Uphill Battle

More progress was made in my "comeback" this week!  That's the word my sister used when writing me an encouraging e-mail, and I suppose it is more accurate than any other.  (I briefly considered during this period of Presidential primaries using the phrase "Make Richard Great Again.")  Pain lessens with each run, and distance increases; as I tell my running buddies, now I'm merely fat and out of shape.

On Monday, I ran up Big Bearpen Mountain, my old standby workout for building strength which I have extolled in this blog in the past.  The climb is relentless but manageable, and the views are always spectacular from the summit.  Although I walked it once or twice over the winter, my running logs tell me that this was the first time I ran to the summit in exactly six months (September 14 - March 14).  And today I completed a long run of eight miles and seem none the worse for the wear.  That is the farthest distance I have run since September 28.  So, jump-started by the series of races over the past few races, I now intend to concentrate on building strength and distance, a good base of mileage for the coming spring and summer.  And avoiding further injury.

But it is not easy!  Running four miles feels like eight miles at the end of the day, and running eight miles today felt like a 16-miler from my marathon-training days.  It reminds me of a phrase I heard in a recent movie (The Lady in the Van):  "In life, going downhill is an uphill job."  That's a little glib, but it does give a perspective (a slant, as it were) on the job of growing old and on the continuing effort to stay fit as I near my 70s.  I look to my fellow running friends in their 70s and 80s as inspiration these days!