On the mend...

I haven't been the best blogger lately and I think part of it is that I'd rather not write sometimes than having this turn into me just being negative all the time about running. I've just been very frustrated lately and it seems like my progress will be moving along nicely and then bam! something else happens and I feel like i'm back at square one again. Everything else has been great lately...it's just this running stuff. Argh.

I think the last time I wrote, I was talking about my migraines and neck/back issues. It eventually went away after a straight week of them...funny, this is exactly what happened to me for about a week last summer while training for Transrockies. Anyhow...because of all the pain I was in I didn't run for 9 days which is not really a big deal. So then last week I managed to get 2 easy runs in and another cardio day but I was having serious issues with my left hamstring that i pulled/tweaked over a month ago during hill repeats. It was so bad/tight/sore last week that I couldn't jog across the street to get the bus! After that I was just fed up and took another 4 or 5 days off from running.

Easter Sunday rolled around and Andrew and I got up at 4:30am...with maybe 3.5 hours sleep...and left Calgary by 5:30 for a day ski trip to Revelstoke...yup, you heard me correctly...for. the. day. For those of you that don't know...Revy is a 4 hour drive from Calgary (and yeah, it was actually worth it!!). We had wanted to camp or stay with a friend of his that lives there but there was the issue of putting Logan somewhere. If you don't plan things well in advance, there's no way you'll get a vacancy at a kennel on a long weekend! We actually ended up getting there about an hour early because we forgot about the time change. Anyhow, it was a really fun day and we found some amazing powder in the back bowls. I of course, had no idea what I was doing and took quite a few spills in the fluffy stuff! I'm not used to skiing in quite so much powder and not being able to see your skis at all lol. Plus Andrew tells me i'm not going fast enough to get through it which is another huge problem of mine...going fast...freaks me out. But what can I say...i'm still 10x a better skier than I was at the start of the season so at least i'm improving!

After enjoying some beer on the patio at the end of the day with Andrew's friend, we left around 4:30 for the long drive home. The worst part about driving back is the time difference makes you get home even later than you'd like. We were back to Calgary by 9:30pm and in bed within the hour. Poor Andrew had to get up and go to work the next day while I did not. I'm not really sure what the deal is with "Easter Monday" anyway but i'll take the holiday!

Needless to say...monday I was exhausted. When I got up, I actually looked like I had gotten punched...both eyes were puffy as heck and I just looked all around like crap! I ended up eating breakfast, walking Logan, and then back to bed till noon. By then I looked a lot more like myself. The rest of the day was spent relaxing with Logan and catching up on mounds of laundry, chores etc.

That brings us to the rest of my week...and back to some kind of running routine...finally. I have run the past 3 days in a row...easy runs of course...with each day feeling a little better than the next. My body actually feels like it's forgotten what it's like to run so much...even though "so much" is really not that much compared to what i've gotten used to over the past year. My hamstring was super duper tight and sore on tuesday but i've just allowed myself to stop and stretch every couple of kms which helps and then stretch and roll it after the run. Today I only had to stop and stretch it once and it finally feels like it's getting better.

And you know what's the best part? My foot is turning out to be a rockstar. I think all of this other rediculous time off i've had to take has helped and all of a sudden i'm running 3 x 9-10km runs in a row with zero foot pain...and virtually no pain after the run. Today as I was running along I kept thinking...wow, I had actually forgot what it felt like to run on two good feet...freaking awesome is what it was.

I'm sad to say that I won't be doing the Police half marathon in a few weeks...but as long as i'm running pain free then i'm just happy to get out there for a run no matter how long or short or fast or slow it is. The Seattle marathon will also be iffy so we'll see over the next month how I feel about still doing that. Again, i won't mind bailing on that race either if it means I can trail run and hike all summer long!

Anyhow, that's about it for me! I have another long weekend this weekend which i'm pumped about. Lucky Andrew is headed off on a cruise on saturday for a friend's wedding...while I'm headed off to Sunshine for a day of skiing with some work friends. It will likely be my last day of skiing this season so i'm going to soak it up!

Have a great weekend!