Getting back on the horse...

After finishing the Disney Marathon last week I really wasn't sure how long I'd wait to run again. The few days following the marathon I felt minor soreness in my legs, but mostly the post-marathon pain was in my ankles. My injured left Achilles tendon was swollen very slightly, which I believe was a sign of mission accomplished as in not causing my injury to become worse. My right foot was moderately swollen. This was new and I'm not sure why this happened. The only thing I can think of was the extending amount of time I was pounding pavement with Harrison. I expected the race to take about four and a half hours at our intended pace, but with the curve ball of Harrison's cramping we finished just shy of six hours. That's an hour and a half longer than I expected and nearly two and a half hours longer than my longest recorded run. After a few days the swelling went away and my right foot looks normal.

Saturday morning I decided it would be a great idea to go surfing. I counted the days since I last surfed and it was something crazy like 13 or 14 days. That is simply not acceptable. With the air temperature finally back up to around 70 (we had 13 days of below freezing nights here in Florida) it seemed like a great opportunity. First thing in the morning I threw my performance 9'0" Walden and a 5'10" fish in the back of the pickup truck and headed off to the inlet feeling like I was prepared for anything! The beach was barren and the wind was kicking out of the southeast, or pretty much onshore. There are dead fish scattered all over the beach. I notice several large Snook that would have looked better on my dinner plate. The water got so cold it killed them. The waves looked ridable, but not fun at all. Not a soul in the water at the inlet. I text Norton to see if he wanted to surf with me only to learn he was too hungover to make it (the night before was his best friend's Bday party). Hmmmm, paddling out alone in less than ideal conditions and super cold water... not sounding like such an great idea anymore.

I continue on to the inlet and look on the inside of the rocks. There are two kayaks and a SUP guy out there. It's a small right breaking wave sheltered by the rocks from the wind. I consider it. I get out and walk down to the water. It's so freaking cold that it almost feels like it's burning my feet. I check the report on my phone and it says the water is 49 degrees. I have booties, but still they're only 3 mm and my suit is a 3/2. Us Florida boys aren't geared up for water this cold! Mission to go surfing = FAIL.

I return to my garage and work out.

On Sunday the Girlfriend (I've got to come up with a better alias for her because she's so awesome) and I headed out to the Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve that's just a few miles from my house. I really wanted to share this park and all its super fun riding/running trails with her as it's one of my favorites. We did the entire 7-mile loop on my two mountain bikes and it was a blast! We even saw a family of wild hogs carrying one of those cold killed fish from the river up into the woods. We rode past some trail runners and all I wanted to do was run the trails rather than ride them. I guess I really am a runner after all?

On Monday (yup, TallGuySurfing took MLK Day off from work!) I took her to the Smyrna Dunes Park to run the boardwalk. This is another favorite place of mine to go running. It's also right next to one of my favorite surfing spots so I get to scout the beach as I run by on the boardwalk. We did 2.5 loops, which amounts to about 4 miles. We didn't time ourselves, but just ran at a good clip and chatted away with great conversation (some exciting running/travel plans are in the works). Oh and by the way, that gnarly onshore wind from Saturday flip flopped to offshore and blew the ocean so flat it looks like Lake Atlantic so the surfing dry spell continues. Later in the day we did a session of Bikram Yoga. I was hesitant to do it at first because I was concerned it would exhaust the Girlfriend so much (it was her first time) that it might be dangerous for her to drive home late at night, but she insisted. I was also worried she might not like it since she does normal yoga often, but she totally rocked it and loved it!

So there you have it. In two days, I mountain biked 7-miles of rough trail, ran 4 miles at the beach and did 90-minutes of Bikram yoga all with someone truly amazing. Now that's how I get back on the horse after running my first marathon! I'm so stoked to have found someone that shares the same energy level as me and many of the same passions. I cannot remember the last time I was this happy! I have a feeling ya'll are going to be hearing more about her in future posts!

Happy Tuesday everyone!