It dawned on me that some of you aren’t runners, so you don’t really know what “runner’s toe” looks like that I wrote about last week. Attached is one ugly foot with the big toe in the process of turning from dark pink to black in one week. Today’s run was a relatively short 8 miler but was hard on it and it may get a little darker before it starts its year-long recovery. I didn’t realize it until I took the picture, but my middle toe has an ugly blister on the right side. I rarely get blisters, so this one is a surprise, but not the only one I’ve ever had.

Ironman Wisconsin training is going well with 6 weeks down and 18 weeks to go ’til the “big dance”. The workouts aren’t all that long yet, but will increase in the third six week period. The swims aren’t getting any easier as far as the “contact dermatitis” is concerned. Right after the swim I’m just fine. In two hours I start to itch in a few spots. By four hours I’m itching almost everywhere, and by eight hours I say I’ll never swim in an indoor pool again. This last Wednesday was the worst it’s been and I thought I would go crazy itching all night. Luckily Jean was really tired and slept all night so I didn’t make her mad. Friday was a forced day off, so the swims will resume Monday morning and I’ll continue to whine until we can get out into the lakes.

I can’t let this one go. I try not to pass on every little thing that friends say when we’re together for fear they’ll stop saying anything. Yesterday at coffee, one of the guys (I won’t say who it was but he has the initials Bill Bradley) said “Now that us four are all together…” and I looked around the table and there were five of us. Either one of us doesn’t count any more or he can’t count any more and he’s an educator to our children. What’s this world coming to?

Daughter Sara was out to the cottage the other day and was asking the same question that many of you have asked about what Wildlife Wranglers LLC does with the raccoons it traps from the attic. I told her they take them to a farm and let them run and play with lots of other raccoons. At night they set out hundreds of garbage cans filled with good things to eat, and the raccoons dive in without fear of being shot. It’s right next to the farm that the dogs and cats that disappear from homes go to when kids don’t feed them.

Jean, Larry and I went out yesterday on a 2 to 3 hour heart rate 1 ride. Jean and I whined all morning about how cold it was and we should have just hopped on the trainers inside. We knew Larry didn’t know any better than we did and would show up to ride, so we were forced to go. According to Jean “Once we got out there it wasn’t really that cold”. According to Jack “I was cold from the time we left ’til the time we got back, and I’m still cold”. I guess perception is everything.

Not much else is happening so this will be a shorty. Good luck to all the runners doing the Fifth Third River Bank Run next Saturday and congrats to those who did the half marathon at Indianapolis yesterday. Race season is upon us!!

Just (Thermostat’s Still Set At 58 Degrees) Jack