Balance

Yes, life is a balancing act. Work, school, home life, family and social activities all need to be coordinated in a balanced way. Someone once said there are seven ports of life (not sure what they all were, but the above bunch are probably five of them), and your ship can only visit some of the ports at certain times. You can sail to more than one in a given period of time, but not all, and it's certain that you'll spend more time at some of the ports than others. Finally, the ones you concentrate on change at various stages of your life. All part of the balance. Makes you think about President Obama's job.

I'd have to say that for me, at least, running is one of the important ports of life. I devote a lot of time to reading, writing, planning (the 24-hour event) my running, not to mention actually pounding the pavement and trails. Even this time has to be balanced with the rest of my life, and even within itself. For example, I try to run some speedwork and something long every week. I know that I can't do these too close together - I've got to balance the weekly schedule so as to allow for rest time as well as all the running. The original plan was to do the usual Tuesday track with the gang, and then a longer run later in the week. In the process I'd try to keep the weekly mileage up in the mid-sixties. All a matter of balance.

Tuesday track didn't happen. I'd had a hamstring problem, and was called to work at the store anyway. So today (Wednesday) I did 7 outside before hitting the mill for 6 1200's. I could've hit the track, but I wanted a decent amount of mileage, and as the rain began, I decided to do the rest inside. I *think* I should be able to recover ok in time for a long run on Friday.

The hamstring? I got that whilst running on the North Park trails on Monday. Half-way through the run I tripped on a rock that was sticking out of the trail by 1/16 inch. I stumbled forward for several steps, but barely managed to keep my balance and not hit the ground. What I did do, though, was pull that right ham. Had to limp home. I'm a little better now, but I'll need to be very careful with my speedwork.

So Monday's run was a matter of balance too. I didn't fall, so I kept my balance. On the other hand, hitting the ground may have been preferable to this injury.