Updates!

No more debbie downer posts (I do feel bad for Debbie, she gets a bad rap for no apparent reason)...not that everything is perfect, but there is too much good to be happy about and dwelling on the bad is pointless. In fact I have learned in the past 4 months to take these challenges as opportunities to trust.   As my sister and now maid of honor :)  always says... "Life is beautiful, and life is messy all at the same time".

So good or bad you can count on me to write and not "hide" --  that leads us to 2 updates for you.

First, the most frequent question I get besides "how is running"...is "how is wedding planning going!!!!???? "
Now, for some reason I seem to have quite a few doubters on my wedding planning skills - like I am not domestic or something? :) But I will have you know we have a date, venue, wedding party, readers, church, priest, and theme!~  Boo yea!
The wedding party was very important to Justin and I, the day is about celebrating with a group of amazing people who helped us get to where we are.  So we put a lot of thought into it.  There are four people who have had a profound impact on my life- perhaps not during all of it, but during key stages/milestones.  So I sent each one a bracelet with the gift (which was one word) they have given me.  And then on the inside it said, "Will you meet me in Chicago on June 24th 2016?"  After some small mail issues (seriously any business acts like the post office and they would be bankrupt) - everyone received theirs and said YES! :)  Yea!

These are the 4 bracelets with the 'gift' on the outside and the date question on the inside!

Second, training update.  We are still not perfect but the goal is by July 1st to be 100%. The past 2 weeks we have made a lot of progress  - and with each day I grow stronger and more optimistic.  The key really was finding a PT who looked at the total body and selflessly has worked with me to rebuild the chain.  She has been my angel for sure, and I only hope to pay it forward to someone some day, some how.  We have been doing a lot of stretching (which seems odd for the ankle, but it works, because if your hips are tight it cascades down), laser therapy (I call this the magic wand), PT exercises, manual therapy, and wearing Yoga Toes (to straighten out my toes!).  All of it has led to close to pain free training!
Meanwhile I am building quite the base - which I probably never have really done well - but I have had 4 solid weeks in the 40's and now two weeks of quality 50 mile weeks.  My body feels better then it ever has, and the ankle is just so so close!  The heat is starting to crank, so we are up to run REALLY early, which means I have become the ultimate nerd and usually am OUT by 9 - COLD.

Monday= cross training day - Went to PT before my move (more on that in another post!) and did 45 minutes on this thing called "Jacob's Ladder" - BRUTAL.  But it helped build the strength of my feet.
Tuesday= 8 miles with some short strides to test it a bit, felt pretty good - tweaked ankle a tad on the curb (seriously I know) but actually I think that pushed everything back into place or something, as felt fine later?
Wednesday= 7 miles, ankle felt good
Thursday=10 miles, HILLY, tough route - great run, felt very strong - solid pace

Got to rejoin the team again too!

Friday=7 miles, felt pretty beat up, went hard on it yesterday - and realizing as mileage climbs, I feel more tired, probably need to add another hour of sleep in
Saturday=8 miles, feeling really good, barely felt ankle AT ALL - good clip on pace, and HR stayed very low
Sunday=Team Long Run at canal - 12 miles - longest in 4 months - just happy to be back, who care it was blazing hot :)-

Total for week: 53 - - feeling on track to start training again July 1 - just plain happy to be back with team too!

I wont do this every week for fear of extreme boredom on your part, but once in awhile for the running geeks out there :)

Until next time,
happy trails,
CB