I’ve been hesitant to write these words, as I have an outsized fear of jinxing myself: I’m making progress!

After Badger Mountain Challenge 50K, I told myself I’d take a break from racing to give myself the chance to focus on strength training, core strength, and possibly even lose some weight. And then came the knee issues. And then I needed to get ready to ride the CFF Cycle for Life. And then I ran out of excuses. 😉 Continue reading →

Ah, blessed be the recovery week. Much-needed, too! And with the weather – more on this later – it’s well-timed. Continue reading →

I haven’t posted in a while because there just hasn’t been much to talk about. A few weeks ago, wildfire smoke from around the area moved into the Tri-Cities. Both air quality and visibility suffered. (At its worst, I think our visibility was down to not much more than a half-mile.) From my office window, I can see the wind turbines on Jump Off Joe; that’s about nine miles south of here as the crow flies. Until the air cleared, at best I could barely make out the ridgeline. Our temperatures were also in the triple-digits. This is the environment in which I started running again. Continue reading →

To clarify, the race itself is wonderful. I, however, was not. It wasn’t an awful race. It just wasn’t great. Continue reading →

I’d returned home Thursday because I had an appointment with the orthopedist Friday morning. Good news: it’s not arthritis. The MRI revealed three things “wrong” with my knee. Two of them are asymptomatic and I can ignore them. The third is some cartilage damage. It’s more of an abrasion than a tear. The doc would prefer I not run, but I can run. I pledged to start off easy, to stay off asphalt, and to monitor the pain. I go back in six months to see how things are going. I have the option of a steroid injection, but we’re going to wait until I need it; in this case, “need” means I can’t deal with the pain and it’s interrupting my life.

With that happy news, I finished packing the truck and returned to our campsite at Owhi campground. Continue reading →

I didn’t sleep much that night at Pete Lake. Perhaps it’s time to admit my tired old body can’t handle sleeping on an ensolite foam pad. I have some modifications I’d like to make to my Z Rest pad. If that doesn’t improve my sleep, I may have to pay the weight and cost penalty and start using a heavier but cushier sleeping pad.

I just weighed my old self-inflating pad. The Z Rest weighs a pound. The self-inflating pad weighs seven ounces more. I’ve had the self-inflating pad self-deflate, so I’m not crazy about it. But if it’ll hold air — Jim’s never had his self-deflate — I feel better about making the switch.  Continue reading →

Note: portions of this post were written earlier. Those sections were pasted in as written (with the exception of editing for clarity or glaring typographical errors), and they appear as blue.

Things I have said to myself today:
• It uses the sunscreen or it gets the hose.
• God, give me enough sense to know when it’s time to turn around.

I put on the sunscreen, and I had enough sense to know when it was time to turn around.
Continue reading →

Note: portions of this post were written earlier. Those sections were pasted in as written (with the exception of editing for clarity or glaring typographical errors), and they appear as blue.

Several weeks ago, The Hubs decided that we should go camping on the weekend before Independence Day. This is one way in which The Hubs and I differ: he’s very spontaneous. I am the neurotic-overplanner type. While we find our different approaches compliment each other, trying to camp on any summer weekend, especially a four-day holiday weekend, is something one must plan in advance. Months in advance. You may reserve a state park campsite nine months in advance. For holiday weekends, eight months, 29 days is too late. Campsites on Forest Service lands are also reservable; I’m just not sure how far in advance they may be reserved. I do know that every reservable campsite in the Salmon la Sac area was already reserved for this weekend. Continue reading →

I wrote the previous post – Ugh, And Ugh – yesterday. Alas, it would not post. I saved it as a Word document, and successfully posted it today. I’m writing this separately because my attitude has changed. Continue reading →

Race the River Triathlon is in six and half weeks and I’m really half-assing training. The worst part? It’s all self-inflicted. Some of my skipping training has a positive in it – self-care, tending to what needs to be done – but it’s worrying me, nonetheless.

I haven’t run in about four weeks. I have an appointment with an orthopedist next week to check out my knee. I believe I injured it back in February, but I continued training for the Badger Mountain Challenge. Both knees were on fire after the turn-around point in that race. I spent the next four weeks doing a lot of walking and short runs. I thought my knee was fine. Continue reading →