The month of April provided many challenges for me...weather, travel and now injury.
 |
| Easter Egg Hunting w/ Timothy and Joshua |
I started off the month on Spring Break out east in Arlington VA. We had a great vacation in the Washington DC area, staying with Linda's brother Dave and his wife Beth and their two sons, Joshua and Timothy. Their house is adjacent to a golf course and a university so as always, I found a good running loop from their house that allowed me to get between 3 and 7 miles each day with some good hills thrown in for an extra workout. All the runs were in the early morning using my headlamp and of course, there were many walking miles later each day to see all of the sights of Washington DC with the Linda and the girls. One good thing about DC is you get your exercise no matter what you do.
 |
| Relaxing Easter |
 |
| Cherry Blossom Season in DC |
While there, we got to celebrate Easter with family and friends, Travis and Gina, and also celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary.
Since we had been to DC many times before we planned to do a couple of the newer things we hadn't done before: namely the Museum of the Bible and the Holocaust Museum, both are excellent and not to be missed. We saw the Museum of the Bible with Travis and Gina, and also took in a concert at the museum. And later in the week, Gina showed us around her job at the USDA, and we shared lunch with her at the USDA cafeteria (very nice!) Some other activities included the Air and Space Museum out in Chantilly VA (not the usual downtown version) and the Burning Man Exhibit at the Renwick.
 |
| WW II Memorial |
It snowed there in Ohio as well as back here in Indiana as we got back home. Will this winter ever end?!? It snowed off and on for the next week after we came back, but then slowly started to warm up and I started ramping up my barefoot mileage in earnest. At work we started a "Fitness Challenge" which pits teams against each other and encourages participants to get in at least 7000 steps per day. I thought it was a little goofy at first but was surprised to find out how motivating it could actually be.
One day we also went to the Art Museum and the Natural History Museum which are some old favorites of ours. We enjoyed using the Metro (subway) to get around, and had a very nice relaxing vacation. We made it to Ebenezar's Coffe House adjacent to Union Station which is a mecca of sorts for fans of Mark Batterson's "The Circle Maker" Christian devotional. This was also the first time we had ever been in DC during Cherry Blossom Season so that made for some nice family photos as well. We had many nice family times while there including the celebration of Joshua's 7th birthday. It is fun to watch my two nephews growing up and its amazing how much they are changing since we only get to see them once a year or so. On the way back to Indiana we stopped in Ohio at my brother Dave's house in Beavercreek for a quick overnight.
 |
| Snowy Footprints in Indiana AFTER Spring Break |
 |
| "Moves" App |
The challenge is facilitated by Virgin Pulse and allows participants to track their activity with about 20 different Apps and connect using Garmin, I-Phone, Fitbit or whatever app you want. I downloaded the "Moves" app on the IPhone so I could do the automatic connection (and still save my Garmin battery for "just running") and it really works quite nicely. It tracks my running, walking and cycling activity separately and then connects to the Virgin Pulse app seamlessly so I never have to do any manual logging of my steps or further manipulation of any kind. While I was recruited by 3 different teams to join, I stuck with my original team, the "Zero G's" and we are well on our way to walking to the Moon during this 8 week challenge. There are over 100 teams and about 750 people (or more) participating company wide. The challenge is just one week old but I told my Livonia co-workers that "This Fitness Challenge is killing me!"
After doing back-to-back 40 and 57 mile weeks (two biggest of the year so far) my feet are screaming at me to take it easy. The MI pavement was especially unforgiving on my business trip last week and trying to do a quick ramp up after 4 months of lower mileage has NOT been particularly WISE! My goal was to kind of use this fitness challenge to get myself back on a 10 mile/day average which by the end of this 8-week challenge would catch me back up to my 2000mile/yr avg. of 38miles/week. (after the normal slow Winter start each year, I usually don't catch back up until late Summer or early Fall)
 |
| Stubbed Toe on Last Run of April |
So, it's no wonder that I started today's run somewhat tired and sore, even for a Monday (after the usual Sunday off). But nevertheless, I went out for a nice 10 miler this morning. Admittedly I was ignoring a couple of little aches and pains to do these daily 10s and sure enough disaster struck once again at 2.5 miles and I stubbed my left big toe. It was just south of a new construction zone on Hinkle road but the pavement was actually not to blame. I just drug my toe ever so slightly, and that's all she wrote. It hit hard enough to take me all the way to the ground but luckily the only damage was the toe itself. Still this is disappointing as it has been over 2 years since I did it last time. I got up and ran in the same direction another 100 yards or so before wising up and turning back for home. It really didn't hurt that bad as I ran the 2.5 miles back home, but is throbbing pretty good right now as I sit here typing the blog. Argh!, so much for the fitness challenge! Oh well, I think this was God's way of slowing me down and reminding me to take it easy...at least a little more than I had been! OK, message received! I have a couple of longer business trips over the next few weeks, so 10 miles days would have been pretty hard to maintain anyway. Time to go back to taking only what God gives me (and my body will allow) each and every day.
Blessings All,
Barefoot Dan
April Mileage = 152 miles
