You stupid monkey!

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  I took two days off from running over the weekend instead of my usual one, so when I hit the roads last night I felt like a billion dollars.  My legs were fresh and light, and after two days away from my favorite sport I was longing for that scintillating sensation of speed.  That was the best of times.  The worst of times came today when I paid the price for running harder and faster than I was really ready for.

Nothing in particular was injured, but every element in my lower leg was sore.  Every step of a very slow two miles was painful.  I guess I learned my lesson.  Some weird pains have been cropping up in my knees and hip, so that coupled with my obviously over-used calf muscles means I'm going to take a cross-training break for the next few days to let this die down.  Biking and swimming would be good for me right now, and after about two months of nearly uninterrupted running at rapidly increasing speeds a rest is probably past due.

P.S.  I had to throw this in here: