monday 8/16/10- 5.5 miles with gabbo at wildwood. hips a little sore, quads a little sore...legs overall pretty tired feeling from saturday, but deep down in their little leg-hearts, they were FINE AND DANDY. good deal.
tuesday 8/17- i'd say about 12 miles? i need to plug in my wizard-watch and have it portend some fucking cosmic star-hopping data. ran the first 5 or 6 with gabbo, but then she hopped on a bike for the South Otter Creek Out And Then Back Again TM. i ran about 7:30 miles out and then ran the return 3.5 miles at about 6:30/mile. so that was good. to be able to pick it up a bit like that at the end of a slightly longer run.
also, i gave up on cold turkey. i couldn't do it. at about 5am this morning, i signed myself up at a methadone rehab clinic. $75.00... after some lengthy interviews and some pee-pee in a jar, they gave me a 30mg dose of methadone. needless to say (i think), i felt pretty calm about the whole deal. NO, i'm not happy to now have opiates back in my system but YES, i'm thrilled to now be sleeping better, to have my heart back to beating at a normal rate and to be able to go about my goddamn business without thinking about how i'm going to get some drugs. on a serious note: this decision was very very hard for me to make, but as I sit here writing this on thursday after only three days of treatment, I know I made the right call. This withdrawal is too much for me to handle without real help. I thought I could just hunker down, be a dreary asshole for awhile and then POOF! come out on the other end all clean and smiles. however, i now realize that it's not that easy. at least, not for me. for one, even after almost two weeks of sobriety (more or less) I still had not gotten to a point where everyday wasn't a near-constant panic attack and the nights didn't last exactly 7 years. i was getting nervous that i wouldn't be able to handle my job, for example, let alone get any of my other shit together. this at least allows me the breathing room to stay on course for a more mentally and physically healthy life, sort out some of the issues that led to the drug abuse in the first place and then, with a doctor's help and the encouragement of my unbelievably supportive family and friends, I can ditch the rest of this stuff for good. I hope. Gabbo is so good to me, I can't fathom it. In no way do I deserve the amount of compassion and patience she has shown me. She basically gets duty-free head for the next year.
Wed- off.
Thurs- did a similar run to Tues. about 13 miles with the last 3.5 at about 6:30/mile.
Friday- off. Gabbo and I are going camping tomorrow morning in the Pinckney Recreation Area, north of Ann Arbor. Anticipating some great trail running, so it's time to rest up.
Saturday- 6.5 miles. We got to Crooked Lake campground in the late afternoon. The drive took a little longer than we thought and we drove to a couple different areas first, trying to figure out where the best place to camp would be for easy access to the trails. When I called Crooked Lake in the morning, they were booked up solid. However, we got lucky and one spot opened up by the time we got there. It was raining steadily while we set up the tent and canopy. Damp but determined, we hit the trails and made the most of the cool conditions. We did a loop around the Crooked Lake trail and then tacked on a quick loop around Silver Lake. In the interest of saving ourselves for a long run in the morning and having not eaten much all day, we kept the run fairly short and went into town to find something to eat. Never ones to plan, we had arrived at the campsite with a weird mix of assorted camping/running gear tossed un-packed into the back of the van and no food...just beer. After wandering around Hell/Pinckney and discovering that literally every one of their restaurants had long since closed down, we ended up driving another 10 minutes away to Zuckey Lake Tavern (or something like that). Luckily, they had veggie burgers and Anchor Steam on draft, worth the drive. Back at the campsite, Gabbo pulled out an inspired purchase: Le Petite Ecolier cookies (those flat, rectangular cookie-frames with the chocolate portrait of a school boy inset?). We used those to make hybrid s'mores. I will remember this speedy s'more making technique for future bonfires.
Sunday- awesome night of sleep. it was cool with light, almost mist-like rain. i woke up insanely early as usual, went for a much needed shit (the methadone has almost finally allowed my bowels to function normally again. sad thrill.) and promptly fell back asleep in our little cocoon. Finally, we got up around 8:30-ish, packed up all the stuff (read: threw it half-assedly back into the van) and headed back to the trailhead to start the famous Potowatami Trail. Again, our serious aversion towards planning had left us without "serious" distance running fuels (i.e. gels/sports drink) but I did pick up some strawberry licorice candy and fruit snacks...good enough!
The Potowatami is largely considered the best trail for mountain biking/running in SE Michigan and one the nicer trails in the state. On one hand, this is isn't saying much. While the rest of Michigan is very "outdoorsy" and has put in place some outstanding infrastructure (trails, camp sites, etc.) to facilitate some fucking rad environment loving, the southeastern corner has taken a slightly different approach towards Mother Nature (see: History of American Industrialization and for fun, this place). HOWEVER, i still think this trail stands as a serious motherfucker. You basically bob up and down over extremely steep uphills and downhills that are composed of either very knotty little twisty roots or fist-sized stones that feel like they are punching your feet to death when you run over them. in short, it was a super fun run and i can't wait to go back! yay!
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