OK, the 2024 Lumber Through Hell Tour is temporarily on hold while I let my foot heal from whatever is wrong with it.
I’m not happy about that, but as luck and hard work with the O.G. Mindbender would have it, I know I have choices and options, and one of those options is riding my gahdamn bike
Part I: Pain and Miles
It’s been a month since the Dog Dirt Incident, and while my foot is void of all bruising, the pain and swelling are the same, if not worse.
I know it’s going to be May this week, but here in mid-Michigan, it finally feels like spring. Sort of.
Friday’s lumber was a tough one, and I felt sluggish the whole 6.96 miles. So sluggish that I didn’t have another .04 miles in me to hit a perfect 7.
I really don’t think I ate enough the night before, having made some pasta that, by the time it was ready, I really didn’t like (Why do I always fall for the allure of red sauce pasta?). And my morning’s breakfast wasn’t that filling as I opted to not make a breakfast burrito for the first time this week.
After nursing multiple injuries (foot/back/knee), I finally got my body sorted out and finished off my first 30-mile week of lumbering since mid-March, getting in 30.10 miles in 5 days, and it felt damn good!
Even with last week’s Dog Dirt incident(s), I managed to get 21 miles in my feet (one of them black and blue at the time). I could have probably got my 30 in, but I was worried about doing too much, too soon, in regards to my knee.
Crap iPhone photo.
Monday Morning
This past weekend was another “lost” weekend, with no hiking or indoor Whooshing but lots of YouTubed stretching and isometric exercises done in an attempt to get my knee feeling better.
Now it’s Monday morning, and admittedly, my knee is feeling much better, but a return to the woods is going to be delayed further due to driving Wifey to and from an outpatient test she’s having done that will have her briefly sedated. There’s been no mention of whether I can get sedated, too, but I am hopeful. ‘C’mon, Propofol!
After having my weekly mileage goals temporarily stymied by winter, I was stoked to complete my fourth 30-mile week in a row on Friday, with three of the four weeks completed in just five days, leaving me to contemplate the need to increase my weekly goal. Or just continue to recover and slack my ass off when the weekend comes.
With 30+ miles in my feet in 5 days, I took all of last weekend off to recover and do basically nothing other than watch football, make a variety of food, and listen to music as I swilled Centennial IPAs and yelled at the match announcers on the TV. Basically, it was like any other afternoon, except I didn’t lumber either day.