Looking to Winter

My race season is done and I still have plantar fasciitis. In the months leading up to Mountain Masochist I looked forward to the relief of not having a race to train for. I looked forward to the feeling that I could afford to forego my runs in order to heal my foot. But now that that time is now I am not so happy about it.

The only real stress I have ever felt is with being limited by an injury. When the weather is nice (as it has been since Hurricane Sandy) all I want to do is plan out and run some fun adventures. My tick list has been growing since September, but I finally had to stop look at maps and Internet blogs when they started to depress me. I miss the feeling of a crisp fall climb followed by the descent. With the leaves off the trees more sun hits my body and makes me feel good. The lack of leaves makes the views better too. I want to breeze through the breeze.

Before my injury I was getting fast. The last run I did before admitting that I was broken was done in just a hair over an hour for 7 miles of technical singletrack with about 1000' of climb and 500' of descent. I've never really posted times like that. I bet I can get it back when this is all over but when will that be?

2012 Hardrock. Photo by Brenden Goetz.