Week 3 of 50 K training, 16 weeks to go!

Stella update:  Just in case you missed my last post, the tick panel came back slightly positive for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  While I have not pulled any ticks off of her, the titers don't lie.  While the prednisone has helped her feel much better, she still has swelling of her joints and nasal and eye discharge.  Please keep  her in your thoughts and prayers.

Monday:    Planned speed work.  I am honest that I did NOT want to get up and run this morning.  I had not gotten to bed as early as I wanted to, thanks to a toddler hopped up on birthday cake and candy from Colorado.  Stella woke me up around 2:40 stress panting, so got up with her and let her out thinking that maybe she needed to potty (she had already had two potty accidents in the bedroom).  I am not sure why she was panting so bad, but I was worried and put her on the couch with me for a while.  I did drift back off to sleep, but then she woke me up again breathing oddly and then I was wide awake till almost 3:30 am.  I finally took her back upstairs and we cuddled for a while, but when my alarm went off, I was not feeling it.  Thankfully Mel was up and convinced me to get up and run.  It was SO humid that i didn't even take Deuce with us.  70 degrees and 95% humidity.  BLEH.  On the bright side, Stella got up and ate her breakfast like a champ!

Side note: I am writing a separate blog post  on this blog that will go out every two weeks about stella's progress for others searching about RMSF information.  I have posted the first two weeks at the above link.

Tuesday:  Strength and PT.  Came home to a very sick dog.  Spent most of the night tending to her and a stopped up kitchen sink that was emptying in our dishwasher that was then emptying into our floor.  Honestly, I didn't even eat dinner Tuesday night.

Wednesday: Planned 6 miles.  Honestly, I just wanted to sleep.  Andrew wouldn't go to sleep Tuesday night, and I had to get up at 4 am to get ready, since my hubby had an all day meeting to attend that started at 7 am in topeka.  I slept very lightly listening to stella's breathing all night.  I kept waking up and checking on her.  The pred worked wonders, because she slept well and got up hungry and ready to be mobile.  She even barked at me this morning when I was coming back from my run.  My run was eh.  It was SUPER humid and Melly Mel and I have to walk occasionally. We both struggled with tummy issues, but we just walked them out.  I guess I should call any day without having to make an emergency pit stop in the weeds a win.

Thursday:  Rest day.  Well, since I technically took a forced rest day Tuesday, I figured I would strength train and do my PT.  I got my PT in, but just wasn't into strength, so instead i took my bike out at 8 pm while it was still real feel of 105 and rode for almost 10 miles.  It honestly wasn't that bad with the wind blowing and I had my water with Nuun that I stopped and chugged a few times.  I also had my 6 month check up on my mammogram.  If you remember, around christmas time last year, I had a biopsy done on a lump that was found during my routine exam.  While it was not cancerous, there was some debate as to what it was and how we should continue to monitor.  I got a second opinion, a surgical opinion, and he took over the case.  Long story short, nothing had changed, so they think I am in the clear now and can go back to yearly exams.  YIPEEEE!  I will take all the good news I can right now.  Between stella being sick, our kitchen sink being stopped up and backing up through our dishwasher and damaging our wooden floor, and our AC going out upstairs during the hottest part of the year thus far, I am kind of at my fill for bad news.

Friday: Woke up to this.  All the windows and glass doors in the house were fogged over.  Not good. I decided to institute a walk a tenth of a mile every mile so we would all be safe.  Rockin Robin joined Melly Mel and I, and we headed out for 5.    Actually we had hill work on the schedule, but since we were running Konza saturday and it is basically one BIG hill continuously, I decided two days in a row of hill work might not be a good thing.  Coach Jenny agreed.  This was the first really hot and humid run of the year.  Lately it has only be humidity,which is bad enough, but now you add hot and your body can't cool itself at all, so you get dangerous.  We took it easy, took our walk breaks, and doused our necks with water.  Rockin Robin is doing a 15k on the 50K course we are doing in October this weekend so good luck to her!!!!

Saturday:  Long run 11 miles out at Konza.  We woke up to the most awesome weather EVER for Kansas summers.  Low humidity and temps in the 70s with a slight breeze.  While the Konza is a tough place for a long run, at least we weren't battling the weather too.  The scenery as always is amazing.  Staring to think about strategy to get a PR.  We did 11 in around 2 hours and 22 minutes, but we had to take a couple of breaks for gear adjusting.  We were both rocking out our packs FULL this week, to start getting use to that weight for the 50K, and we need to re think some things.  I tried a different fueling strategy of 100 calories every hour of real food, and I think I have to do 200 every hour.  I used my fig bars I found at target, and did half at 1 hour and the other half at 2.  While I never had brain fog per se, my legs did get pretty tired.  I also ran with both bottles full of Nuun, and I think I need one with and one without.  I seemed to have plenty of water post run, so that should be enough for Konquer the Konza in the fall.

Still not fully loving my new shoes.  I feel like it forces me on the outsides of my foot, and that whole area is still sore and not happy from the needling and adjustments.  Will be doing an appointment with Dr. Needles on monday and will be discussing.  I haven't been noticing it as much during my normal runs of 6 or so miles on flat road, but I for sure noticed it on the trail today.  Perhaps I need my Kinvaras for trails so my foot can do what it wants and needs to do to navigate trails.

Sunday:  Planned Strength and PT.  Happy Father's day!!!   Andrew filled out one of those fill in the blank deals for Tony and it was hilarious!!!  Tony really is the best dad EVER!  He is so wonderful to the dogs and to our son!  I am really, really lucky!

I am also very lucky that Andrew has such a great grand daddy.  He is stuck like glue to Tommy when he is here.  Tommy is so great with him and andrew has him wrapped around his little finger.  

I definitely felt the Konza's effect on my body getting up. Konza, you kick my ass in such a good way!  

27 miles total.

We had a great week of running especially post vacation.  I am still getting use to getting up at 4 am and getting to bed (and getting everyone else in bed) early.  We are also still getting use to high humidity, and we had our first high humidity AND high temperature morning.  I have not taken deuce out at all this week due to the temps and humidity.  Stella continues to improve, and it's slow, but we are seeing improvement.  We got our vet bill and while we didn't break a thousand, we got really, really close.  Keep thinking of my baby girl and keep her in your prayers.  I think it gets harder now that she is feeling better and wants to be active but can't and shouldn't be.  Have a great week!!!!