Welcome Back Max

Welcome back Max.  It's good to hear that you are back to enjoying running. I would actually like to hear more about the logic of your hiatus.  The psychology of "on" and "off" is currently very interesting to me, as right now, I'm struggling a bit with motivation, and I'm not sure why.  Okay, I'm not entirely mystified.  At the moment I'm wrestling with the aforementioned hamstring pull that is proving to be more stubborn than I had hoped.  Every marathon has its "lurker," and this has turned out to be a good one. I went straight from a really fun 10x400 with lots of optimism about the future to old mr. gimpy again.  I've managed to hold it together with spinning an swimming, but each time I try to run again, the microtear, sciatica, or whatever it is reasserts itself.  This week, even the motivation to improve my swimming, which had been keeping me going, has fallen off.  I have truly fallen into a winter slough of despond.  I find it mystifying that the same brain that finds joy in running long miles to train for a marathon or a tri can fall into a pattern where even swimming for 40 minutes seems like a chore . . .  Oh well, it's January.  Max, talk me out of this . . .