After taking a week off from any activity, I went out early Monday morning for a little shuffle and everything hurt.  My feet hurt, my calves, quads, hip flexors, lower back - you name it and it was barking at me the whole time.  I changed my route to 4 miles from 5 and gutted it out.  I did feel better the longer I went but was glad to just get it done. I thought that was the end of these aches and pains, figuring I just needed to work them out, that it was a necessary passageway back to the workout program.

The cause of such discomfort, in hindsight, was surely more than just taking a week off.  Much more likely was that I slowed down long enough for my body to finally start to truly recover from the very challenging year I put it through and Monday's run was a disruption to that process.  Much like waking someone from a really deep sleep (where you wake up groggy and wondering where you are), I jump started myself back into a routine prematurely.  Even worse, just 100 yards into Tuesdays run I sprinted to make the light and that set me up as my calf started to tighten shortly after.  Exactly half way through a 5 mile run my oh-so-common calf injury reoccurred and it brought me to a screeching halt.  The only option was to walk the next 2.5 miles back to the car, into the wind, on a chilly evening, in shorts and a t - can you say brrrrrr...

So whats next?  Is that going to grind me into a grumpy, sedentary pulp?  Absolutely not!  Did I have a bad evening? Yes.  But at the pool Wednesday morning one of the regulars asked how I was and before I could launch into a diatribe about my injury I realized I was talking to a man with only one leg.  A one legged guy who swims four days a week.  How dare I bring up a sore calf!

Instead I shut up and got in the water.  As I swam it occurred to me that I went thru 9 months of crazy training for the Ultra, running distances and weekly totals I'dnever seen before, and did it all without injury.  I recalled having people praying for my poison ivy covered feet the week before the race, and waking up race morning without even a spot on either foot.  My mind wondered to my crew (wife, kids, sister, friends), my pacers and my cause which propelled me to the finish - and hopefully also benefited from the experience.  And then I thought, "man, it feels good to be in the water again..."

So what say you?  How's your training going?  Need a little motivation?  How 'bout you share your excuse with me and maybe I can provide a little mindset recalibration (i.e. a kick in the butt :-)  Trust me, the more I try, the more I realize there are no good excuses.

Press on friends.