I’m a bit obsessed with my Altra IQ shoes. It has become a competition between the app lady and me. To date, she has been the undisputed winner.

This week I proved I have the power to shut her up.

My Tuesday run started as it always does:

4 minutes in: “It looks like you are running too far up on your toes”.

8 minutes in: “It looks like you are forefoot striking”.

I think she finally pushed me over the edge. I focused every bit of energy I had into forcing my left foot to land correctly.

12 minutes in: silence. I waited. Nothing. The race was on! Just how long could I hold her off? I have never focused so hard on running correctly. 20 minutes went by. Holy cow. 25 minutes. I was fatiguing, and holding my form was tough. 28 minutes. I can’t let her win now, damn it. I must have looked like I was in the finishing sprint of a big race. 29 minutes. Just hold her off for one more minute. 30 minutes! I did it!!!

Then I made sure she was actually turned on. She was.

I glowed all day.

It’s the little things.

I was a little tired going into today’s run, and the stakes were high. I couldn’t let her beat me. I focused from step one, checking my phone every few minutes to see where my cadence and foot strike was. I nearly held my breath as 4 minutes ticked by. Silence. Oh Lord, now what do I do? Can I hold her off for the rest of the run?

Getting there!

I nearly killed myself, but I did it. AND I ran part of it at 70, and then 75%, body weight at a pace hovering around 9 minutes per mile. She gave me a run score of 94/100. It may not sound like much, but it is huge for me. I smile every time I look at the report.

I figure if I can lose the 10 pounds I packed on in the past two months (I was doing ok, but then I apparently just lost it), then by the time I get to 100% body weight, it will feel even easier. That’s my plan at least.

It has been a good week. I seem to be breaking through my plateau. No more tears at CrossFit. I had been struggling to kick up into a handstand because I was scared of my leg. We dubbed it FOKU (fear of kicking up). Tuesday morning, I set my mind to it and I did it! Wasn’t so scary after I realized my leg could handle it. Today I took a few funny looking jogging steps in lieu of a shuttle sprint.

I also realized – after a brutal 24-minute workout, where I contemplated sneaking off into the bathroom and hiding – I am really out of shape. No matter how hard I have worked over the past 4 months, it has been impossible to get my HR very high without full use of one leg. Now I can, and it hurts.

As I sit here writing this, my husband is in surgery having a screw put in his foot. Yep, last week when he was hiking with Puck, he felt a sharp pop and was in a lot of pain. The X-ray showed what they call a Jones fracture – basically

December

a bad news stress fracture. This comes just as he was feeling close to 100% after his ankle surgery last year. I am bummed for him. And for me. Just being honest here.

Let’s hope after this, this family can NOT break anything for a while!

The silver lining of the almost complete lack of snow here in Colorado is that it doesn’t hurt so much to have to stay in Denver, because there is no snow to ski on. I have been hiking with Puck on all the foothills trails near Denver. Bone dry. I’m definitely not rooting for climate change, but it’s working in my favor at the moment.