Taking a Break

This is the funniest shit!!!
The top pieces for Jackson Hole about fear are classic!

There you are.
Facing Fear.
It's beady-eyed and hairy.
Taunting.
And then it occurs to you.

Hey, Fear would make a pretty good fur coat.

I don't know where Jordan is these days - haven't seen him in months. He is wacky - wackier than ME - but in a good way!

I haven't done anything. Going through some strange body reactions. My feet have been hurting, in an injurious way. Since my mileage is decreased significantly, it didn't seem logical that it could be an overuse injury. Both feet have been exhibiting signs of imminent injury. Logical or not, I decided to take a REAL, TOTAL break for several days. Not my normal "break", meaning a reduction from 50-100 miles per week down to 20, but a switch to non-running, and not even much walking, except to do errands in the 'hood.
Without my usual activities, my usual diet, sleep, and mental routines are in disarray.
I don't care if my feet hurt, it's just that if they hurt in the wrong way (too consistently), or too much, then I want to wait until the issue declines. I don't want plantar issues, bone spurs, or fractures. Stress in bodies isn't just a short-term thing. It can build over an entire season, which I think is what's going on here.

The way I've been feeling lately, looking back to the mileage I was doing in May, June and July, every day an epic weekend, it's hard to fathom. Was that ME?!?! 'Cause REALLY - I don't feel like the same guy!
Maybe it's nothing more than diet. I've been a naughty boy since the Boulder 100. In fact, I had an ice cream shake yesterday.
And Lisa Bliss says the short days of this time of year have a profound affect on mind/body. I need to try sticking to eating right and getting sufficient quantities of sunlight.
I might also join a gym. Yeah, I know, it's indoors, but that's better than staying home all the time. I still need my endorphin fix, right?

Other than that, my hair is less gray. My grayness has been an odd thing. Since I no longer spend much time looking backwards, it's now hard for me to remember when my first gray showed, but I do remember it was pre-mature grayness that resulted from me scarring the shit out of myself up on a mountain. The gray started showing up a few weeks later and eventually went away. I think that might have been in my late 20's.
That was the pattern for about a decade. Climb a mountain, scar the shit out of myself, then the gray would come, and then it would go.
But then it stopped going away. Scaring myself too frequently, stressful job, stressful marriage, older age, and the gray was there to stay. But the gray would vary from significant to light.
The current level of gray, though, is unprecedented. The gray isn't gone, but my last haircut seems to have gotten rid of most of it, and I'm wondering if my beard really is darker or if its my imagination?

Stress in my life has fallen off considerably since I started running. Or maybe it's just that running helps me cope with my pathetic, fucked-up life? Keeps me from dwelling on it.
Job situation - I used to have a high-stress machinist job. Screw up and I could get injured, trash thousands of dollars in an instant, and worst-case could lead to an airplane crash resulting in the deaths of dozens of people. My bosses and co-workers were too often jerks.
Now I have a job that allows only a tiny bit of creativity, and I have very little authority. I've even quipped that "I'm not even at the bottom of the totem pole. I'm not on the totem pole at all. I'm one of the rocks shoved up against the bottom of the totem pole to keep it from falling over." But man, they sure do appreciate me - and I appreciate them! And now that hundreds-of-thousands of workers are losing their jobs, I appreciate mine even more!
Relationships - I'm no longer involved in any jacked-up relationships. In fact, I've refused to even go there - with ANYONE! That whole arena has been such a life-time complete failure, and now I have no stress there, that I've not been willing to step up to the plate again.
I have an incredible son. He gets nearly straight-A's, he composes his own music, he designs stuff, he gets along with kids in school, and he's fun to be with.
I have at least one really good friend, and tons of acquaintances, and they are all high-quality people. There is so much quality influence on me these past few years, it seems that no matter how jacked-up I've been, if I stay-the-course, how can life go back the way it was? I'm doomed to succeed!