At the Crossroads

I've come to a point where a decision must be made, and it pains me to no end to have to do this. As much as I would like to run the Boxing Day 10 Miler in Hamilton, I think that training for this race (keeping in mind that I would only run it to complete the distance and not all out) may impair my ability to train properly for the entire year of 2009. This realization comes from the fact that my foot, even though it's been OK to run on, is simply not improving.

Now, I could run through this pain, and have done so for over a month now (with that two week break after my race), but I think that a 10 miler has the potential to put me out of commission for a long time if I am not careful. My tolerance for pain is pretty good, but this works against me. Also, the guilt I feel at not training has the effect of forcing me to push through, all the while believing that things are bound to improve.

Well, they haven't. So my options, as I see them, are thus: stop running right now until I am totally healed, even if it means taking the rest of 2008 off (and here's hoping that's ALL I'd have to do!), or train until Boxing Day, run the ten miler, and then take all of January off.

I am leaning towards option #1 because:

a. I am hurting now.
b. I have to finish my Masters Degree in the next two weeks, and have to focus on my last paper. c. I have access to the gym for the rest of the year and can at least do some cardio on the stationary bikes or something.
d. I will need as much injury free time as possible to prepare for the Around the Bay 30k at the end of March.

Anyway, this is more difficult for me than I thought it would be, and I must admit that I am totally bummed out right now. Even though the weather's been totally crappy today I was still planning on a 5K this evening while biking home from work. It was then that I really started to think about the potential consequences should I continue down the path toward the 10 miler and beyond, and so I did not go running this evening. In the end the desire to be pain free, after almost two months of suffering from this plantar fasciitis, won out.

But hey, at least I can do push ups and chin ups! Tonight I managed 21-25-21-21 and then maxed out at 45 for a total of 133. I am a bit surprised that my max was lower than what I managed on Friday of last week (46) given that I had the weekend off from push ups.