10/29/06