Well, on March 4 I managed to get in my first pain free run since December. It was only 25 minutes, but it felt absolutely wonderful. It shouldn’t have, but it did. I was in the middle of having a crappy cold, and I was running in rather chilly temps in nothing but shorts and t-shirt because we were staying at the only hotel left in the world without a fitness center of any kind. Didn’t matter. I was out the door and running right after waking up.

The only thing that would have made that run more wonderful would have been for the next day’s run to feel just as good. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Within about 15 minutes of heading out the door Sunday I let fly some choice words I came to a halt with the all-too-familiar pain returning to my achilles.

This instance more than any other since my achilles began hurting was really disheartening.

Maybe it’s because this now means I’ve been out of commission from running for two months, with only very rare attempts at even trying to run, and I feel as if the progress in combatting said injury has been minimal at best. I’ve been through other injuires in my running life - pulled hamstring, knee bursits, numerous types of heel and foot pain - and none of them have sidelined me for more than a month. But this one, the one that seemed less sever to start than all the others, has been the worst to deal with. The others I could at least feel like progress was being made on a daily or weekly basis. But with this achilles I keep finding that it feels like nothing’s wrong with it until I try running, thus making it very hard to gauge whether or not any real healing is occurring.

The disheartening effect of this most recent failed attempt at running is also certainly due to the increasingly nice whether and the fact that Collegiate Peaks is now less two months away. I’m looking outside right now and it’s about 60 degrees and sunny outside; I’m alos enjoying my first day off in over a month but can’t enjoy as I normally would on such occasions. Honestly, I would have loved to have spent this day off getting up even earlier than I would on a work day, driving up to the Salida/Buena Vista area and spending a great day on the trails in preparation for the CPTR. But now I’m having to come to terms with the fact that I will most likely not be in any sort of shape to complete, much less compete in, a 50 miler in early May. And that f’ing sucks.

And now that I’ve had to all but ditch the one thing that I’ve been really and truly looking forward to since visiting family for Christmas I’m finding it really hard to enjoy any sort of cross training activity. I’m even have a difficult time seeing it as cross training since I’ve been doing it so much lately. Maybe it someone were to organize a race on an elliptical or stationary bike it would easier to hop on day after day, but no such races yet exist so my motivation to use them as training tools will likely continue to fade. Even the pool has lost some of its appeal to me, and I haven’t even been using it nearly as much as last year… maybe I ought to hop into the Rio Grande so I can some exercise outside again.

At this point about the only thing that’s keeping me motivated at all is the hope that the achilles will allow me to resume running again by the end of March and I’ll be able to at least run a semi-competitive 25 miler, rather than the 50, at CPTR. Plus, I could always toe the starting line aiming to run a solid 25 miler and just continue on if I’m really feeling it.

Worst case scenario, I’m going to be the best trained aid station volunteer in Buena Vista on May 7.

Oh well, enough bitching for now. I think it’s about time to walk a few more errands around town simply for the sake of enjoying this amazing, I repeat - amazing - weather.