Who, what, when, where, why

Yeah, not so creative in the blog title, lol.

So who am I and where have I been?  I am a very grumpy runner who is not supposed to be running right now and James says that I'm impossible to live with.  And you know what? He's completely right, sigh......

Today marked my 3rd DNS (did not show) of the year for the Grand Prix races so I was NOT in Russellville this morning.  Yep, 0/3 for the races, grrrr.  Last week was the 15k and I decided to show up early and cheer for all the racers.  Here's what I learned--the lead and the back of the pack runners kind of get screwed in the cheering department.  I'd never experienced that as a runner because except for one race I've always been squarely or near the front of the middle of the pack group from the time I started participating in races.  So please, anybody that is a spectator at races try and make an effort to cheer/clap/yell for everybody!!!!!!!!!  Some of the runners at the back of the pack just lit up at hearing somebody tell them they were doing awesome.  And guess what, they did do awesome no matter their time, they just completed 9.3 miles, that is a hella long distance especially as windy and cold as it was that day.

Why have I not been running (or rather not supposed to have been running)--that goes back to the sprained ankle from last month's trail run.  During the work week, I'm stuck behind the wheel of the truck for up to 11 hours a day and that's causing my ankle to stay swollen up around the knuckle bone :-(.  Once I come home after 36-48 hours the swelling goes down dramatically but that only lasts until I go back to work, then up it balloons again, sigh......  The ankle is still a bit stiff and achy but there's no dramatic pain, I have zero problems putting weight on it and I've even gone for 3-4 easy runs on very flat surfaces. However, I've had 3 online friends convince me that I needed to step back and take another 2 weeks off to see if I can get the swelling to go completely away.  I am soooooooo not happy because running quite simply is my stress reliever.

One quick PSA--if you have a canister of pepper spray that's at least a year old, BUY A NEW ONE ASAP!!!!  I had a bit of a run-in with a dog on Tuesday that I tried to use my pepper spray on only to find out it had completely gummed up.  Fortunately it turned out ok but it was a close call.

Details on the dog incident--I was running in an area new to me in Louisiana and had turned into a residential area where I was greeted by this very friendly chow-retriever mix dog.  All went well except the dog kept following me and when I tried to turn onto another street, she immediately became aggressive.  Literally jumping up on me nearly knocking me down several times then started "grabbing" at my hands with her mouth. Not hard enough to draw blood but it certainly wasn't comfortable.  Finally got away from her enough to backtrack and she immediately calmed down.  Not only did the dog calm down, she followed me for over 3 miles, couldn't get rid of her no matter what I tried. Dog even followed me back to my truck.  I guess she decided we had bonded......very, very weird.  I got cleaned up, went in for coffee and food & she's still waiting for me at my truck.  Not only did she wait,  she followed my truck out of the parking lot when I tried to leave out.  Heart-breaking really even after she nearly scared the crap out of me.  Irresponsible dog owners need to "enjoy" some jail or community service time, no reason for this kind of behavior.

Workout recap--I'm managing to get in at least 2 core workouts a week with the SPS Trifecta and it's visibly paying off. My upper body is starting to get some definition again instead of just being plain skinny :-).  I've also worked my way back up to 4 pullups in a set, that's not quite the 15 I could get consecutively last summer but the strength and muscle memory is returning. Hiked on Monday with 2 treks up water tower trail at Pulaski and my mileage is increasing on the trainer, yay!!!!!!!  So no more runs for at least 2 weeks and I think I will go get an xray/mri on Thursday if the ankle is still swollen.