Fitness & Funness

It took awhile to fill the running shoe sized void in my life, but I can honestly say that I'm now in a really good place mentally and physically. To keep fit and sane during almost eight weeks off running, I've been swimming, biking and working on my strength and balance.

I also spent a couple weeks in France...

Supporting Team Canada in Annecy at the World Trail Championships

Consuming waaaay too much yummy French breads, cheeses, wines etc.

Relaxing on the Mediterranean coast in Cassis.

Visiting the local markets. Mmmm...olives...

Biking to the top of Mount Ventoux.

And through quaint little villages.

If you ever tear your meniscus and LCL and need a place to go for rest and rehab, I'd highly recommend France! ;) I'm now 10 weeks out from my initial injury and my knee has healed well and is now stable enough to allow me to start running again - yay! Not a lot, and not very quickly, but it's great to be out on the trails.

I'm also finally making progress with the chronic hamstring and glute pain that has plagued me for over a year. In my unofficial quest to have every healthcare professional in town assess my ass at some point, I'm working with a couple of new therapists who are trying different treatments that seem to be helping.

My biggest issue seems to be a curve in my spine (also known as scoliosis) that is pinching the sciatic nerve. The hope is that if the alignment in my hips and spine is improved it will reduce the sciatica and the pain will disappear. Fingers crossed this new approach works!

It's probably completely foolish and premature to even start thinking about races when I've only got two weeks' worth of runs logged on Strava, but I am. Since I had to withdraw from this year's UTMB (due to the injury issues mentioned above), I'm without a Western States qualifier for the 2016 lottery. This would be my fifth consecutive WS lottery and I really don't want to lose those tickets so I'm tentatively eyeing up Javelina 100 as my qualifying race.

There are a couple of other Fall events that I'm considering if the next 6-8 weeks of training goes smoothly and my body stays happy. (As happy as it can when preparing to run 100 miles!?) I've been told it could take up to a year before my knee is 100% so I've adopted a wait and see approach to everything, including racing.

For the rest of the summer, my plan is to enjoy as much activity as I can - in whatever form I feel like. It's actually really fun to train like a triathlete without actually having to do triathlons. :)

I'm also hoping to spend some time in the mountains with this girl.
(And Dave too, of course!)

I wish everyone a happy summer full of adventures!

If you like reading running blogs, you might enjoy Pam Smith's recent post Coming Back from the Dead. I've never met Pam, but she's on my list of random people I'd like to drink beer with.