13 weeks of training to go! Week 6 of Hell Creek on Heels 50K training!

First week of back to back long runs!  Let's see how these legs handle this crazy week, shall we?  Again, most runs were done during the cover of darkness, so will pepper this blog post with random pictures:)

Before the parade selfie, which was mostly political people and farm implements 

Monday:  4th of July OFF!  Our town does 4th of July right!  A carnival, a parade, and the biggest fourth of july fireworks show in the state.  We always open our house up to anyone who wants to watch any parts of the day.  We have food and drink a plenty!

Riding the ferris wheel.  Glad he didn't get the fear of heights gene from me!

Tuesday:  Second day off:  Well, hadn't planned this one per se, but family was still in town, and Andrew's daycare was closed, so we hit up the pool and relaxed all day.  I thought about hitting my bike later in the night, but it was miserably hot, and i pretty much fried my shoulders the past two days and was fairly uncomfortable.  #sorrynotsorry.

Wednesday: Planned Speed work.  Going to call this one the 2, 3, 4 minute hell.  Luckily, when we met at 4:30 am, that plan was changed, so we got to experience a different hell, 80 degrees and 100% humidity.  We decided that conditions were not safe for doing hard speed work, and just ran 6 miles instead.  I am glad that we made that decision, because it was so miserable outside.  We took several walk breaks.  There were storms to the south of us, but they stayed away, thankfully because they had lightening.  I don't mind rain any day but lightning is a big heck no!

Thursday:  Planned 6 miles.  Woke up at 3:40 to storms.  Woke up at 4:15 am to storms.  Woke up at 6:30 to storms. Gave up.  Decided to run later in the day.  Kept watching the temps rise and thinking, there is no way.  Finally decided it would be safer to get up early friday morning, and if that didn't work, run friday night on the mill.  

Friday:  Planned cross training/strength. Since Thursday's run got canceled due to weather and since we couldn't run thursday night either due to this:

We had to push our 6 miler to Friday.  We had hoped to "make up" the speed work we missed on Tuesday, but  we woke up to fogged up windows and doors.  While it was cooler (75F), the humidity was 100%, and that pushed the dew point up into the 70s, so once again we had to cancel any intensity.  Oh well, miles are miles, and we got our six in with a walk break every mile for a tenth of a mile, so we could stay somewhat cool.   We did have a very pretty sunrise though.

Saturday:  Planned 13 miles.  Coach wanted me to do some speed work during our long run.  When we looked at the weather friday night multiple times, the weather app said low 70s and partly cloudy.  Wanting all the sleep we could get, we opted to go out a little later than normal, due to the supposed clouds and lower temps.  I knew we were in trouble when I got up at 5 am, and it was high 70s and 100 percent humidity.  Sigh. No clouds in sight.

well technically there were clouds, but they never got in front of that pesky sun!

We did a new route of gravel country roads, and then looped back on our normal route for our 13.  At first we were drenched due to the humidity, and then as that dropped, the heat and full on sun started kicking our asses in earnest.  We both had plenty of water and Nuun, but we were really feeling the effects.

We would play a game of run to a certain land mark or turn in the road, and then walk to the next one.  It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get 13 miles in, but we were safe about it, and only at the very, very end felt bad.  My hydration and fueling was on point.  I fueled with my fig bars every hour, and had two 17 oz bottles of Nuun water, that i did almost empty.  I am still not really liking my pack and the bottles up on my boobs, even with the soft body bottles.  I am going to try Melly's pack that has the bigger bottles that are lower on your body, and then if I like it, will try and find a used one on the TAUR group.  Side note, I chaffed like a boss yesterday in weird places, and in normal places, even though I put on full body, body glide.  WTH???

Sunday:  Planned 5 miles on hilly trail.  Whelp, when we saw hilly and only 5, we opted to hit Konza up.  Got there just as it was starting to get light, and got our 5 in, and finished with a nice cool down walk for the rest of the big loop.  Lindsey from LivingLoving Runner joined us, and then we hit up the coffee shop post run and just talked.  Mother runners are the bomb, and I can't wait to run some more with Lindsey!  I had a sore part of my leg that bothered me both saturday and today, that I need to give some attention to.  I think it is from running differently thanks to the new balance 1260s (which is a good thing, it is a tendon that I should be using), and I just need a good massage.  The pain comes and goes throughout my run, with or without my compression socks on, so I will be addressing this issue with Dr. Needles when I see him next.

30 miles total!  Excited to be back on a routine next week of hopefully Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday/Sunday runs and excited that running three days in a row didn't kill me :)  Please Kansas summer, give us a break next week, so we can get some speed work in!!!!