Heartland Series Week 12 Race week Half number 1

Year three of the Heartland Series is about to commence.  I am going to be honest here and say that I super excited about this weekend, but a tiny bit sad that my A race won't be my A race this year.  I am contemplating moving back a corral to be more correctly seeded, because I have no clue what my body is capable of right now.  I know it isn't capable of a PR for sure, so to be fair to those working towards a faster time, I will move myself backwards.  Here is how the week played out.

Monday:  Strength day and first day of t-ball for the kiddo.  I sure didn't want to run the day after I had done a 10 miler, especially since my hip is still tight and sore.  I knew it would be tough to do an after work run anyway with the kiddo starting t-ball, unless I wanted to get up super early and run in the morning.  Well, I am not ready to give up sleep just yet, so I decided to rearrange my schedule this week, and just do 2 runs plus the half this week.  I need to be super careful, since we have back to back half marathons in the series and I am not 100%.

T-ball went well, he mostly played in the dirt, but did enjoy running the bases, and did attempt most of the exercises they had the kids do.  I thought things were going to be just like soccer at first, as he got his name tag, and then declared he was done and came and sat with us in the bleachers.  The kids on the field started warming up, and he wanted no part of it, but when they started running the bases, he was off.  Well, and a little admission here, I promised him a cheeseburger from McDonald's if he would at least attempt to go do the exercises.    Ah, the power of a happy meal.  We had to do this with soccer as well.  I just equate it to dog training, we are offering a very high value reward for the exercise given.

Tuesday:  Date with the bringer of pain and a planned 5 miles.  While I had hoped he could fix my hip, he was more concerned about the fact that my gait seems to have gotten worse lately instead of better.  His fear is that we have gotten the top parts of my legs strong, and now the bottom parts need help, but he is at a loss as to how to do that.  Not only are my feet flaring out again, but I am back to running on the sides of my feet. I kind of left a little dejected and down.  I want to continue running, I don't want to give up, but if my body is going to be continually injured by the way I run, then what can I do?  And why was I okay most all of last year running 2 x the number of miles?  I am trying not to be down and over think this, but it is really bothering me.  I feel like the foot issue was the shoes (possibly) and the hip issue was lack of training with hills and then running a hilly course, not the fact that I run funny.  The jury is still out I guess :(

My five miles was a suckfest.  Spring in Kansas just sucks.  We have horrible wind and burning 24/7, so if you aren't fighting the wind, you are breathing in smoke.  Today was a mix of both, but I just kept telling myself that I was blessed that i got to run in that mess.  It was the slowest 5 miler I have had in a long time due to the 24-30 mph sustained south/south west wind.  Seriously wind, pick a direction, just one, and stay there.  I can do east/west routes or south/north routes, but when you come from two directions, you really screw me up.

Wednesday:  Planned strength.  We had a play date and dinner to attend, so strength training came later in the night, but it got done.  This is my first week in a LOOOONNNNGGG time that I actually got two strength training work outs done in one week.  YEAH me!  For whatever reason, maybe due to the lunges or the single leg squats, my foot got really angry post work out.  Had to pop some advil to tame the pain.  Foot, I officially hate you big time right now.

Thursday: Planned 5-6 miles or whatever I could do and still not loose my mind during the stupid fierce wind.  My running buddy headed out with me, and she just needed to do 4 so we just did 4. I had grand plans of running before she came over or after, and that just didn't happen.  Instead we went and did selfies in the park with the tulips:).  Priorities right?

Friday: Rest day and EXPO

Saturday: Rock the Parkway 13.1.  First race of the Heartland Series.

Sunday: Rest

Total miles: 22.1 miles