Summer time, fun time

It seemed to take too long for my Colophony allergy from surgery to go away. Someone told me "you had wrist surgery, not foot surgery". Alas, I need the wrist and hand to move for sports bra, for tying the shoes, for pulling on the exercise clothing. I was going for some walks with my slide in shoes, but it isn't the same as being laced up and going OUT!

Beautiful view of the Corn Gold fields of Iowa. 
(drat, you can see the dashboard reflection in the window ;) )
The fields where I live aren't looking like this yet, thanks to a wet spring that delayed planting. 

My Salsa Fargo got out this year! I haven't ridden much (at all) the last years since I had my wrist injury in the car collision. Putting weight on the wrist was painful and difficult.  I am happy to say that while I still have the scar tissue inside that needs to break up, that riding the bike for an hour is something I can do again (happy dance) and I could probably have gone longer, but without actual bike shorts on it wasn't that comfortable!  I know I need to get back to yoga, but hand planting at home has been painful with the scar tissue, so I keep delaying it. 

Then I had to face facts and that I had a double race coming up in August (the end of August) and I needed to get miles in on my feet which meant I needed new shoes. I bumped up to these Saucony in the hopes that I would not need the separate Plantar Fasciitis insert. So far, so good!  The local store also started carrying Injinji toe socks, which is probably not good for feeding my habit of toe socks.  I so far am sticking with the same color for the duration. I finally tossed my first blue ones, and now have dusty rose/lavender ones in my stash, and these new orange and navy blue--I love that color combo!  Maybe I'm not a true exercising person if I don't stick to black socks :P  

Aren't they beautiful?  Purple too!  

They'll go great with my purple race attire for #pancreaticcancer awareness

At a race in June I got a bottle of this BodyArmor. I had been putting off trying it, since sometimes things don't agree with my body.  One hot and exercise sweaty day, I finally pulled it out of the refrigerator one day and had it. The last time I had coconut water was not a good experience for me; although it was plain coconut water.  This Fruit Punch flavor is really good!  I tracked down more at the store, and am happy to that during the back to back race in August, I can have this at the finish line in the car (thankfully I can drive rather than fly)

I worked up the courage to go tackle the Hill Repeat hill, and managed to bungle my audio cord on my Maui Jim sunglasses. The sunglasses fell from my tank top to the ground. I've dropped them (ahem, many) times before with no issue except for the freaking out that I was dropping them.  This time, probably because it was an asphalt road versus other materials, one of the lenses broke top frame to bottom frame. I didn't realize it at first, and a couple miles later when I went to put them on for a sunny area, I realized what had happened. Thankful for Maui Jim's replacement policy, I was able to get new lenses, rather than have to buy a new frame! 

Sometimes the light isn't just right, or the graffiti has been erased and it isn't as colorful, or the ground is just ground underneath the bridge.  This day the light showed the layout of the road a bit further, and the giant washout /whirlpool area that had occurred during the flooding earlier this year. So much water came down river, at different times, that a couple of the trails in my area were eroded to the point that they are closed.  Still, this is better than the Missouri River flood plain in western Iowa, which has left fields unplantable, and roads destroyed.

After a great day out and about with The Mike, we stopped at a different HyVee grocer and found Marie Antoinette's Gluten-Free Baking Co goodies in the freezer section. Since it was my birthday, I picked cherry pie over some of the other delicious looking treats!

So flavorful, and great to have without having to have baked it myself!  :D 

 

Upon the recommendation of a local trail runner who has completed the race(s) I will be doing, I bought some trail shoes for the race. In talking with the running store guy, I decided it was probably a good thing to have. I can have these for the longer first day, and if I feel the traction is too much, I can wear my regular shoes the next day. These saucony have deeper traction that may help on sandy areas. I am so nervous for this race!  I have only done one trail race, and it was a beautiful area in California made among the evergreens of a forest.
Did you notice they're purple as well? I hope I don't grab one of each type of shoe to go out for a run!

To new events, and a beautiful summer that is just half started. 

Treasure each day, regardless of season. Each day has more to offer.