Two weeks till the Heartland 50

Well Hello!  Hopefully soon, my blog will be featured on the Hurtta blog!!!  I am SO excited. I am very passionate about running with my dogs and helping others run with their dogs.  I hope my tips on running and racing with my dogs helps others.  I also this week got my free photos from the marathon I ran in Jackson, the Andrew Jackson Marathon and am so excited!  Free photos from races are the bomb dot com!

Finally got my free photos from the Andrew Jackson Marathon!  How cool!

Monday:  Rest day. No track club so grocery shopping it is.

Who puts a giant hill (behind me) at the finish line?  Mean RDs that is who!

Tuesday:  5 miles and track club.  I am having SO much fun helping with track club.  While andrew wasn't really feeling well and didn't want to run, he did do a few sprints with me on the track and did the cool down.  I am not pushing him, he isn't old enough to do the track meets anyway, so we are just going to focus on going, trying the events and finding what he likes.  As always, we took our easy miles easy.  Miss stella ella and deucey doo ran with us, and we had an hour talking session.

Post track club smiles

Wednesday:  Cross training and track club.  I didn't get on my bike thanks to crazy wind, but I did get to do some track work with my track club kiddos.  I am trying to help them understand the importance of PACING, so that they can last a whole hour.  We worked on speed intervals (run the straights, walk the curves) and pace runs (I let them wear my watch and they had to sing to prove to me they were running easy).  Little red got to do his favorite event, the high jump, and while I didn't get to watch, Tony said he did great!  He did half a lap with me on the track and a few warm up sprints, but still not liking the running events.  Not pushing him, just letting him find what he likes to do.

Crossing the finish mat to head out on my next loop.  I looked confused because no one was telling me where to go.

Thursday:  6 miles planned.  Ended up doing 5 because I got in around 2 miles at track club with the kiddos.  Trying to take it easy and get to this ultra pain and injury free.

Friday:  Cross-training.  Taking stella to the vet. Falling temps and not feeling so hot thanks to this cold andrew shared.  Another rest day.  Stella got a glowing report, tapering down on her immunosuppressants, possibly tapering her enalapril, and keeping up her apoquel even if it means loosing her coat.  We would rather have a healthy and happy nakey puppy than a full haired not so happy  puppy.

Saturday:  Long run with Rocking Robin=9 easy miles.  We are going to run the Bill Snyder half marathon together and I am SO excited!!!!  Not sure how I will feel post ultra, but I am not running this race to race it anyway.  Going to take it easy and enjoy it and get my first power cat medal!  I finally feel like my legs are back to feeling good, but my dang hip is still being goofy.  Lots of stretching and foam rolling for me for sure.  We also had the Tulip Festival a block from my house.  Right now, most of my festival going time is spent at the bouncy houses and I am fine with that.  Less money spent right?  We ended up mining for rocks in the sluice tent, eating some tasty festival food, having a tall grass beer, and picking up a new photograph from our favorite photographer.

Sunday:  Tulip festival take 2 or should I say bouncy house day take 2.  Luckily they put them down one street, so we could sit at our little local bakery/eatery and eat and rest while they bounce.  Now if we could just move the beer garden to this side of the road:).

We also had our face painted and while I think this pickachu looks a little demonic, she did a great job and little red was super happy.  Mel and I headed out mid afternoon and while it was kind of hot, we made it about 4.5 miles.  I am praying that the weather report for this weekend kind of holds.  At the conclusion of writing this blog, it's suppose to be 55 and storming.  I will take it minus the storming.  Heat and humidity just kind of kicks me in the gut and we really haven't had much of hot and humid yet to train in and acclimate to.  

He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow!

Another week of recovery and resting.  Next week is race week again EEEK!!!!!! Have a great week!