Across the Alps 2012 or maybe later...

If you type in "ending the hiatus" in Google, you get 5.950 hits. Most of them refer to blogs and bloggers ending their hiatuses and engaging again with lifting, feminism, higher ed marketing, myspace or autism. In many of these blogs the blog post "Ending the Hiatus" is amongst the last of the blog posts. In German we call this "Panikblüte" - a last and final blossoming of nature and life during a dry spell before it all comes to an end.

"Hiatus" comes from the Latin word "hiare", meaning "to stand open, to yawn" and in English its plural is not only really, really "hiatuses", but it is also a nifty little word that can refer to a long syllable break between two vowels (like in the Tagalog word "Oo", meaning in English "yes"), a gap in geological strata, the opening in an organ, a vacation or break from work or the condition of having such a break.

You get the point: I had a hiatus and I haven't got many excuses. How I wish it would have been a gap in geological strata or the opening of an organ! But alas - it was merely the condition of having an idle, simple, very long and open yaaaaaaawn. Sometimes a yawn can take months to conclude.

My two prime excuses are a) having had to stop running in the end of July due to problems in the fricking Achilles tendon, and b) issues with the hip joint when I tried again in late August. Both of these experiences kind of got me down a little and for a while I pretty much stopped worrying about running all together and thought and did other things...

Now, some of you might think now that this is the end of my little self-deceiving megalomaniac plan of running across the Alps. Not so! No no no! I have simply taken some time to build up the motivation to build up the courage to build up my training again! Sometimes even a runner needs a good, open and long yaaaaawn to stretch the jawbones and sing along: You can manufacture a miracle!

Yes, I'm still sticking to the plan. Only now with less time and greater pressure to actually do the qualifying runs in 2011. So do give me some motivational speeches, emails and facebook messages, will ya!

Before you start yawning quite openly - here's the plan for December and early January:

1) Find a good orthopedic surgeon to prescribe me new orthotics.
2) Find a good fitness studio to help me build the trunk and support musculature.
3) Slowly start building the running again, supported by swimming and occasional water jogging. Today I already did a 8.6k run - wheeee...