Moving through it Ice Road Trucker Style...

I typically like to have a true point before I start writing my post for the week. I am going to fail in that department today!!!

Here's the thing, I haven't had a chance to be very inspired this week. I hung out on my couch, knocked out with a cold for many, many hours, while logging other hours watching Ice Road Truckers. Man this show is fascinating.

My injured pup!

Dukie was attacked by another dog during a cool down walk on Friday. This incident required a trip to the emergency vet, sutures and lots of love an patience. As I write this he is still breathing kind of funny (I actually just took a break from writing and went to the Vet again). I now know the funny breathing was due to the red (now blue) head wrap that was too tight and the return of the cone. This poor pup is having a rough time... And on top of it he is crying a lot, or should I say constantly, because I don't think the pain killers are strong enough.

I got home from the vet fairly late on Friday night and was not convinced I would make it to MIT on Saturday morning. Much to my surprise I was able to drag myself out of bed at seven, after hitting my snooze alarm for an  hour. I made it to MIT and it was COLD; I'm not talking about 25 degrees and sunny cold, I am talking about the 14 degrees but feels like negative 5 degree kind of cold. It was somewhat blustery and I'm sure we all looked extremely attractive (or shall I say inspiring) in our gators/hats/scarves/bandanas/gloves, not to mention layers of clothing that we were hoping would keep us warm. I can tell you that at no point during this run was I ever warm. It was so cold my chocolate milk (which was in my car waiting to be consumed post run) was partially frozen when I got back to my car.

This was the Ice Road, and we were the truckers

I also have to mention that I have taken a liking to ice road truckers this week; I am glad because it taught me how to deal with the ice without using chains (or yaktraks). The road and trail were covered with ice and caused for a slick run especially up and down the hills we encounter on our Westerville route... I knew this show would come in handy at some point (thank you Netflix for having all 56 episodes in one convenient location).

Because of pure exhaustion from laying on the couch and taking care of Dukie, I anticipated only running 4 miles Saturday morning. My plan was to go out with my group and turn around with one of my running buddies for another two miles. Somehow I lost sight of her along the way. Next thing I know the pace coach asked us if we were willing to go out an additional half mile for a turn around at 4 miles instead of 3.5 miles. I guess that means we passed up my planned 2 mile turn around? I of course responded with an exuberant: 'Yup, sounds good to me.' So what was supposed to be a 4 mile cold run, instead turned into an 8 mile frigid run. Would I do it any differently? Sure, if I didn't lose my running buddy, I would have stuck to that plan but I didn't.

I have had plenty of time on my feet this week in spite of the challenges and around my time on the couch. To be more exact, I have logged five hours of running during the past seven days with approximately 25 miles logged for the week (short of my training plan by 6 miles, but who is counting).

Now I sit here comforting my ailing Dukie Man (aka my sweat pea) as I reflect on a somewhat uninspiring week of running, illness, aggressive dogs and extreme cold.

I guess you can say I figured out how to move through a week, even when times are tough....