Bad News (x3) and Good News (x3)

BAD NEWS: I set a bad PR on Sunday. I stepped on the scale and weighed in as the most I've ever been: 167.8 lbs. In the last 2-3 years, when I'm in "top form" I'm about 10 lbs lighter than that (155-158). It's rare I'm over 160. Well, I've been climbing since spring, and this year's new norm is around 163-164. Sunday morning I felt pretty water logged, so I wasn't surprised I was so heavy. Sure, SOME of this is muscle, but not all of it. (Sidenote: now that I'm back to lifting weights regularly, I'm only doing it about every 3 days for my upper body. But I think my upper body likes that, and I'm lifting decent weights and putting on some muscle. FOUR people from my gym over the last few months have mentioned that my upper body is getting bigger and/or I'm looking beefy.) I've been trying to work on my nutrition a bit more, and I need to keep up with that.

BAD NEWS: Charlie fell hard on his face on Monday, and he chipped his 2 front teeth. We called the dentist, and he has us just keeping an eye on his teeth. Charlie didn't seem too affected by it, as he napped for a good chunk of our 17+ miles on the bike a bit later:

Passed out on the Greenway Trail.

BAD NEWS: Check out this gnarly bruise on my toe:

I was taking off my shoes on Sunday and awkwardly tripped. (I do EVERYTHING awkwardly.) I ended up falling forward on my toe as it bent backwards and then got all of my body weight on top of it. Yikes. It COULD be sprained, but I don't think so. It's actually fine while running. I Instagrammed that pic last night noting that it looked real sexy along with the 2 hashtags #TheToeHairIsLikeIcingOnTheSexyCake and #FirstTimeThatHashtagHasBeenUsed.

GOOD NEWS: After a few weeks of speed work, my legs are holding up OK! In last Wednesday's post, I noted some details of my last 3 weeks of speed work. My calves are getting a bit tighter (how they USUALLY feel), but the lower leg pain and my lower back are being kept in check. I wanted to do some slightly faster miles in the middle of my long run on Sunday, but being my calves were just a bit achy, I just did an easier long run.

GOOD NEWS: Acupuncture is still going great. When I saw Robert at Element Wellness Group last night (for the first time in 2 weeks), he worked a bit more on loosening up my lower back (which got a bit upset from sitting 4+ hours in a car on Saturday):

And he worked some trigger points on my calves because I told him what I just noted above about how they were starting to tighten up with some speed work lately:

I've shared photos with more needles in me, but being he worked such well-established trigger points, I really felt this session for the next 12 hours.

GOOD NEWS: Yesterday, I had my longest swim since last August! (Since I stopped swimming because of my forearm issues and then started up again a few months ago.) I logged 1800 yards total: 200 warm up, 4x300 (with a long 0:45 rest between intervals), 300 of kicking, and a 100 cool down. Nothing fancy, but my distances are really starting to feel like workouts again!

So it looks like I'll be ready to race in 11 days! I'm getting STUPIDLY excited to be racing again!