Dates: 9/26/22 – 10/2/22
Training Week: 5
Miles: 42.1 (running) + 9.2 (walking)

Commentary: This week, I didn’t feel like working. Okay, I never really feel like working, but I do it. This week, I didn’t want to do it. So, I took a bit of a “working vacation” where I did work, but I did easy, mindless stuff, kind of like busy work.

Monday was the INL Safety and Health Fair. They were serving pulled pork sandwiches for lunch with ice cream for dessert, so of course I went. Aside from just stuffing my face, I also perused the booths. One of the INL physical therapists there. On his computer screen was a video of the bottom half a skeleton running.

The skeleton had dots around its hips, knees, ankles and feet. Swirls of blue and red were created each stride. I asked the doc about it, and he told me that’s how they did their running analysis. Mind blown! At that point I regretted not contacting the work PT docs when the VA was taking forever to approve more visits. As soon as I got back to my computer I emailed the doc to make an appointment. His first availability was October 24th, but it’s better late than never.

I definitely had some sort of bug last week that I must have gotten over because my Tuesday run was absolutely wonderful. I even tried out my new waist light, and it gets the job done quite nicely. My Wednesday interval run was amazing. I felt so strong and so fast.

The last two miles of my interval run was just running with no intervals. During that time I was logged into a work meeting and listening in with my headphones. Those last two miles flew by because I was distracted by the meeting. It gave me the idea to download an audiobook and/or podcasts for my 50-miler in case I need a distraction from the pain and misery. I’m hoping to find something funny to keep me smiling and laughing because that always makes running easier.

Thursday was easy run day, and it felt good. My weekend run schedule got a little wonky because I had a race on Saturday and was supposed to go on a ten-mile hike with a friend. So, on Friday, I did Sidewinder. Let me tell you, doing Sidewinder not after a long run is so much easier! I felt amazing the whole time. And bonus, there was no wind that day!

On Saturday, I ran the Bogus 15-miler in Boise with a friend I met during Beaverhead. We chatted the entire race. It made time go by so fast, and all of sudden we were crossing the finish line. Neither of us were trying to push ourselves. The goal was to have fun and run, which is exactly what we did.

During the drive back to Idaho Falls my hiking friend informed me that we should reschedule our hike because of the rain. Not that it would rain on us, but that it was raining where we were planning to hike all day Saturday. Hiking on muddy trails destroys them, so we’re shooting for next weekend instead.

Since I still needed to get miles in on Sunday but was surrounded by muddy trails, I pondered what to do while continued our drive home. My husband was golfing on Sunday morning, so I decided to walk around with him. He played a second round, so I walked with him again. It was a nice change of pace.

In other news, I bought Lock Laces for all my running shoes. Regular shoe laces annoy me. One shoe always ends up feeling tighter than the other. And when I really tighten down on my laces for downhills the laces dig into my feet. I used Lock Laces on my thru hike, so I thought they might do me good for running as well. I’ve used them for three runs now, and my only regret is not trying them out sooner.

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