Argh! A little background, I ran with one of my individual clients yesterday. Now, I could not be prouder of her progress in running but sadly here training partner bailed on her and as I do with everyone I coach I try to run at least once a week with them. Well yesterday I went on her 12 mile run and though I preach (and mean it) to newer runners to "not worry about time, just cover the distance" it took us 2:45. I've run marathons in a little longer than that and my legs were tired from beig on them that long. I knew today would not be easy, and though it was beautiful and there was some excitement in the air after about oh, 100 yards I knew I was not going to be a happy camper. I love to run with different people and chat and listen to them and sometimes try to take their mind off of the run, but today I pretty much ran alone simply so no one would have to listen to me b@tch! I mean really, nobody cares and when you have to hear it 2 or 3 timies you REALLY don't care. So I kept makig deals with myself, "okay, you go this far and you can have a beer, this far and 2 beers, finsh this and we're going to have ribs and beer!" Which is not what I really need, given that I'm trying to drop this last 8 or so pounds off; but like I also preach, "you gotta reward yourself" so I caved and went the ribs & beer route and will just re-set at dinner tonight. Okay maybe re-set tomorrow, it was that miserable. Shows what a short memory we have; 18 months ago when I could barely cover 3 miles with grimacing every step, I swore I'd be happy if I could just run 3 miles pain free. I mean today wasn't PAINFUL, but the legs were DEAD, and if there's something that's deader than dead, that's what they were. On the good side there was this giant ball of fire in the sky that I haven't seen in a coon's age and I even got to wear my sunglasses today. Hard to look cool whining, though. The day even startd badly, I set the start time at 8:00 so I could sleep a little later (my wife was out of town) and still set the water out. Yep, bingo! at 4:00 I was awake....FOUR O'CLOCK!!!! So I laid there and dozed fitfully until 5:00ish - what does this have to do with running, not a dang thing, I'm just tired of complaining to myself so I'm spreading the love. One great thing about life though, is that each day, EACH DAY, we get to start over and correct our mistakes big or small, some take a little longer but like a Phoenix we can rise again. Tomorrow I'll rest and Monday I'll be rip snortin and rarin to go (when's the last time you heard "rip snortin"?). This Phoenix will be smiling at YOU on the road Monday!