3 things

1. Now that it's nice out, my new favorite thing is to hang out on the back patio after work. Usually, by then, the shade is covering the yard so I'm not sweating profusely and can actually enjoy the outdoors.

Bungee loves it, too. She either chills out with me on the patio or digs in the mulch to find a cool spot to nap. The only problem with this is that sitting outside means I notice the rest of our yard a lot more. It mostly means that I notice the hideous flower beds that are desperately in need of mulching.

Yesterday, I finally broke down and called the garden center. I ordered 2.5 tons of round stone to replace the mulch. It's going to be back-breaking work graveling the flowerbeds, but it will look amazing and we will pretty much never have to do it again. So, it's a lose, win, win, situation. Yay, for fun plans for Memorial Day Weekend.

2. Some of my friends make fun of me because I take Bungee with me everywhere. She either comes in places with me (like clothing stores and the Post Office) or she hangs out in the car for a few minutes while I run errands. The only time I leave her at home is if she'd end up by herself in the car for more than 15 minutes.

I've become a character in our town. I've had random people come up to me and tell me that they saw us earlier in the week by the beach or running, etc. It doesn't really bother me, but I know it makes me kind of a weirdo.

On Tuesday, though, I realized, maybe I'm not quite as weird as I thought. I was in the Post Office and a man behind me started to engage me in conversation about Bungee. I turned around and saw that the man was hanging out in the post office line with a parrot on his shoulder. When he started talking to and for the parrot, I quietly turned around and pretended he wasn't there.

I told Mike this story and he told me I should have asked him questions like, "So, when did you decide to become a pirate?" "Exactly how long have you sailed the seven seas?" If only I had been that quick on my feet.



3. I'm not sure I even want to mention running today, but I am going to attempt a speed workout on the treadmill this morning and see where my IT band stands. I haven't had any pain in the past couple of days and I've been foam rolling, icing, and stretching like a maniac. Fingers crossed!

sprinting is the cure?

Since I have all of this non-running free time on my hands, I'm filling it with baking and aggressive research on how to recover from ITBS. I discovered that the best way to get back to running after rest is not slow easy runs (like you would think), but is instead short bursts of fast running/sprinting. Fast running doesn't aggravate the IT band like slower paces do. This would explain why I never had problems with the speed work in the RLRF plan, but some of the long runs were debilitating.

My plan is still to take a couple of days off, but my return plan is completely changed. All of the articles recommend running on a soft surface like trails...but who in their right mind is going to sprint on trails? That sounds like a recipe for a broken face and possibly other body parts. I'm going to opt for the treadmill instead. Tomorrow, I'll try out a sprinting workout on the treadmill and walk during the active rest periods. Then alternate rest days and sprint days for the next week or so.

The overall plan, though, is: if it hurts, stop running.

Normally, I'd be kind of upset about having to run inside when the weather is finally warm and glorious. At this point, though, I'll just be jazzed to be running again. These forced rest days are really helping me get over my burnout.

Also, I can't really complain about running inside when the humidity is pretty much enough to murder my dog.

She gets really jazzed to go outside, but when she feels the humidity, she just throws herself on the ground like she's been shot.

Or she spends some quality time in the mulch.


Would you rather run in extreme humidity or extreme cold?