Flashback Friday

I have now run more this week than I did in the last three weeks combined, and this weekend I plan to make that four weeks. I have not been running fast. Nor have I been running far. But I have been running pain free.

My hip and groin finally feel normal, but I feel like a newbie, rebuilding my distance and speed. I'm sure my body has done a fine job of untraining since the Akron Marathon, but I still feel like there is still a lot of base left. I just have to get my injured parts and lungs caught up.

On average, it takes about two weeks for every week you're off to retrain. I'm hoping since I wasn't completely off in these past four weeks that I can come back a little faster. However, I have to avoid flashing back to just about every other time I've been injured and tried to do too much, too soon. In that effort I'm running watch-free, which helps me better listen to my body.

I'd like to hit these next few months with enough gusto to run right through the dreary Ohio winter. Running was my antidote seasonal affective disorder, and it has since become my Prozac. Any time I need let out some steam, I go for a hard and fast run. If I need to think things through, I go for a long run. But like life, running is full of its own pratfalls and pains, from injuries and poor race showings. And this has all been a lead up to me pointing you to the Salty One, who has a great post about facing those hard moments in running -- and more importantly in life.

Pain is part of running. It's part of life. Overcoming it is what makes both things great.

A damned good quote. Wish I'd written it.

Booze News
Make sure you shoe any fruit flies away from you beverage. Those little bastards are stealing your drunk and pretty soon they'll be drinking you under the table. In a new study, have proven that genes might have something to with the flies' -- and maybe even your -- drinking prowess. Well, I'll be damned! I mean, I always bragged that I was built to drink, but now I have proof!

Shoe fly don't bother me ...