Day 13 - A moment to remember

Day 10 I had an injury to my calf, Day 11 I pushed on when I shouldn't have and Day 12 I rested and learned some valuable lessons.   Today I got back on the horse and hit the streets and while it feels nice to be back, it has been a really tough morning.   

Yesterday,  a really good friend of mine (Micah) from Jacksonville Florida had flown out to Cali.  He had already been here for a day and had already had his big important meetings.  But he told me he was actually going to be in town for the entire weekend.  I found this to be a really good time to get a chance to hangout out with him so I offered to go pick him up from Los Angles.   Now LA is no small trip.  From where I live in Fallbrook, it is about 2 or slightly more hours away.  It is a shorter drive from where I work, so when I got off work yesterday I made the hike up to get him.  Wow, was that a long drive!  It was virtually bumper to bumper traffic almost the entire way there.  For those that know me well,  you know how much I love to drive in traffic.  For those that don't, let me fill you in.  I hate it with a passion!  No one likes, it,  but as Jack Nicholson says in "As Good As it Gets".   "I'm using the word HATE, to describe how I feel about ..."  Traffic!  Ha!   The way back was no different, and it literally took us about 3 hours and change to get back to Fallbrook.   Driving is just exhausting,  and it totally wipes me out for sure.  When we got back home, we took a little break, but Jen, Micah and myself were starving and since I have not started my meal plan yet, I really have not eaten anything virtually all day.   So we headed over to Pala Casino to get some food from the buffet.  Pala is only 5 minutes away and we chowed down like pigs eating from a trough.   We gobbled down everything we could and decided to play a little bit o black jack while we were there.   

Now I'm a strong believer that no one really wins at Casino's,  and I accept that over the long run the house always wins.  So when I gamble, it's more for the entertainment value and I'm prepared to spend $40 - 60 bucks just having some fun.  Since it was a Friday night and Pala was packed,  there were only $10 tables so my forty bucks lasted a whole 4 hands.  Ha!  Yeah it was very short lived.  Lucky for us we knew of another casino down the road a bit further that had $3 black jack, and we decided to go there.  At least, we could last a bit longer.   This was such a good idea,  because we ended up playing there for about 3 hours and we walked away even!   And that is exactly why I love $3 black jack.   I played, had a tun of fun and didn't loose a cent.

Nothing good goes unpunished, it seemed like, this morning.  We got home about 2:00 am and when I woke up at 10:30 this morning I felt like a truck ran me over.  But that truck driver didn't just run me over, he threw that puppy in reverse and hit me again just for good measure.  So needless to say, my motivation for doing any sort of exercise today was nil.   I would be lucky if I got enough motivation to get out of bed and really the only thing that got me up was that I had guests in the house.

There is just a point at which I recognize that I'm just making excuse after excuse why not to do something.  It is at that point in which I need to just slap myself across the face and suck it up.  So I suited up for my run and remembered what my goal is and that I am committed to getting there.

Today's Goal.

Today's goal is quite simple.  I'm back on the train, but I need to work my way back up to the 2.8 miles I was at before.  I'm all healed up now, so I should be able to start with 1.6 miles and then work my way up to 2.8.  Now I know I could just do the 2.8,  I've done it before.  However, while my calf feels fine right now, I am unsure of how it will hold up against the vicious road.  So I'm playing it safe to avoid re-injury.   

Today's Progress.

By the time I got out onto the street,  the sun was already heating up the world.  I quickly realized that this it going to be very different than my usual.  It's not cold out at all,  it's actually quite warm and I'm not use to running in warm weather.   Never the less,  I hit the pavement running and I quickly made it to Dulin Rd.   Breathing wise, it seems like I'm doing fine, but I can tell I was not healed up as much as I thought.  As I suspected,  there was still a little bit of pain in my calf, but what I was not expecting was the burn that was singeing my quads.  I had only run .8 miles and I was shocked.  I felt like my body regressed during my day of rest.  I had to do something, and I shook my head to get the negativity out.  No pain, no gain is what I tell myself.  Every run is different, and I press on to the end of Dulin Rd where it meets back up with Lake Circle Dr.    

I'm half way there, but I also know I've only won half the battle.  The way back is always the toughest part and I'm hurting.  Even my breathing was hurting quite a bit, and I couldn't help to think that running when it was warmer out was definitely making a big impact on today's run.  

As I turn the corner, and head back toward my home on Lake Circle dr, I saw the most amazing thing.  In fact it was so amazing that it completely distracted me from my struggles.  There was a mother and her son kneeling in the grass just across from each other.  I couldn't help but to examine what they were doing.  And then it happened,  she tossed a softball to him, and started to explain how to throw a ball properly.  Call me sentimental,  but it was such a beautiful thing to see.  A mother teaching her son.  A mother spending time with her boy.  The thought of it all touched my mind as I was running down the street,  and before I knew it, I was on the home stretch.   Life has a way to get you through the tough times and sometimes all it takes is to look at something beautiful to get you through the tough times.   Today a mother teaching her son did that for me, a moment I will not forget.