These Last Few Weeks

I had a pretty good stretch of consistently posting weekly logs since I started this blog.  I probably only missed one or two weeks.  Even after I got the stress fracture I kept them up, sad though they might be.  Apathy finally got the best of me and it's been a while since I posted anything so I figured I'd give an update.

After six weeks of no running, I finally began to work some running into my walks (4 minutes of walking / 1 minute of running).  This went well and the next week I upped it to two minutes.  This also went well but then on that Friday after the walk/run I felt that familiar stinging/burning sensation in my leg.  The feeling hung around for a couple hours and bummed me out.  I didn't run for a few days and when I picked it back up it seemed alright.  I took a little extra time to get to up to three minutes of running and I seemed to be back on track.  But for the last couple days I've felt that same stinging sensation on and off.  It's not particularly painful or debilitating but it's there and that worries me.  I've done some reading and it may just been residual sensations as the bone repairs itself.  Or maybe it's not.  It's hard to say.  I've been going back through Jim Johnson's blog for inspiration as he was dealing with something similar last year.  After posting this I'll probably go out for a short trail run to see how it goes.

My planking has sort of shit the bed as I got derailed by a vacation week and then a work-from-home week where I took care of Amanda who's recovering from shoulder surgery.  Last week some weird neck/back pain has cropped up out of nowhere so that's been another annoyance to deal with.  But I'm working towards getting back into the planking regimen as it's good exercise.

In other news I got to watch Ezri run at the Clamdigger 5k.  She had previously run a 5k last year at Ninigret in 40 minutes.  Since then she's being doing the running club twice a week before school so I knew she'd be faster.  But she ran a 30:43 which blew me away!  She finished third in her age group (1-13) which is pretty good considering she's seven!  I was a very proud papa - she ran the race by herself and I only got to cheer from the sidelines.  Sub 10 minute miles!

I also worked the aid station at the Big River 1/2 Marathon.  I was pretty disappointed to miss this race as it's one of my favorites but I was glad to help out.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone come through and I ended having a really good time.  Definitely something I'd like to do again at for future races.

So that's where I'm at.  Hopefully my leg is on the rebound and these sensations I'm feeling are a normal part of the healing process.  I feel like I did my due diligence by taking six weeks off and then ramping it up very slowly so if I have to take another long hiatus I won't be thrilled.  I was hopeful to be back to full strength for the Beaver race and the Blessing.  Time will tell.  These are minor setbacks in the big scheme of things so I'm going to try to focus on the positive and enjoy whatever adventures come my way.

Drink and Be Refreshed