When the Lord Closes the Door, Somewhere He Opens a Window.

I have never found myself so stupid as I did today.

Here is why.

I had not been able to see a solution to a problem for so long

when it was just under my nose.

I don't know why I couldn't.

But when I finally found it,

I couldn't help realizing that when you are under pressure,

that you can lose sight of a large picture and end up trying to choose a solution

from among the choices that are already there.

Let me illustrate my point below.

Two days ago I went for a 30 K run.

I am expecting a full marathon on the last Sunday of this month,

and it was vitally important to run this distance three weeks prior to the big race.

I had a small concern, though.

I had had nasty cough for almost ten days, and been unable to do much training.

I considered two choices:

1) settling for a shorter distance and build from there another day

2) going all the way to cover 30 K 

I chose 2).

The result was slight pain in my left knee, fairly serious soreness in my right calf, and major pain in my right ankle.

I panicked.

They were more than discomfort. 

I hated to admit it, but I had to say that I was seriously injured.

If the pain didn't go away soon, I wouldn't be able start training again,

and I couldn't train, I would be in big, big trouble in this half marathon race

scheduled a week before the full marathon!

What should I do?

Full-scale training was of course impossible.

I could make my condition worse.

But if I didn't train, I could very quickly lose my cardio-vascular capacity 

that I had developed up to this point...

The choice I took earlier this morning was to take a short quick walk in the morning

in the park near my house.

The ground is covered with wood chips, so it's easy on your legs.

Also, I put on my regular jogging shoes with cushioning to minimize the landing shock;

the injury of the right ankle was primarily attributed to running on paved roads.

I walked 2 K at first, and felt reasonably warmed up, so slowly jogged half a kilometer.

It was not a perfect solution, but I thought it a good compromise 

until I fully recovered.

But deep down I knew walking couldn't possibly be a substitute for a strenuous running training.

I was worried until I was just about to leave work

when I stopped for a moment and said to myself,

"Wait a minute. There IS something you can do to strength your legs and cardio

without hurting your knee and ankle joints as much as you do when you run.

Cycling!"

Luckily, I am a cyclist as well as a runner.

I have two decent road racers.

I am going to hit the road on one of them.

And I am going to do something equivalent on the bike to interval training 

that I had originally been planning to do on foot.

Problem solved.

I am a happy man again!