injury temporarily sidelines wannabe athlete

On Thursday I went on a long run in the cold.  Actually is was my best run in a while as far as pace is concerned.  While road running takes it out of body much more than running on the trail, I was in the zone and took it out hard near my house. 

When I woke up on Friday morning my right foot was in terrible pain.  As a triathlete, I can take a fair amount of pain but something was different this time.  Soreness is part of training, but pain doesn’t usually enter the equaltion. 

Now I don’t make a living by racing, so my hope is that I learn from this experience to set some limits on training intensity, but somehow I don’t think I will keep it in check for very long.  I think I have some sort of sickness that makes me want to be uncomfortable.  Why else would I run in the cold, rain and on the unforgiving roads?  I feel soft even for sitting down at the computer to write this post when I should be digging it out, outside, doing something. 

I’m not sold on the runner’s high as the reason to keep me in this sport.  I don’t even really get into with my family about the training, so there is no real glory there.  Actually, my kids would rather have me as their go-fish partner rather than some althlete.

So why do it?  The physical benefits are maximized early on so that the extra miles mean virtually nothing.  Everytime I train there is a little voice that tells me that I’m weak so I’m out there trying to tell the voice what’s what.  Is the voice me or is it something else? 

Why do ya’ll work hard at something?  Is it money, respect, making up for something else in life?