Boots, Blisters, Bumps, and few Hitchhikers - last week

I love boots. When I was 13, I got my first pair of Eddie Bauer hiking boots and I wore them every day until the cobbler couldn't do anything to repair them. In the summer, I was either in my hiking boots, or some pair of men's sandles (thanks to my wide feet and aversion to things between my toes).

When I have to dress up, even a bit, I aim for boots as well. The boots pictures above are very similiar to my favorite pair of dress-casual boots.

Tuesday,  had the all-too-rare occasion to hang out with my sister-in-law, Y in Seattle!

Sister-in-law Y and Brother-in-Law B

She was in town for a job interview (that I really hope she gets), so we went over to the city to hang out.

Well, we ended up hiking around for hours - which was more than my dress-boots and feet could really handle. I ended the night with a blister the size of my thumb on the sole of my left foot, several smaller blisters on the sole of my heel on my right foot, and... let's just say my little toe looked like a blister with a toe nail.

I slept on it, hoping it would get better, but, well, it didn't - causing me to feel like a complete wimp and duck out of training the next day.  I couldn't bare to wear shoes most of the day, and running or walking was completely out of the question.

Really... over blisters... lame.

However... maybe a day of unexpected rest wasn't an aweful thing afterall. My run on Thursday was AWESOME despite the pain. My last run/walk pace was about 12min 30 seconds, which was 'eh'. Far from my best. But Thursday's run was 'yeah! PR!' Feeling good and running happy in good weather helped me shave off nearly an entire MINUTE off my time!

It was a really great feeling, and a fun confident booster.
 The orange line is my pace, since I started running the C25K RunDouble program back in March. I ended up repeating a few days of the program for a while, just because I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend money on the app (first 2 weeks were free, then ya had to pay). I hemmed and hawed about it and opted to buy the app. It also has a 1/2 Marathon and Marathon training program, so I figure "What's $1.50 if it keeps me motivated, tracks everything for me, and can help me reach some of my Disney running goals?" Like my time with TrainerGuy, it's proving to be a worth while investment.

I repeated Week 3 day 2, doing it once with a friend (on a different app) and once on my own app. Usually, I run on the track (which doesn't track distance or pace, since my GPS doesn't work in the gym) and then run outside as kind of a 'check in'. The weather has been so nice lately though, that I HAD to get outside!

Friday, after a training session that resulted in a new bench press max (5 reps at 75lbs - a 10lb increase from Monday), and a struggling Metabolic Conditioning phase (still not quite sure what caused that, but, as Gordon Harvey - a favorite running podcast/blogger I  follow  - says, everyone 'bonks' sometime days), I went to follow up with my MD to see what could be done about a weird bump on my back/shoulder blade that was driving me batty. It is just in 'that spot' that rubs against just about every bra I own. It's been there for years, but recently has grown. It's annoyance has grown with it's size. At first, he was sure it was a cyst. He's the 2nd MD to tell me that so I basically trusted it. But this time, he wasn't so sure what it was...
So I let him go in and take a look.
What I thought would be a quick 15 minute in-and-out appointment, turned into over an hour of numbing, skin pulling, and digging around in the muscle. The good news is, it was all fairly minor and whatever-it-was, is now COMPLETELY GONE. The bad news?Well, I spent a few days on pins and needles, wondering what it could possibly be. Good news again! The biopsy came back and it was just a nasty infected cyst that had worked it's way into the muscles. Ew..

But, 3 stitches later, I'm right as rain. I had actually anticipated that this would effect my life more than it has. Other than being a bit tender to the touch, it's pretty much a non-issue when it comes to working out, etc. It's just in "that spot" where nearly every bra I own aggravates it, so I'm being gentle on myself in that respect. 

Soon I'll have just one more cool scar to show off. ;)