Pop Champagne

Well, exactly one year ago today, I had a 2.5 inch incision cut into my lower abdomen, had my inguinal nerve removed and a square piece of gortex mesh stitched into my fascia to repair what’s known as a sports hernia.

Everything feels great and I’m just thankful that all has gone well and I’ve been able to return to training at a high level!

Since my season ended in August, I’ve been pretty bad/lazy about updating my blog, so a lot has happened since then. Stick with me and I’ll try to keep it brief!

At the end of August I went up to Midland, Ontario (a couple of hours North of Toronto) to do some archaeology work with my brother. The first week or so wasn’t too bad, as I was still in downtime after the season. After that, things weren’t too much fun. I was working 10 hr shifts, which had me leaving the apartment at about 7am and returning at 6pm, depending on how far we had to drive (one day it was Windsor and back, 15hr day!). The work itself wasn’t exactly easy either; hauling a 40lb awkward wooden screen through vines, thorn bushes, poison ivy and dense forest while getting attacked by mosquitoes and digging holes every 10 meters to screen the dirt for artifacts.

Some days definitely sucked.

When I got home, it was time to kick off the work boots, throw on some running shoes and get out the door for 7 or 8 miles before it got too dark. I wouldn’t exactly call it ideal for training. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

It wasn’t all bad though. The snowmobile trails up north are great for doing mileage runs in the summer/fall and it was certainly nicer running than being in Scarborough. We also found a few cool artifacts along the way and a previously undiscovered Huron Indian village.

I worked there until the end of October when I finally got to head south. Perfect timing. Just as the weather was getting cold in Ontario, it had cooled off to ideal running weather in Arizona…I arrived in Scottsdale for the start of our first structured training cycle of the upcoming year. Without all the work, it was certainly easier to train harder and recover properly.

My first weekend down here, Mel and I made the trip up to the Grand Canyon for the first time. I proposed while we were up there (in case she said no, then I could throw her off) and she said “Yes”. Well, actually, she said “Are you serious?” a couple of times before saying yes! Haha. So, I’m engaged.

We went back to celebrate in Flagstaff for the night with my teammates Ellerton and Lisa. Instead of drinking champagne, we played flip cup and quarters. Keepin it classy.

I’ve settled in to a good routine down here now and we’re halfway through our second 3 week training cycle and things are going great. Workouts have been solid and the mileage is building.

I’ll hopefully have a more in depth “running” update in the next few days…

     - Linc