Looking Forward

Just can't seem to get enough sleep lately, even though I've been getting plenty by usual standards. This amounts to 7ish hours each night. I haven't really been sleeping all that well either, which unfortunately fans the flames of my fatigue. I haven't been quite comfortable since I moved down here, mostly due to the dual city arrangement I've had with Maia, but work has been quite busy as well. She's finally moving down this coming weekend, and I'm looking forward to having some weekends at ease.

Today I awoke when my alarm went off at just after 5, felt a bit of scratchiness in my throat, and in my haze decided the best thing for me was to go back to sleep. In retrospect the scratchiness is fine and probably seasonal allergies. And I wound up with less time than I wanted to ride this morning. I did manage to squeeze in 20 on a Northern Crescent route, in spite of my late sleeping. I haven't done this route in a while and I never quite remember the hills until I'm huffing and puffing steadily up them. 1:08.

I mentioned that work has been busy. This means there's a lot of clutter on my desk. One piece of paper, however, is different than all the rest. It's a registration form for the Jug Bay 5k/10k in November. When my co-worker (my boss, I suppose I should say) slapped it down on my desk last week I immediately resorted to the logic of the past year: no way I can run a 5k, let alone a 10k this year, owing to the state of my right foot.

But I've been thinking about it since. What if I just signed up? Could I run a 5k? Absolutely. 10k? Perhaps. Could I wind up with more PF? Maybe. The few runs I've had in the past couple months aren't the kind that make romantic memories. But in the past few weeks, each time I run, my foot feels slightly better than before. I'm feeling the urge to push the limits more and more.

All this thinking, and the fact that it was a relatively light biking day, meant I was easily convinced to get out there for an evening jaunt. 20+ minutes, slowly jogging around the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. I mentioned in a previous post that the progression of my injury seems to be unwinding in reverse order. I got this sense again today as I didn't feel any pain at all in my heel or arch (where the PF pain has centered) but I did have some discomfort on the inside of my ankle. I think this is where the posterior tibial tendon runs. I've had this discomfort before, but it was well before the PF came. So, while I'm annoyed by the post-tibial discomfort, the PF pain is gone, which is great.

I have until a couple weeks after Seagull to register for Jug Bay at a discounted rate. I'm planning on keeping up with the easy runs until then. If all goes well, perhaps I'll be building up to my first race of 2010!

I won't be running again for a few days, as tomorrow I'm looking to get a long ride in before work, and Friday through Sunday I'll be tied up with helping Maia move. I'll be able to get a ride in on Friday and Sunday, and perhaps a short run on Saturday depending on how things feel.