Disclaimer: As a Brooks Run Happy Team member, I receive complimentary gear.
But...the RA flare that I mentioned in last week's rundown continued into this week. While I didn't let it stop me from doing anything, I was in a fair amount of pain at rest. You know...motion is lotion... and all that. While ibuprofen has been taking the edge off, I finally broke down and called my rheumatologist on Friday for a prescription for steroids.
It's been a long time since I've had to take steroids and as of today, I haven't started them yet. As you read this, I'm on a 'field trip' with my Trail Sisters in Whitewater, Wisconsin on the IAT. Canceled due to rain. I'll see how I feel and if I'm still hurting, I'll start taking them.
Stubborn? Yes. But I haven't had to curb my activities yet, so fingers crossed (and yes I can do that too) that this thing just burns itself out.
In spite of the flare, I had a great week on my feet! Read on...
I don't know if I'd call it a full-on RA flare, but this week I was really achy. I blame the ridiculous humidity that plagued us at the start of the week. Even with the mid-week temperature and humidity drop, the pain lingered on, but I just kept moving. You know what we RA warriors say: Motion is Lotion. It really does feel better once I get moving and it sure beats sitting on the couch all day. It was a crazy week at work and that was another reason for me to keep moving!
We're heating back up now, but this week provided me with some really nice weather for my runs. I've been struggling with running since Leadville. My foot injury hasn't helped either. Fortunately, the foot is improving. Between being able to run relatively pain free and having some cooler mornings this week, running has started to feel good again. I'm still going to follow up with the foot ortho, just to make sure everything is all good.
With no races on the calendar for the rest of the year, I'm currently not training for anything. I am working on building up my endurance to prepare myself for the Mammoth Challenge in October. I've got 43 miles to complete on the IAT and I only have 3 weekends free to devote to that. I'm determined to make it happen, and if you know me, you know that once I set my mind to something, I make it happen! Cooler weather will definitely be my friend. Stay tuned for that!
I'm going to apologize in advance for this very long post--I missed last week while I was out of town attending Brooks' Hype Fest, so you get a 2 week recap. With Michelle as my witness, I did bring my laptop to California, with every intention of posting last Sunday. But in the evening when we returned to our room, we were both so exhausted that we literally passed out. I shared a daily recap on IG and even that felt inadequate--we just did so much in the 4 days we were out there. I recapped it all on a blog post, which you can read HERE. My RHT teammates continue to post recaps on IG and while I am amazed at everyone's creativity, looking at their posts, I can hardly believe everything we packed in those 4 days!
The smartest thing I've done in a long time was to work up until the day I left for California and then to take the week off work after returning home. This gave me a chance to rest and regroup. It was really nice to have time away from work to focus on other things--and there was a lot going on that needed my attention.
Most importantly, I came home to a sick little pup. Cocoa is going to need surgery on that other ear and I am bringing her to the UW Madison vet school for her appointment on Monday to discuss the plan. I'll share more details next week.
I had my foot ultrasound on Thursday. The pain has been improving and I can run on it, but it still lets me know that it's not right. Interestingly, the radiologist who scanned it told me that there was no plantar plate tear (woot!) and no neuroma (double woot!). There was some fluid around the joint and he suspects a bad bone contusion from when I landed on the rock a few weeks ago. I still need to talk with my ortho to confirm, but this is very good news. Obviously, I would have liked an answer, but at least all the bad stuff is ruled out and hopefully, I'll be back to normal soon.
Disclaimer: As a member of the Brooks Run Happy Team, I received a trip to Brooks Hype Fest and Brooks running gear. This is my recap of the event, but all my opinions are my own. This post contains an affiliate link.
After my experience at last year's Brooks Run Happy Camp, I didn't know how Brooks could top it, but--spoiler alert-- this year they did better by a long shot. The organizers said they took all our feedback from last year to make this year an even better experience. They also changed the name of the event to Brooks Hype Fest, which I just realized as I was writing this, as a way to tie the event in with the launch of their new Hyperions. All the RHT members were receiving a pair at the event but had to work for it, as I'll share below.
Let's get to the recap!
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