Trying Times

I started 2015 with so much enthusiam. Now, like a boat on a dark lake, I have hit a stump and the hull is damaged. I began 2014 with a stress fracture. Luckily, I think I have another. Maybe.

!!!

Maybe it's not that bad. Maybe it will pass. Maybe. No, I am not going to a doctor. I still have the pleasure of writing monthly checks from December of 2013. I'm not starting that again. All was well until I did a seven mile run on a treadmill at Twin Rivers. It was colder out than I wanted to deal with, so I went there and lifted and ran. All still seemed well when I left and went home. Then walking from the bedroom to the kitchen, my left foot started to hurt. It's still hurting three days later.

Maybe it was a sign from God: Stay away from the kitchen! Maybe it was a sign to stay away from treadmills. Maybe it is a necessary readjustment of my goals and focus. Maybe it was just another example of what I have suffered for years now. My body just can't stand as much fun as my mind wants to have. I'm full of maybes, and I don't like maybes.

So instead of being ahead of last year, I am actually behind. Behind that is if I have to hobble for six weeks or more. The depressing thing about it is that I can't up my swimming. We were off almost a month at DSU and although we got to swim again this week, since classes haven't started there were no lifeguards on duty which meant we had to leave after practice. Normally, I stay and swim after the Masters group leaves.

I thought maybe I had struck gold with the Endless Pool thing, but that hasn't panned out. I went back Friday afternoon. The water temperature was down to 100 degrees. Seriously. I bet you think I'm exagerrating but I'm not. I swam for three and a half minutes, a week or so ago, at 110. I lasted fifteen minutes and twenty four seconds at 100. And the motor is still not fixed either. At four miles per hour, I can just barely swim without crashing the front wall.

To the pond you say. Yeah, right. They are frozen solid right now. Here in the Deep South we are experiencing temps that we see about three days every four years. I bet the fish are even freezing. So I am unable to do anything, and that drives me crazy.

I envy those people who have ample access to water. I have plenty of access during the warmer months. But the winter weeks, . . . they are trying times. Trying times indeed.