Lots going on this month, and we're only just starting to get to the busy season! Here are a few of our life updates:
If you remember, we discovered this new activity in Salt Lake City on our work-cation out West. Although they're not exactly the cheapest hobby (but far less than ALL other water sports), I bought 4 boards. I'm going to rent them out and do free demo days with them, so if you'd like to try it out, give me a shout! No one has fallen in yet. Since Fall is fast-approaching, Ben and I have spent every minute of our spare time at the lake on our SUPs (stand up paddleboards). It's a huge improvement from the pre-SUP weeks that I spent thinking about paddleboarding with every minute of spare time I had.... Needless to say, it was extremely exciting when the 11-foot long boxes arrived.
We've already gotten tons of questions and strange looks for boaters out at Lake Monroe. And yeah... it's nice to be out on the lake when it's not hot as blazes! Bloomington is extremely fortunate to have such a fun destination within a few minutes' drive.
"How do you get these things to the lake?" you ask. At Outdoor Retailer we also discovered a new product call Sea Sucker, which are essentially gigantic suction cups that attach to the roof of your car -- no special roof rack, no permanent installation required. It only takes a few minutes, and they're solid. They also make easy-to-install bike racks, too!
Ted Jones is a mini goldendoodle we are fostering while his owner (Danny, a friend of ours) lives in a pet-free apartment. Ted looks like a little teddy bear and is 75% miniature poodle, 25% golden retriever. He's barely older than 3 months, so he's still learning and testing us. :) And he wants nothing more than to play!!!
I accidentally caught some video footage of Ted hearing thunder for the very first time. Photos of him are adorable, but this video truly captures how much of a puppy he actually is. By the way - he adores this little stuffed puppy... he shakes and chews on it (and it squeaks) until he falls asleep snuggling it each night/afternoon.
Fozzie Bear (Ted's new nickname) weighs only 8 pounds, and is mostly fluff. Here's a wet Ted - isn't he tiny?! Even better, he doesn't aggravate Ben's allergies to dogs and pets any more than Todd does, which is minimal. Of course, we still keep a "safe room" for him if he has a reaction.
Meanwhile, Danny is great at taking fun pictures of Ted and getting him to sit still. Go check out some of his photos on Facebook, at Ted Jones Puppy (I love how he is listed as "Entertainer").
So why not combine two of the latest, most fun things in our lives? We did it.
We also taught him to swim by tempting him into the water from a boat ramp with pieces of hot dog.... this all happened before the paddleboard adventure. He didn't like going under his first time, but darn it! He wanted that hot dog! He got it, and learned to paddle.
Ted fell backwards off of a paddleboard a few minutes later. He had not actually swum (?!) by himself, without Ben holding him in the water at that point. Sink or swim? Puppy's head went under and before we could jump in and catch him, he came up paddling and staying afloat by himself in three feet of water! They grow up so fast....
If you remember, we discovered this new activity in Salt Lake City on our work-cation out West. Although they're not exactly the cheapest hobby (but far less than ALL other water sports), I bought 4 boards. I'm going to rent them out and do free demo days with them, so if you'd like to try it out, give me a shout! No one has fallen in yet. Since Fall is fast-approaching, Ben and I have spent every minute of our spare time at the lake on our SUPs (stand up paddleboards). It's a huge improvement from the pre-SUP weeks that I spent thinking about paddleboarding with every minute of spare time I had.... Needless to say, it was extremely exciting when the 11-foot long boxes arrived.
We've already gotten tons of questions and strange looks for boaters out at Lake Monroe. And yeah... it's nice to be out on the lake when it's not hot as blazes! Bloomington is extremely fortunate to have such a fun destination within a few minutes' drive.
"How do you get these things to the lake?" you ask. At Outdoor Retailer we also discovered a new product call Sea Sucker, which are essentially gigantic suction cups that attach to the roof of your car -- no special roof rack, no permanent installation required. It only takes a few minutes, and they're solid. They also make easy-to-install bike racks, too!
Basically, paddleboarding is amazing.
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| Christening the boards |
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| Ben getting brave |
2. We welcomed Ted Jones into our home!
Ted Jones is a mini goldendoodle we are fostering while his owner (Danny, a friend of ours) lives in a pet-free apartment. Ted looks like a little teddy bear and is 75% miniature poodle, 25% golden retriever. He's barely older than 3 months, so he's still learning and testing us. :) And he wants nothing more than to play!!!
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| Don't let those cute puppy dog eyes fool you. |
Fozzie Bear (Ted's new nickname) weighs only 8 pounds, and is mostly fluff. Here's a wet Ted - isn't he tiny?! Even better, he doesn't aggravate Ben's allergies to dogs and pets any more than Todd does, which is minimal. Of course, we still keep a "safe room" for him if he has a reaction.
Meanwhile, Danny is great at taking fun pictures of Ted and getting him to sit still. Go check out some of his photos on Facebook, at Ted Jones Puppy (I love how he is listed as "Entertainer").
So why not combine two of the latest, most fun things in our lives? We did it.
Ted fell backwards off of a paddleboard a few minutes later. He had not actually swum (?!) by himself, without Ben holding him in the water at that point. Sink or swim? Puppy's head went under and before we could jump in and catch him, he came up paddling and staying afloat by himself in three feet of water! They grow up so fast....
3. Thanks, Foot! (Foot Injury & running update)
I officially have no idea what was wrong with my foot. I wore the boot for about 3 weeks (unfortunately, during vacation in Colorado/Utah) and and, it gradually became ok.
I started back run/walking .25 mile/.25 mile at a time, and the first few days, my foot was sore. I upped my running : walking distance to .4, then .6 miles, and then 1 and 1.25 miles at a time before a .25 mile walk -- and still felt ok. A couple of weeks ago, on a work trip, I stayed in Carmel, and started my run at dusk. As it got dark on the Monon, I started to worry about all of the things that you see/hear in the news (although unlikely in Carmel, I'm not going to bet on it). In the end, I finished a 7-mile run without stopping. And fast-ish.
I'm just about back to running 6 days a week now. It's been a little frustrating that I had to start over again with the heart rate training; I have a really hard time staying under 10-11 minutes/mile at 80%, especially in the heat. Patience... not my best quality. Just need to keep on remembering that I could be not-running otherwise! On the same token, a year ago, at this amount of mileage, I'd be coming up to near my injury-capacity at 50 miles/wk. So, at >35 miles each week - slowly - but with no pain, things are good.
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
-Albert Einstein
What am I doing differently?
I talked to Dr. Mark Cucuzella and Ian Adamson at the Newton Retail Summit, and they noticed I had a bunion on my foot/feet (?). It sounds grosser than it is, I promise. Anyway, the full name for it is hallux abductovalugus - a condition where the last joint of the big toe starts to point outward, usually caused by improper shoe shape. The foot takes the shape of the shoes. It looks kind of like this, but mine's not this severe... I would have noticed a problem if I had toes crossing over!
I talked to Dr. Mark Cucuzella and Ian Adamson at the Newton Retail Summit, and they noticed I had a bunion on my foot/feet (?). It sounds grosser than it is, I promise. Anyway, the full name for it is hallux abductovalugus - a condition where the last joint of the big toe starts to point outward, usually caused by improper shoe shape. The foot takes the shape of the shoes. It looks kind of like this, but mine's not this severe... I would have noticed a problem if I had toes crossing over!
The big/great toe is supposed to be able to withstand several times the amount of force as the other metatarsals, but with the great toe compromised like this, the brunt of the force goes onto the other parts of the foot/toes. The theory is that the pounding down Boltinghouse during the RER, plus this condition, may have triggered a stress reaction, a precursor to a stress fracture. Too much impact and force on my toe bones!
So, with the duck feet I have already, it's been REALLY hard to find shoes that fit properly. I've been running in Altras for zero drop and for the ample space in the toebox. Also, we sell these things at the store called CorrectToes, which I've modified and have been using with Injinji toe socks. (Ps - they're much better than they used to be! I refused to wear them until the new ones came out.) Moving bones isn't gonna happen overnight, but if it helps place the stress/impact where it should be, then good!
Meanwhile, I'm excited that this cooler weather is making it a little easier to run.
4. BARA Fun Stuff
BARA (Bloomington Area Runners Association) has been doing some fun stuff lately.
This morning, a small group of us ran with some dogs at the Bloomington Animal Shelter. We took three dogs out, because sometimes they can get super excited and your arm can start to get sore from keeping them in a straight line. :)
I ran with Alicia (yellow shirt) and her friend, Carol (black jacket), and we took the dog in this picture on a four mile run on the Rail Trail. He probably could've gone so much farther! His name is Gage and he's a mastiff-husky with amazingly clear blue eyes. Unfortunately, after our run, we started to do the math and figure out that he might be deaf -- not once during our run did he respond to his name, nor audible signals or noises (no sign of the ears-back-listening pose).
Gage was SO friendly to other dogs and runners on the trail. Never aggressive, and he thinks he's a lap dog! He knew exactly what the car was when we took him outside and hopped right in like it was his. This guy would be an amazing running partner, and could serve double-duty as a runner-bodyguard by his size and the way he looks (although if people actually knew him he'd be more likely to lick someone to death).
So, our partnership with the shelter has been a really good one, since we're now three events in. They said they were having trouble finding dogs to send out with us because they're adopting so many! ALWAYS a good thing. :)
If you don't know about the Bloomington Animal Shelter's ASPCA 100k Challenge our shelter is doing, it's a contest for the most number of adoptions. There are different awards and prizes -- for example, community engagement awards (so events like ours count toward their goal) and region awards for the most number of adoptions in three months. They have been adopting out nearly double their typical rate, and just hit the 500th adoption today (below)! In fact, one of the dogs we ran with this morning was adopted at an event only a few hours later - what a great day!
Tomorrow is the low-key (emphasis on low-key) Bloomington Half Marathon. We're going to set up the course right now, so catch you later!
