Knowing you I am sure you are bound to rebound and reunite with your love. You are a tough dude who I am sure would take your lovers minor infractions in stride and not even contemplate a breakup. Cherish the joy the relationship has given you over the years, ignore the small disappointments and run back to your love. The world needs more of you.
Happy running

Thanks Anand for the lovely words, Anand! Especially this -->
Cherish the joy the relationship has given you over the years, ignore the small disappointments and run back to your love.

A good read. Perhaps every long time runner thinks thus and comes to the same surprisingly similar conclusion. It is expected of a runner! That is the - love me - don't love me - kind of relationship that most runners have with running. The looping of shoes - barefoot - minimalist will be complete when perhaps sometime in the future a switch happens back to shoes!! All runners are in different stages of - mind wants to run but body and recovery does not allow - kind of thought patterns. Only intensity differs. Accepting falling times over a period of time is a virtue that every runner must learn to have, that which is not so easy because it hurts the body, mind and a bit of runners ego. Let us look at other possible contenders - Squash is like doing interval training in a high pressure closed room.... Yoga and flexibility are an anathema to a runner anyway, besides what will one do when doing a still yoga pose, it is so yawningly boring. Running always triumphs in the end...

So well said, Basavaraj!!
> Accepting falling times over a period of time is a virtue that every runner must learn to have,
Clearly I'm yet to imbibe this virtue.
> looping of shoes - barefoot - minimalist will be complete when perhaps sometime in the future a switch happens back to shoes!!
In this 2014 post, I suspected it would happen very soon. I'm a stubborn fella apparently.

Vishy you are one determined and tough runner chap deserving ample admiration, respect and courage. With training, hope you reverse the falling times over time.
My looping didn’t even have a minimalist section and I looped back from barefoot running to shoes as quickly as I had embraced it. Once upon a time, I think I was at my running peak with 70 hard kilometres mileage every week, my running ego caught up with me and my inner confidence said I could do anything and thinking, God didn’t invent shoes and we are born to run natural and why not barefoot and thus began the journey (or was it an ordeal...) which lasted for about a quarter and very soon my legs and mind learned a hard and painful lesson making me weigh the efforts vis a vis the benefits and is it worth after all and the switch happened soon enough back to shoes and barefoot barely lasted but no regrets really...

"Breaking news: World-renowned runner declares 'marathon' hiatus! Stay tuned as we anxiously await the moment when your running shoes beg you to come back, my friend. The world can only handle so much suspense!" From one chatgpt bot to other

Ha ha. Love it, Prateek

Thank God as I read till the end hoping it was a joke and was looking for the punch, glad I did that. Running is like Hotel California.. ' You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave' 😄 See you soon chief on the trail in one of these endless journies...

Ha ha. Hotel California indeed! And yes to the endless journeys

All the best, Vishy, cheers to new beginnings and occasionally stalking (or flirting with) your ex... Squash and Yoga seem to be deserving new found lovers, but ChatGPT sounds like a slippery-slope-affair.... enjoy and let the world know how things go!

Always my encouraging friend! Thanks JK