SpongeBob Strikes Again!

Things have been looking up the past few days.

Isabelle is doing well with recovering from surgery. I've had to hold her back several times because she wanted to chase squirrels, go out the doggie door, try the stairs, and fence fight with Iris. She's not supposed to do any of those things for 2 weeks after her surgery, and it's only been 5 days.

Saturday I went for my longest run in two months, I ran 10 miles on the Power Trail and felt decent. Not great, and I was slow, but it was a nice morning and I decided to get out before my motivation failed and I did it. I didn't have to stop, didn't have to walk, didn't get down over struggling with my lack of fitness. I went out 6 miles and came back 4, and walked the final 2 miles, on purpose, because I planned no more than 10 miles. I didn't want to be sore or tired, and it was a good strategy because this morning I feel fine.

I need to save something for next weekend too, when I'll be on my feet for 12 hours.

The BEST news of all is that my dad's bone marrow biopsy results came back and it was good news, it is the same thing he's been dealing with for years, it hasn't transformed into something worse. He's in his third week of chemo and other than being tired, he's doing well. When he told me that on the phone yesterday I felt all the tension in my body release. Like a giant body sigh...

If you're not familiar with the SpongeBob story, you can reference it here. You can scroll down toward the end of the post, to Visitor in the Shadows. After residing in our garage for the past several months, I kicked SpongeBob out, made him change out of his Halloween clothes into something more appropriate, and dropped him off at Felix's house. SpongeBob is a notorious couch surfer and I thought it was time he moved out for a while. We're tired of feeding him. Who knows when he might reappear, but for now, that's one less mouth to feed.

The weather has finally turned for the better. I planted some lettuce and spinach in the boxes to see if we can get away with growing anything yet.

I heard from my longtime ultra running buddy Dr. Andy Lovy, U.S. national ultra team physician, the other day and he told me he will be in Oklahoma this fall, and I am considering trying to get myself in shape to at least run the 12 hour there. I don't have any big expectations but it would be a good way to start my comeback. We'll see what happens. It's more about seeing Andy than the race. As my favorite ultrarunning icons get older, it's more important to me to see them when I can.

And Bob is in Badwater, so the double is on, and I plan to be there at least to crew for the return trip. I'm also considering a Grand Canyon double this fall. It all depends on how things go and how my fitness returns. The most important thing is that I am looking forward to things again, I didn't realize how much some of these stressors, mostly my dad's health, were weighing on me.

Relief...

Scary!

The other morning Dennis went out to get the paper and found this dude passed out in front of our garage.

Felix was out late, probably took SpongeBob drinking, and like the sponge that he is, he wandered off and found our house and passed out.

Felix claims he is glad that SpongeBob is no longer couch surfing at his house, so we're stuck with him for a while. Until he ends up back in Felix's custody. When he least expects it...

I feel really "off" today. Not sure if it's a delayed body hangover from doing the Rock Repeats the other day, I doubt it- or being ahead of an incoming weather front- possibly- or what. I just feel tired and not very motivated.

This morning started out rough, we found out that one of Dennis's college teammates had an emergency aneurysm repair after being rushed via helicopter to a hospital in Denver yesterday afternoon. He's my age. I don't even know all the details yet.

And just yesterday I heard about a guy I knew in junior high back in Pennsylvania who suddenly dropped dead from a heart attack, 51 years old.

For some reason those events smack you in the face. I suppose as you get older, these things happen with more frequency and hit closer to home each time. Life is short, live it now.

A Visit From SpongeBob

No I wasn't still hallucinating from some anesthetic from the colonoscopy.

I walked outside this afternoon, I'd been mesmerized by the computer for hours, working on some promotional stuff, so my eyes were a bit glazed over. There was something yellow stuck under my windshield wipers.

Felix!!!

Felix is back from his trip to China, and SpongeBob followed him.

It was a bamboo SpongeBob, something soft and absorbent that I could use to clean my car.

Felix acquired the curse of SpongeBob in the Owens Valley late one night in July of 2011. SpongeBob jumped out of the shadows in the desert and he never left. He stalks Felix everywhere, halfway around the earth.

As soon as I was sure I wasn't hallucinating, I sent Felix a message on Facebook to see if he had anything to do with this...

I've been feeling pretty good today, though Thursday, which was the day after, I wasn't so sure. I'm not sure if I got so dehydrated that I felt funny, but I did try to run Thursday and after about a tenth of a mile I gave it up. I didn't feel right. So I walked, did about 5 miles of walking, and that was good. I felt like I needed to catch up on fluids more than anything. I ate a lot, too, and felt better after I ate.

Even a colonoscopy is an adventure.

This morning I went out for a run and felt so good I decided to push the pace for about 30 minutes of it. Ended up running under 8 minute pace without pushing too hard. I got a little over 12 miles today. Next week it's back to the cemetery with Wheaties Boy for mile repeats.

I signed up for the Estes Park Half Marathon today. Finally, after all these years of running that damn marathon and suffering, I got wise. I will get a good hard training run without it killing me.

I'll run hills tomorrow at Horsetooth and get some easy miles in over the weekend, and then Monday, as Wheaties Boy would say, shit gets serious.

At least this time I won't have to drink the mag citrate!