Lots to write about today…

It’s been an interesting rollercoaster the last week. Lots of ups and lots of downs. As I’ve already discussed in my last couple posts, I had a foot injury occur last Sunday, that started the roller coaster; high = 14 mile run at a pace that would set a PR at my next half marathon, low = extreme foot pain immediately after. I spent all day Monday worried about a stress fracture. Luckily my wonderful doctor decided it was nothing more than an inflamed tendon in the top of my foot. She gave me some Naproxen to get the swelling down and directed me to not run or workout at all last week, along with icing my foot each morning and evening. She felt that this would keep me from missing my half marathon on 4/16. I followed directions, as hard as it was to put in zero miles; I had to keep the big picture in mind. These last couple days I’ve had no pain, and little stiffness, so I felt confident and ready as I got home from work today ready to get some miles. The plan was to use the treadmill so I wouldn’t be stuck miles from home with foot pain making it worse walking home, taking it slow and only running about a 5k. I started off with a 5 minute warm up walk at 3.4 mph to test it and everything felt great, so it was all engines go! I kept my run at a 6.0 mph speed (10:00 mile) and did 3.1 miles. My foot felt great the entire time!! The biggest problem I had was that after a week of no running even a simple, slow 5k was very taxing, but I have no doubt that if my foot holds up I’ll be back up to speed in no time. I still have strong hopes to PR with under 2 hours at the Wickedly Fast Half Marathon. Tomorrow morning I’m going for 4-5 miles to work back in slowly, but not TOO slowly.

Another down this week came Thursday evening. I have a husky named Dakota that is at least 10 years old. We don’t really know because he was a rescue dog. I’ve wanted a husky my entire life, so he’s got a special place in my heart. I let the dogs out, as always, when I got home from work Thursday, and he just wasn’t walking right. When he climbed up on the deck to start heading upstairs he stumbled, so I ran downstairs to help him. He has a hard time walking often but this seemed a lot worse than normal. About the time I got down to him he fell over and was having a seizure, well I thought it was a seizure. I called my wife who is a vet tech and told her what was going on and she told me to bring him up to her clinic. Turns out he had a stroke. He’s doing okay now; he’s getting a little better each day. He still (and probably always will) have a tilt to his left and has a bit of a hard time controlling his left side, but he’s happy as can be and continues to improve each day. Typical Kota, he’s milking the sympathy for all it’s worth! I know his time is limited, but as long as he’s happy I’m happy, so we’re just doing everything we can to keep him happy and comfortable.

Another high was this weekend. Yesterday was the Brew 2 Brew 44 mile race from Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City, MO to Free State Brewery in Lawrence, KS. I’m running it next year so I decided to volunteer at the finish line this year. Bonus was Team Ruhs (Ron & Bobbie) were running it! I had yet to meet them in person. Saturday night me, Kristy, Team Ruhs, Jolene & Larry Klein, Donnie Dempewolf (also ran it solo) and their support crew all when out to dinner. It was a great time and it was so much fun to meet so many great people!! Sunday was the race, and unfortunately for those running it was also our hottest day of the year so far. The temps got as high as 90 degrees and the winds were around 20 mph gusting up to 50 mph and straight into the faces of the runners. But all 3 made it through!! I was truly amazed and insprired by them yesterday! Not to mention, of course, that Ron & Bobbie just always have to convince me to do crazy things! Not that I fight much, I want to anyway I just like blaming them! So they’ve now gotten me roped into the Blue Springs 50k in October, and I have recruited Jill to join us as well. Of course, Jill, not to be outdone, is now trying to get us to kick that up to a 50 miler instead…  oh boy….