Week 12 of 18 Chicago Marathon training

Enjoy a few more pictures from the race.  I keep getting more and more emailed to me and posted on facebook!  Two things I LOVE are pics of me and stella ella and pics of my kiddo!

Monday:  Rest day.  Hip still not very happy about me doing anything with it.  I tried every hip opening stretch i know.  What scares me is that this is totally different than the other hip niggles that I have had.  This is the front of my hip and it feels more like a strain.  I don't like strains.

Tuesday:  Speed work, 1.5 mile repeats.  10 miles total.  ICKY.  I woke up to lingering lightening.   I had already decided this work out was going to have to be an after work kind of work out, due to the number of miles and how slow I am.  I had thought if it wasn't storming that I would run my 6 and then switch this till Thursday.  I ended up having to cancel soccer, so I had a night free, but my hip was like, don't even think about it crazy lady.  I settled for just doing 10 or 9.65, as I passed the house at that time, and the sudden urge to pee hit me so hard that I almost peed in my pants! I had to sprint for the bathroom and barley made it:)

Wednesday:  Cross training.  A nice long bike ride and therapy session with Rocking Robin.

Thursday:  Speed work or an easy 6.  Since I had to bail on my original speed work, my coach had come up with a fun variation on my 6 miler.  One mile warm up and then 2 x 2 mile repeats with a 400 meter recovery, one mile cool down.  I liked it and looked forward to trying again.  My hip felt better, but still not 100%.  I warmed up nicely and then started into my first 2 mile repeat.  I hit the gas and got nothing.  My body didn't respond at all.  I pushed as hard as I could and still nothing.

I got really down.  I haven't had a bad run in a long time.  My body had nothing to give.  I kept trying and nothing.  I went through the whole woe is me, I am so slow, I will never be able to run a 50K in 6 hours, what the hell was I thinking, why do I run, this sucks thought train.  I even tried some walking and nothing.  I may be smiling in the pic, but I was pissed as hell on the inside.  I keep seeing slower and slower paces, and it is starting to really wear on me.  Not from a PR standpoint, because I know those days have passed, but more from a I have to run really, really far and I would like for this to not be an all day adventure.  I know I am so close to the peak of my training and am more than half way in this training cycle, so dealing with some fatigue, but damn body, come on.  Okay rant over :)

Friday:  Cross training and strength.  Well, I ended up volunteering for packet pick up and race registration for one of my favorite local races, the speedy PD.  The money raised goes back to our community to increase programs for people with Parkinson's disease.  I either run this race or help, and I am so glad I did.  Anyway, I ended up staying till after 7 pm helping, and by the time I got home, I had dinner and went to bed.  Little man had already crashed, so I used that opportunity to crash early as well.  In my defense, I did do about a million squats helping put all the papers together for the packets for people who registered that day.

I am going to have to run this 10 K next year!  Flat and fast and stella can run with me!

Saturday:  Race day volunteering and an easy five.  I woke up around 4:20 to get my run done pre race. I got to see Lindsey from livinglovingrunner, and we got to direct traffic at a crucial part of the course.  We had so much fun and I got some loving time on her cute little boy!  He reminds me so much of andrew at that age.  Post race, we headed back to town to restock my fuel and to get another head lamp.  Dang headlamp was dead AGAIN this morning, and I had to run with my phone light.  I can't do that on a long run and expect my phone to not die, so I bought a battery powered head lamp to have in reserve just in case.  

I love this pic of stella even if it is blurry!

Sunday:  Long run.  Okay so confession.  Stayed out late to hear some local bands play at the Columbian, our local theater.  #Sorrynotsorry.  I had one little tiny beer and tons of water.  When I woke up at 4 am, I had my coffee and fuel, and then went back to bed.  Had intended on sleeping till closer till 6, but my hubby's phone went off at 5:30 am, and would not stop and I couldn't find it.  Okay fine, got up and got ready to head out.  Had a close encounter with a skunk (thank god for good recalls on my Western Hill's dogs), had to make 3!!!! pit stops due to my tummy hating on me, and had to head home around 10 miles in due to lightening.  Waited and waited on the storms to pass by.  

Finally took a shower and ate something while waiting.  I figured that would make the storms leave and it did somewhat.

Deuce and I headed out for the final 8 miles.  It was a bit humid and as the clouds parted, it got a little hot, but I had plenty of water for Deuce, and there were some small puddles for him to cool off in.  

It was an odd day and an odd way to do a long run, but we got the miles done.  As I type this now, I am fighting sleep and trying to stay awake to watch the mid season finale of GOT.

Total Miles for the week:  38.89

Okay, peak week can't come quick enough.  While my hip feels much better, other normal things are bothering me, so I am rolling, drinking tart cherry juice and doing my MYRTL like crazy!!!  Have a great week!  I will be attending my first parent's night at Andrew's school, and I can't wait!

Week 11 Chicago Marathon Training

A sort of cut back week!  YIPEEEE!  Shorter long runs this weekend, but longer runs during the week.  Two days of speed work this week, but manageable paces.   Also, soccer starts and so does school.  I may be a crying mess ALL week!!!!

Monday:  Rest day.  Dentist appointment day.  Back to school day.  I found out today that my sweet baby angel has FOUR cavities!!!!  What the what????  His back teeth are super tight and so post x rays, we discovered two on each of his back teeth where they have been sitting together tightly incubating fun stuff.  My dentist said he could knock them out fairly quickly, but he would have to use the shot to numb him, and with my newly minted needle phobic kiddo, I said no thanks.  We got a referral to a pediatric dentist that uses gas.  I may need it just as badly as he does :)

Okay bear with me a moment as I do a major photo dump of my kiddo.

With one of his dear LLB friends Bridgette

His class room looks out at the playground and this is the view from his desk. Heaven help his teacher!

Chilling in the reading area

#centralsuperraider

She had him at super minion

All in all I think the night went well.  Andrew doesn't know anyone in his class, but very quickly he was down in the lego area playing with several of the boys.  Two of his little love bug classmates were in the classroom next to his, so hopefully he will get to see them at recess or lunch or something.  His school is so cute and small that I have faith he will be fine. I am the one that will be a mess!!!!!

Tuesday:  Mile repeats 10-10:15 pace x 5 (8 total miles).   I wasn't looking forward to the repeats but the pace was much nicer than the previous paces.  While the 96% humidity at 4 am made it a little tough, we managed with the help of some 90s hits.  Always looking for the next earworm for our next tough ultra.  Baby got Back anyone?

Wednesday:  Strength and cross.  Got the strength, but not the cross.  First day of school.  I was an emotional mess all day but I never fully cried.  I wrote a separate post about his first day and how it didn't end well.  I am hoping Thursday will be better.  I think the school part was fine but the after school was not. I am willing to give it a week but  am exploring other options just in case.

Thursday:  7 miles with sets of 5 min hard 3 minute easy in the middle.  Sort of speed work sort of not. Got out the door a little later due to Melly being on vacation.  While I thought I would have plenty of time, I did not and had to cut my suppose to be 7 mile run short at 6.5 something.  I can add half a mile to some other run later this weekend.  Got to see one of the foxes and had a bat swoop right in front of my head lamp and almost scare the crap out of me.  I don't know why I encounter so much wild life when Melly is gone.  Andrew and I headed out to walk to school post run.  We had so much fun walking, and I hope it stays that way.

Friday:  Cross. An hour on my bike.  I needed it.  Andrew has been coming home super tired, which equals super crabby and whiny.  Even though we celebrated the first week with mini milk shakes from Sonic, he was still tired and on edge.  We have been struggling to keep him awake till bed time, which is a very good problem to have.  Anyway, the hour on my bike was what I needed to reset my brain.  

Saturday:  Race day + 3.  I needed to get an extra 3 in, so I woke up extra early to fuel and coffee and eliminate, since I was also working the race.  3 miles in the dark with the kiddos pre race.  It's always odd just doing 3 miles, as 3 mile is kind of when my body wakes up and accepts what we are doing lol!  After heading home and sitting for a few minutes, I had decided to head back up to the school and be early, in hopes that I could help people get ready.  When I got there, it was just me and the bouncy house guy.  Slowly, others arrived an we started set up.  I was suppose to help at the registration /t shirt/packet pick up.  Most people had picked their stuff up the day before, but many wanted to do day of registration, mainly for the kid's 1 miler or the the fun run, so we had periods of pure chaos.  I will write a separate blog post about the race but here is two of my favorite pictures:

Sunday:  Long run.  Coach gave me a shorter long run this week and I was glad.  I woke up super sore and not sure why (probably racing on concrete for three miles).  I also woke up to lightning and storms all around.  This was one day that I HAD to start on time and had to get finished as quick as I could, because the day was jam packed.  I had to get to the grocery store and I had to get to Girls on the Run training (5 hours, gasp).  When I woke up, it was feels like 86 outside.  YIKES!  I was hoping the storms would cool down the temps and take the humidity under control.  It did slightly, but when the sun got around the clouds, it was back to being horrible out.  I finally got started around 6:30, which was an hour and a half after I had planned on getting started.  I decided to take Deuce and let Stella rest, and then if he was too hot, I would loop by the house.  I took one large bottle of water for him, and one of my bottles for me.  He was doing so well despite the heat, that I decided to just finish the entire mileage and keep him with me.  

New moo moos in the feedlot!

This picture is funny and has a story.  The irrigation system was on, and the end spout was spraying on the tarmac of the airport and making lots of noise.  Deuce was fascinated by it, so I sent him out to check it out.  Deuce is my shadow dog, so the fact that he went that far away from me is very crazy.  He did always have a great out in agility LOL!  He didn't really play in it, he just kind of watched it and followed it and then returned back to me.  We did do lots of walk breaks during this run and it is what it is.  I am not going to get down that I was sore and tired and needed walk breaks anymore.

Total mileage for the week: 34.75 miles

SO close to taper time!  I am ready!  Hoping for a couple more weeks of hard and then some nice easy before Chicago.   Come on body, hold it together for just a little longer!

Have a great week!

Run Back to School 2017

I love this race!  There is nothing better than a home town race that benefits the very school your kiddo goes to!  This year was even more special because a) andrew is actually now in school there b) i was part of the committee to help run it and c)stella got to run it after over a year of battling IMPA.  

This is a race I like to do every year.  I love being able to step outside of my door and walk to the start line in 5 minutes.  I love that I know the course like the back of my hand, and that it is a fun and challenging course with up and down hill.  I love that the residents around the course get out and cheer, and that there are so many activities for the kids to do pre and post race.  Plus, how cute are kid races????

I love that for the kiddos, the theme is super heroes, but for the t shirts, every year has a different feel.  Last year it was back to the future and this year it was Star Wars.  I did purchase a few of these shirts extra:)

Plus this was the first year for Coleman Electric to be a corporate sponsor.  I am super proud that Tony's company can give back to the community!

Add in that the packets have stuff in them that I will actually use!

They have been using the same course for the past couple of years, and I love it.  There are some parts where there is side walk and it is challenging to pass but otherwise, nice down hill to complement the uphill parts.

Mile 1:  9:01.  My goal for this race was even mile splits.  I never ever have run a race where all of my mile splits were even. I usually go out WAY too fast and then die the second half of the course. I honestly wasn't really sure what pace I could even muster as it was super humid and not quite what I would call cool.   Mile one starts at the school and goes down 8th street hill to the rec complex.  You head around the rec complex and exit out onto Balderson for your first mile.   Other than Stella trying to pull me the entire first mile as hard as she could, this mile was good. I usually go out WAY to fast and pay for it later.  I liked this pace and was able to maintain my cool and keep some good breathing and not let the people around me influence my race.

Mile 2:  9:10.  I had hoped to get this mile a little faster but I did stop for water for stella at this mile.  I quickly drank one big gulp and then let her finish the rest.  She had pulled pretty much for two straight miles, and she was hot and tired.  Mile two has you cruise down 6th street to the park, through the park and up 4th, across 4th and up some side walks.  Side walks in this part of town are not the greatest, so most people were walking and paying attention to their feet.  I passed several people at this point.  Again, my goal was even, and I felt like we were doing a good job.

Mile 3.  9:39.    Ah, the only uphill part, but at least it is mostly shaded.  You are heading across to 8th street again to go back down to the finish.  Stella was majorly lagging at this point.  She had been mad pulling for 2 straight miles, and I figured we were probably going to have to walk.  This is where I normally crash as well, but as we were heading up those hills, I honestly felt fine for once.  I just tried to keep an easy steady beat, and control my breathing.  People were dropping like flies, and we passed a huge chunk of the people that were ahead of us at this point.  Stella seemed to get her third wind, and we headed for home.  Except one tiny problem.  We had a small section down 8th street where we were on side walk again and we were stuck behind a guy.  He would NOT let us get by.  Every time I would move to one side to pass him, he would move that way.  He seriously did this several times, and I finally just gave up.  I knew we had a portion back on the street for the finish, so I was hoping we could pass him there.  He ended up finishing ahead of us by 2 seconds.  It was just kind of weird that he wouldn't let us pass at all.  Oh well, not in my age division or the same sex!

I ended up finishing in 28:48, which is probably my worst time for this course, but I am really proud of it because it was a very even effort versus my normal go out way to fast at the beginning and die at the end.  We never walked and I probably would not have stopped for water if I had not had stella.  My stomach behaved, which is always a bonus.  We ended up 2nd in our age group, fourth overall woman, and 10th overall runner.  You have to LOVE little tiny races because this will never happen again LOL!

Post race the kiddos got ready for their races by making capes, painting masks, and just generally having fun!  There was even two bounces houses this year, one regular castle one and one that had water and was shaped like a shark!

All in all, this is a SUPER FUN race!  SO much for the kids to do while you run your race, and the money goes to a great cause!  I love the super hero theme and love all the picture ops.  I will be back to help with it next year, as it is a smoothly oiled machine.  I wish we could get runner participation up, but it is what it is. I think the committee did an amazing job advertising, I think that running in all races is down this year for whatever reason.  The kid's races are always well stocked with kiddos, and I am hoping Andrew might be ready for the 1 mile next year.  I was pleased with my effort, especially after doing 3 miles prior to the race (and having to run back home to get stella in order to run with her, long story).  I am so so glad that stella is back to running and is happy and healthy again.  This is one of the few dog friendly races we do a year, and I want to say a huge thank you to the RD for letting us run together since we train together.  

Andrew's First day of School

Mommy's warning here!  There is nothing about running in this post, so abandon ship if you just like running.  This is a way for me to remember his very first day of kindergarten.

We were going to walk to school.  We live a few blocks away, and we were so excited.  Till we got outside and it was thundering and raining.  Sigh.  To the car we go.  

Little man didn't mind.  He was SO excited to go to his "big boy school".  I was a little nervous, because I had heard what a mess parking could be.  

We got to the school before the doors opened and luckily found a spot fairly easily for once.  We got in the doors as the storm hit in earnest.  We found our way to our new class and to the line up outside the door.  

All the kiddos were posing for pics.  It was truly mad chaos inside the building.  Andrew seemed okay.  He talked to his new friends and his old little love bug friends that were all around him in other class rooms.  

Of course we got pics with all of his wrestling friends.  

Some of the kiddos were getting pretty upset and his smile was turning into a frown, so I took it as time for me to leave.  No tears from either of us!  

I found this sign on the internet and had to print it. I totally forgot to do the whole sign thing pre school starting, but the storm was hindering good pictures.  When we went to pick him up from Boys and Girls club, he was hysterically crying.  From what we can get, he was super upset because he got in trouble on the play ground.  He also mentioned bullying.  I am not sure what to believe.  I DO NOT like picking my kiddo up hysterical and in tears, but at the same time, if he was doing something wrong, he needs to be fussed at.  I hate that whatever happened caused him to be upset about the whole day and caused him to not want to go back to school.  IN fact he said he hated his new school and wanted to go back to his old school.  Change is hard and I know he always needs a day or two to get use to new situations (remember camp invention?).  I think the majority of the day was good for him.  He talked about liking lunch and making a playdough minion.  He brought home a colored picture, but he seemed stress that it didn't turn out how it wanted it.  I honestly had hoped he would be more like his daddy, but it seems he inherited his type A from me.  Sigh.  Will be getting lots of advice from my mommy on how to handle my mini me.  Looking forward to the rest of the week and getting into our routine.  All in all, minus the crying, I think he had a good day, and I am going to think about the positive and not focus on the negative. 

Kindergarten stats that everyone put on their pics that I totally forgot to do:

43 lbs

3 foot 7 inches

curly red hair

still loves Thomas and legos

wants to be a train conductor when he grows up

favorite dog: Harley

Class of 2030!

Week 10 of 18 Chicago Marathon Training

Another week up and down, and another week closer to the peak of my training.  The temperatures are getting a little lower, but the humidity is making up for that.  I wouldn't mind an early fall at all IF we could lower the dang temps!

This was a crazy and big week. I had made a decision to do something super scary and outside of my comfort zone. I have decided to go part time in my beetle/BNG lab that I have worked for, for 13 years and work part time for Tony's company, Coleman Electric.  This means I am saying good bye to my algal lab that I have worked in for the past year.  I really loved working with them and hate to let them go, but I really, really want to be a part of my hubby's company and help it grow and help him not be chained to paper work all night every night.  I am super nervous, as this is totally out of my wheel house but heck, I do love a good challenge.  Keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I try a new chapter in my life!

Monday:  Rest day.  How I love thee. I actually had to work sunday all day and had a ton to do monday, so came home pretty exhausted.  Like go to bed at 6:30 pm exhausted.  I am hoping my body is just fighting something off and this isn't something else (and no I am not preggers:).

Tuesday:  Speed work. Mile repeats.  After going to bed super early and not sleeping very well throughout the night, I knew when I got up that repeats were not in the stars for me.  I decided to do just mileage and hope that whatever this feeling is that i have is nothing, and a few days of easy will cure it.

Okay, so here is a tiny rant.  I have had my garmin 220 for years now. I have never had issues with it or if I have, they have been pretty quickly fixable.  The past couple of weeks my watch has been off big time.  I know where the mile markers are on our route, because I haven been running roughly the same routes for years now.  At times today, mine and Mel's watch was off by a quarter of a mile !!!!!  I know we can be a tenth or so off, but not a quarter of a mile much because we are running side by side!  I am as I type this, installing a software update, so hoping that fixes it.  I love my garmin and hate talking ill of it because it has been such a good watch, but dude, I ran 6 miles today and I didn't get credit for it :)

These two crack me up.  This was "second dinner" as they ate while I was at soccer and then ate again when I went to subway to pick up a salad

Yes, I have been roped into soccer again.  This time I am a head coach.  I think I have lost my mind, but surely I can do this with only 5 five year olds and some help from Rockin Robin right????

Wednesday:  Cross and Strength.  I vowed to get back on the C and S horse and I batted .500.  I really think we should rethink cross training, because i think I should sometimes get credit for lugging an almost 50 lb kid around hyvee.  Actually, we are in the stage where he absolutely does NOT want to ride in the buggy, but yet push the buggy and push the buggy as fast as possible, which is not cool.  His head is now above the pushing bar and it just makes me happy and sad that he is growing up so quickly!  I did get 30 minutes of strength in, including my MYRTL routine before we headed out.

Thursday:  6 miles easy.  My hope was that by skipping Tuesday's speed work that I would be more apt to hit it hard Thursday.  Nope.  I woke up and just wasn't feeling very speedy and that was compounded by 96% humidity.  I swear Kansas, please, dial back the humidity so us runners can enjoy the lower temperatures!!!!  I tried to get a pic because we were running in this dense fog the whole time, but this is all I got.

Yes, it really was that thick.  I hate running in this mess because I feel like I can't even breath.

Friday:  Cross.  A nice bike ride post dinner that got shortened thanks to running out of daylight.  I love fall, but I hate loosing that precious daylight!

Saturday:  18 miles.  Woke up super pumped to see some meteors as the Perseid's are here.  They did not disappoint.  In the middle of the city, with all of the light pollution, I saw about 13 in the span of an hour, and they were all SUPER bright!  My hubby even came out and saw a few very bright ones.  I had hoped to see more on my run, but by the time i got out of the door, dawn was creeping in, plus running and looking up is kind of tricky.  I decided to take both dogs with me, and then loop back and drop off if they needed it.  The humidity was at about 96 percent, but the temps were low, so I took plenty of water with me and gave them water breaks every 3 or so miles.  I also attempted to walk only when I gave them water and briefly when I had to fuel.  I can run and eat, but it is a challenge i would rather not attempt.  Choking in the middle of no where would not be fun, and I don't think the dogs can do CPR or the Heimlich.   

I was going to do some loopage, but since the dogs were doing so well, I decided to try and get 16 before looping back to the house to re fill water bottles.  Since my stashed water bottle got stolen a few weeks ago, I am a little gun shy about stashing anything these days.  Hopefully no one will steal anything off of my front porch!!!!  I dropped off a very reluctant Deuce, and Stella ella and I headed out to finish the final 2.  We decided to do part of the race course we will be doing next weekend for the Run Back to School 5K.  

I need one of those tennis ball attachments so she will look at my phone

Sunday:  Recovery run 6 miles.  I got up at 4:30 am to catch some meteors, but after a while of seeing nothing but clouds and the bright moon, and NO meteors, I decided to give up and go back to sleep.  I must have slept hard (and needed it) because I didn't wake up till 8:30.  Deuce and I headed out for a super easy 6 with some walking.  I was kind of sore post yesterday's run and Deuce had done 16 miles, so we were all about easy.  While the sun made it feel a tiny bit hotter than I would have liked, we managed and Deuce took a few dips in the puddles that were left out on our route.  

Total mileage for the week: 35.77 (although I am pretty sure I got the .33 but I will keep it official LOL).

I am glad we are on the downside of training, even if I haven't gotten through my longest runs.  Coach hasn't let on yet if we are doing multiple 20s or 22s or what, but I kind of like not knowing.  Less for me to obsess about that way.  I ended this week feeling much better, and I am looking forward to more lower temp days!  Oh I finally saw the number 130 on the scale meaning I have lost 13 lbs now.  I haven't really changed much about the way I eat at all other than just trying to stay within my calories so going to keep food logging and see where this takes me!

Have a great week!

Week 9 of 18 Chicago Marathon Training

It's the half way point, EEEEEK!  Dare I say I am feeling really good and I attribute it all to the strength, cross training, and loosing 10 lbs.  I know I have some tough runs coming up, but it feels good to know that the peak is almost here and then the taper comes quickly!  Most hate the taper but my body LOVES the taper!

Monday:  Rest day.  Rest day is sacred to me and I love it :) . Especially with speed work days being Tuesdays.  I need all the rest I can get!

My attempt to get a good pic of mel and stella leaving me in the dust

Tuesday:  800 meter repeats x 6 with one mile warm up and 1.5 mile cool down.  100% humidity.  We were drinking air.  It was so foggy and wet that we were instantly drenched.  Other than the very first interval, we were able to maintain our pace.  Glad to be back to the lower end of the repeat scale but I know coach is ready to ramp back up again to the higher repeats and that always scares me.

Wednesday:  Cross training and strength.  I finally managed to get up and get an hour on my bike with rocking robin.  Strength did not happen though :( . I have managed to fall off of the strength wagon this week.

Thursday:  7 miles easy.  Actually my coach had us doing speedwork again BUT, since I have a 10 K on Saturday, I really didn't need to do three days of speed work.  Unfortunately when we got up there was a huge thunderstorm headed our way, so we both went back to bed hoping we could get out post work.  The weather ended up being amazing all day, and we took both of the dogs out for our 7.

Friday:  Cross and strength.  Decided to sleep in and make it a rest day due to the race being Saturday.  Really glad I did because later that night, I was wide awake very, very late.

Saturday:  10 K race, Brew to Shoe. Here is a pic from the first year I did the race, complete with my beer!

2013 Brew to Shoe on the old course

This year we were not so lucky with the weather.  We knew the weather men had been predicting 100 % heavy rain all week, but we all secretly hoped they were wrong.  Whelp, they were dead on right.  When we got up, thunder was rumbling already, and by the time we got to the start line, the lightening and rain had started in earnest.  The RD kept pushing back the start time, but they finally had to make a decision due to the roads needing to be opened back up.  The RD shortened the 10K down to a 5K, with the 1 mile run happening right after the 5K cleared out.  Unfortunately, I needed 6 miles, so a 5 K and a longer wait didn't sound good to me.  I could run on my mill and be completely dry or run in the rain around my house and get a full 6.  As we were driving home, the lightening got less and less, so I decided to eat quickly and head out an hour later.  

We managed 6.2 on some sloppy roads with a little bit of rain and some rumbling of thunder, but no lightening.    

Sunday:  Long run 18 miles.  We had a birthday party the night before and I was so exhausted that I fell asleep as soon as we got home.  I am glad that I did because 4:30 came way too early.  Of course we had a lower temp thanks to the rains that moved through BUT we had 100 percent humidity.  Thanks Kansas.  I really struggled around mile 15.  That was the first time in a long time that I honestly contemplated stopping.  I had done one loop with Deuce first for about 10 miles and then came back home to swap out out dogs and pick up Stella for the last 8 miles.  I was trying to run and not walk at all, but I think trying to gut it out made me feel like poop.  I usually walk every 2 or so miles when the humidity is that bad but I thought I would be tough and keep going till I had to fuel.  Oh well, live and learn, I may be a runner but my walk breaks help me stay strong and finish.  I managed to finish and get to work.  Yes, I had to work on a Sunday and it wasn't bad but I was sad to not be with my family on a weekend.  That may be all about to change, but more on that later:0)

Total mileage for the week:  38.2

It's going to be a busy few weeks at night, so I HAVE to get my butt out of bed and do all of my work outs early, not just my runs. I have no excuses,  I need to get in bed earlier no matter what and I need to get up and not hit snooze.  We start soccer this week and apparently I have been promoted to heard coach.  I have little to no knowledge about soccer so this will be very interesting.  

Have a great week!!!!