This is the longest I've ever had dead time on my blog. After Zane Grey on April 21st, I knew I needed to give my right anterior tibial tendon time to heal. It had been bothering me since Old Pueblo, and it flared up around mile 23 at ZG. I finished the race, but it was pretty painful. I went over a month without any running at all.
In addition, I left my job after 11 years and took a job where I am now supervising 7 people. It has been a huge adjustment. I am so much happier with this job, but I'm working a lot more (for now). I also went on 3 trips - one to Jerome with Dallas to celebrate one year of being married on May 22nd, and then to Arkansas for a family reunion and to New Orleans for my 27th class reunion (multi-class).
Not much time for blogging.
I've finally returned to running, but it has been slow. I've been cycling and slowly working up my running mileage to make sure I don't aggravate my shins (prone to shin splints) and to prevent the tendonitis from recurring.
We went mountain biking in Flagstaff one month after ZG, which was really fun (we rented bikes at Fort Tuthill). Dallas did a nice cartwheel off of the bike shortly into the ride, but he was okay.
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| Bike was a size too big, but it worked. |
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| Whoops. Cartwheel. |
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| We stayed at the Ghost City Inn in Jerome for our anniversary |
My first trail run post-injury was 6 weeks after ZG. I was the RD for this TTR run, but I got in 7 miles running/hiking. I was pretty happy to be back on the trails. Sunset, Lower Aspen and Marshall Gulch trails. I went from Sunset TH to the saddle, which is a good climb.
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| I love socializing with other runners |
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| Getting ready to head back down the mountain. |
By the end of June, I finally worked up to 10 miles on Sunset, Lower and Upper Aspen and Marshall Gulch trails. We went from Sunset TH to the top of Mt. Lemmon and back down ~ a couple of thousand feet of elevation gain.
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| Not too many downed trees, but a few |
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| Not a good trail run unless I fall, right? |
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| Spirit feels good back on the trail |
I've since worked up to 14 miles on the trail and everything feels good so far; no sign of past injuries recurring. Onward training for a Grand Canyon R2R2R, which I'll be doing in late October.
The desert is in bloom in the heat of the summer. My Cereus night-blooming cactus showed four blooms at once the other day. The blooms last last than a day. Beautiful.
