What Next ?

So I've taken this week to reflect, reevalutate and lament the loss of my marathon dream. I get sad driving past places on the marathon route, and I'm a little jealous of my friends who get to particpate at White Rock though it's not so much jealousy as that feeling of being left out of something, of wishing I could participate in that experience with them. I'm frustrated because I feel like I did everything right, I was careful, I followed my training plan, took 1 week off for vacation and missed exactly 1 run since June, and still I have to sit it out. I'm feeling a little directionless right now, since my runing focus is on hold. I've been so used to following my training schedule, and looking forward to each week's achievments that now I'm not sure where to put that focus. My body misses the release of physical activity. I need to something while I'm in the pre-surgery limbo, but the thought of getting up early to drive to the Y and attempt a workout in the musty, stale environment hardly instills motivation to leap out of bed in the morning. Plus I'm not even sure if the bike or the eliptical would be gentle enough not to still cause pain. I've got my Saturday morning swim class, but I need some other weekday workouts. Yoga is out, because there are too many poses that would kill my toe. So I think my options are swim, pilates and weights. Although none of it really thrills me yet. As for what to do post-Op, I'll have to evaluate that week by week.
I'll have to readjust my diet as well in the interim, since I won't be needing as many calories. I know it's all only temporary, but it doesn't take away the no-run blues just yet.
I'll be looking at the Spring race schedule and planning which ones I want to run, as well as researching different training plans. The good news is I'll have lots of time to really evaluate and choose what exactly I want to do. I'm putting the idea of training for a marathon on hold until next fall for a couple of reasons. The spring marathons I'm interested in are all in February, which would only give me 12 weeks to prepare for given best possible recovery time. That's not really ample time to come back after being off for 8 weeks. The fall marathons are the best in my opinon, and I'll have plenty to choose from next year, (although most likely I will want to run White Rock and have that home field advantage). I can take the spring to run several short races, and sharpen up my speed, and really just have a season of fun. Something to look forward to.