Failure Is Not An Option

Jan. 6, 2013

Today I'm still 194 pounds of rolling thunder.

I think somebody out there is trying to tell me something.  Maybe it's the running gods. Maybe it's karma. Maybe it's just serendipity. But somehow I'm sensing a theme here.

I received two inspirational quotes today and both had to do with learning from mistakes or failure.

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."
Unknown

"The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way."
Dale Carnegie

I hate to admit it, but I failed to listen to my aching back last week and have paid the price ever since. My tweak became an ache and the ache a pain and then a major pain. For a few days after "powering" through my tweak and running anyway, I've been dealing with the effects of an aching back.

And while the back is improving daily, it has been one step forward and two steps back as I continued to try and run/walk my way to recovery.

So after giving in and just walking on Friday and not running, I decided to scrap the pounding that running (and even walking) can do to your back and head down to the stationary bike. I've had a lot of success using the bike to work through injuries and it's a good low-impact way of maintaining fitness while working on keeping a full range of motion.

Riding the bike is great cross-training as well. I promised myself this winter I'd get on the bike more, by the siren's song of the road keeps calling me back to the mean streets and away from the friendly confines of my basement and the stationary bike.

Still, there's nothing like getting out on the road and achieving the feeling of exhaustion that comes with running. Nothing like drawing those deep breaths as you go over the top of a hill or race to the finish of a 5-miler.

But I know better days are ahead if I continue to go slow and listen to what my body is telling my brain. That's hard to do for runners, and I'll loosely lump myself in with that group even if I am the world's slowest human.

Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

So hopefully I can learn something from my mistakes and will be back on the road soon. After three or four days of Einstein's brand of insanity, I'd like to think I've made progress by changing my plan.

So when you see back on the road, give me a wave.