Back in the Saddle

Running:
I am finally back to running a little bit. It feels good to be back in the saddle again. About three weeks to the day between runs outside. I still need to take it easy and can’t rush things. Here is an example of how I’ve progressed the last several days. On Wed 8/4 I did my first running. I only run/walked 1 mile on the treadmill holding on to the side most of the way to keep weight off the legs. On Thursday I ran the whole mile holding on to the sides. On Friday I ran the whole mile not holding on. On Saturday I ran 2 miles on the treadmill sometimes holding the sides sometime not. On Sunday I ran 2.5 miles mostly not holding on. Yesterday Monday I ran 4 miles outside during my lunch break. No watch, just took it easy and completed the entire run in the almost 90 degree heat. I’ll gradually be increasing the length of my runs with a similar type progression. I’ll likely need 1 or 2 days rest the next couple weeks despite the low mileage. I wish I had some idea of the root cause of this injury. Without knowing and not correcting anything I could just face it again. I sure hope not.


Hunting:
I started to clear some shooting lanes by cutting down some of the scrub trees (mostly buckthorn) and brush in the back yard. I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple years. Now that I have a working chainsaw the job will go easier and faster. Last year I set up a stand in the middle of the property. The one problem with this stand was I could hear deer at the back edge of the property as they moved through but could never see them unless they came right in front of me or out into the field. The lanes I am clearing will allow me to see all the way to my bow stand to the left, as well as the back of the property straight ahead in addition to the field on the right.


Gardening:
Garden harvest of most things continues. That is when I can stand fighting the mosquitoes.  I have never in my life seen them as thick as they are this year.  Absolutely unpleasant being in the garden for any amount of time right now.  I’ve dug up about 10 gallons of potatoes so far. They are really nice size this year and so far not all chewed up by grubs. It looks like some sweet potatoes will also be ready in the next couple weeks. You can tell because they get so big the soil starts splitting where the large tubers are growing. Also pretty close to being able to harvest some pears and the first sweet corn. I’ve tried a hot pepper wax product on the beets and it seems to be keeping the mice away. I’ll also be putting this on the sweet corn to see if it discourages the raccoons.   I noticed this morning that some of the baby fish I mentioned a few weeks back have started to turn colors.  They look like they are baby Koi not Comet's.  Still not sure how many there might be.

Stubborn injury

Running: 
This quad injury is really proving to be stubborn. I can tell just by trying to jog to the mailbox that there is still an issue. Until there is no pain I can’t even try to do any distance. As of now it has only impacted a couple of 5k races I would have done. Next weekend I had hoped to run the Paavo Nurmi marathon in Hurley. Those plans will also now need to be scratched. Any longer than another week and other fall race plans will have to be altered. I’m guessing I could get ready in about a month with a one week taper period if I needed to for a marathon. That’s based on the number of miles I’ve already put in this year to draw back on. No pain doing anything else other than running. Being on vacation last week helped by being a distraction from not being able to run. My workouts have been about an hour a day on the elliptical, rowing machine and/or bike. The last two days I ran 1 mile on the treadmill holding onto the sides so my full weight isn’t on the leg. I might continue to do this as long as it seems to not make things worse. All the yard work in this heat has also helped to keep some of the weight off during this time. I suppose I might even have to start watching what I eat. Oh no!



Hunting:

While on vacation I was able to get out fishing one day with my brother Todd. We really wanted to get out to Outer Island to my favorite spot. The wind and waves the day we tried kept that from happening. We got most of the way there, but when we reached the farther Islands there were remnants of an overnight storm that still had the lake riled up. We chose to try a new place that was half way between Cat and Outer Islands. We happened to see an old map of Dad’s that had this spot circled. Neither of us remember fishing this spot of hearing dad talk about it. It turned out to be a good choice. We ended up catching a salmon before we even had the first line in the water completely. We ended up catching our limit of lake trout in addition to the salmon. We even had to throw one back and had several other fish on. So it ended up a pretty good day. Here are some more fish pictures.

Todd and I also went to check our deer stands one afternoon. The deer sign around my spot seems to be significant. They really hammered the mineral lick I have created and built up over the past several years. Lots of activity and trails from all directions coming in.

These are pictures looking out from the new tree blind in my back yard. The first is looking left over the corn and the second straight ahead and right over the brassica’s and clover.

Gardening:

The vine crops (pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, and watermelon) seem to be doing quite well. There seem to be a few less pumpkins than past years, but the ones that are there are doing quite well. There is still time to generate lots more as long as the vines hold up from disease and pests. We have had so much rain this year that other than the first week the garden was in I haven’t had to water at all. This has saved lots of hours of work over past years. Unfortunately it makes the weeds grow better too so more time needs to be spent keeping them under control. The first sweet corn from my garden is only about a week away I would guess. If I don’t get it first the raccoons will let me know when it is ripe to pick.

I have one peach tree left that is big enough to bear fruit. I picked probably about 100 or so peaches from this one tree this week. This tree isn’t in as much sun as I would like, so most of the peaches are on the smallish side, but they sure are good. Who says you can’t grow peaches in Wisconsin.

Life without running

Running:
It’s been a really tough week with no running. The only miles I got in last week was 2.5 on Monday the day my injury worsened. The diagnosis was an injury to the reflected head of the rectus femoris muscle. This is the quad muscle at the front your leg that attaches it to knee and hip. The reflected head is where it attaches at the top. At least we ruled out a stress fracture. I will need to take an additional 2 to 3 weeks off before resuming running. This next week I will be on vacation so when I get back I’ll begin to test it a little. This past week I managed to use the elliptical, bike, and rowing machine each day. Over the weekend and the last couple days has been a lot of extra yard work which is also good cross training.

Hunting:
Worked with my brother Tad a couple more days on the new hunting blind. Other than some minor finishing touches it is mostly complete. It is built much more solidly than the old one. It even has lift windows on pulleys on three sides and a real door. Also fixed up my bow stand in the back with an extra board for width and a new 3x4 foot plywood platform on top. The food plot is really coming along. Mowing down the brassica’s worked well. The seeds are really sprouting with good coverage and not many weeds. The corn is also growing real well with all the rain and heat. Last week I got the word about some free broad heads. I had heard it was a free 3 pack worth about $50. I was disappointed to find out this was not the case. It was still a deal, but they only sent one as a sample. The f-15’s look like a good model though. Received my permit, rules, and maps for the Ottawa Wildlife Refuge. Now to go scout it closer one of these weekends.


Gardening:
Here are some new pictures of the garden taken 07/28.  Lots of yard work the last several days getting ready for a few days vacation. Wouldn’t you know the drive belt on the tractor would break with about ¾ of the mowing done. I’m not very mechanical, but was able to replace it with some help instead of having service come or drag it over there. Lots of baby pumpkins, squash, and watermelon. Hopefully they all make it to maturity. The rest of the garden is doing well. Lots of cucumbers, potatoes and onions. I picked almost a wheel barrow full of beans last night and that’s even with tossing lots of them away that were past ripe of chewed on by mice/voles. I can’t even imagine how many of these critters there must be. They sure do lots of damage.