9 weeks till Hell Creek on Heels 50K! Training Week 10

Another hot week in Kansas!  Also race weekend for Brew to Shoe 10K.  So excited to do a race to see where I am at speed and fitness wise.

Monday:  Rest day.  Somehow our sunday trip the grocery store is being replaced by a monday night visit instead.  Works for me since it is rest day.  Had a visit with Dr. Needles.  I honestly learn something new each time I go in.  I am still waiting for my shoe to come back with the lift in it, and excited that that might be a fix for all of my issues!  He did several things to my hip flexors and my lower back that were excruciating, but I know through the pain comes better running.  I just have to tell him to stop and give me a break, and he does. I must turn blue because he is constantly telling me, just keep breathing, just keep breathing.

Tuesday:  Planned easy 7.  Woke up to not a cloud in the starry sky, but lots of lightening.  WTH???  I guess heat lightning can strike you per my quick google research, so we decided to go back to bed, versus waiting it out.  It was still lightening at 5 am, so I am glad I gave up.  This meant that we had to run in heat of the afternoon, yet again.  We set out around 7:30ish when the dew point was at 75.  We were prepared to walk every mile or more than that, if needed.  While we were both drenched, it was not a bad run at all, and as the sun went down, we felt much better.  I tried taking a bag of ice with me and keeping it in my pocket (my shorts have huge pockets on the sides), but ended up putting it under my hat as it melted.  This felt wonderful, as the bag had a little pin hole in it, and the water dripped down my back periodically.  I will be trying this again!

This is not what we want to see at this stage.  The band of green should be much lower down :(

Wednesday:  Strength and Cross training planned.  Sigh.  Had to work super late.  We were doing an experiment in parallel with another scientist at our parent company, and we got unexpected bad results.  Both of us, her in CA and me in KS, were trying to salvage what we had.  I still won't know if it worked or failed till tomorrow afternoon, but it wasn't looking good for either of us.  Needless to say, when I got home, working out was the last thing on my mind.  Getting food and going to bed where the only two things I could think of.  So I was a sloth yet again.  #sorrynotsorry

Thursday: 6 miles planned.  Let's preface this run by saying the de-stressing process the night before, I may have had a beer or two.  I followed that up with Nuun before bed, but I am sure I wasn't totally back to fully hydrated.  Let's just say this run was a slog, and I am going to forget about it.  I had to make two emergency pit stops, and I just felt horrible the whole time.  Afterwards at least, I got to take the kiddos on a 20 minute walk and catch some Pokemon:)  I am still contemplating when to start running with stella again.  I am now thinking about holding off till closer till september, and making Tails on the Trail her comeback race.

We made the front of the brochure and the postcard they are sending out!  I LOVE this race, so I am hoping we can get back to running consistently by then.  This is our goal!

Friday:  Rest day.  Day before the race.  Decided to not do anything but watch the opening of the olympics, and get to bed early.  Unfortunately, I had to go to bed when the teams were still filing in, and missed the lighting of the fire, which is my favorite part:(

Saturday:  Brew to Shoe 10K race.  This was my fourth year doing this race and the second year on the new course.  I knew a PR was possible, due to the flat course conditions, IF the weather cooperated.  I was in luck!  The weather was perfect, a bit humid, but over cast and cool.  I got an 13 second PR, and I am SO excited!  Official time was 56:32.  I think I was 12th in my age group, which is a huge improvement over previous years!  

Normally, I would celebrate with a beer from Tall Grass Brewery, but this year we opted to go into the mall, and celebrate with a giant cinnamon roll instead.  What I am totally excited about this year versus other years?  Not the PR totally,  but mostly the fact that I was much more consistent than other years.  9:12 9:25, 9:10, 9:14, 9:16, and 9:17.  The 9:25 is due to my double knotted shoe coming untied.  I have NO clue how that happened.  I remember watching a girl run in front of me with her shoe untied and thinking, man that would suck, and then looking down and my dang shoe was untied. So weird.  I had to hop over to the grass, calm down enough to tie my shoe and then sprint back onto the course.

On a side note my running partner Melly got 2nd in her age group and got a HUGE PR!!!!! I am taking full credit for her sucess:)

Sunday:  14 miles planned.  

This seems to be a common theme lately.  I really thought I had enough time to at least get 12 or so in before this hit.  I fueled and had my coffee, and THEN decided to look outside one more time before I got dressed, and of course it was lightening like crazy.  I know the lightening was still probably far off, but I just don't want to take that chance.  

The problem is, the whole day looked like rain.  Now as I have said 100 times before, I don't love running in the rain but, I will run in the rain before I will run on a mill.  Luckily for me, the rain stopped and stayed away the rest of the afternoon.  The humidity stayed around 96-100% and I felt like an old woman running, but I got it done.

My hubby even came out and rode his bike while I ran.  He hung with me for an hour and headed home.  Then I saw a familiar vehicle on my route.  

Tony came back and followed me for about a mile just checking on me and talking to me.  I was on the suffer bus majorly at that point.  Every part of me hurt, and as I sit and type, I am still in pain.  I have iced and rolled and I see drugs in my future. My foot is very unhappy with me as I have been running in my kinvaras while the lift gets put in my new balances, and apparently that angers my foot.  I am also worried that my shoes I bought to wear every day might have also angered my foot.  I can't wait to see Dr. Needles on Friday, especially with another race saturday (5K) and an 18 miler.  

33 total miles this week.  kind of a cut back week and kind of not!

Have a great week!!!!  Keep your finger's crossed that I might have one more PR left in me for the year:)