Week 1 of 18: Flint Hill's Trail Marathon Training

Time to start training already?  WOW, this recovery time has flown by.  I had hoped all my aches and pains would be magically fixed by now.  I took time off, stretched (but not enough), rested, and took my mileage easy, but I guess I am just at that point where pains and niggles will be with me.  I know how to keep them at bay, so there is that.  That is one good thing about having almost every injury known to man.

Monday:  Rest day.  Whoa, after a day off that was unintentional (thanks low grade fever), I was seriously contemplating running.  Then the fact that I still wasn't over whatever this was hit me, and instead I took it easy for the rest of the night.

Tuesday:  3, 2, 1 ladder.  My coach gave me pace goals for each segment, but I decided to run by feel instead and see where I hit.  Other than the middle 3 and 2 being similar, I am pretty happy with this effort.  The goal of this run at least in my mind was to make the 3 minute segment comfortably hard, the 2 minute segment hard, and the 1 minute segment really hard.

Also, this was the last day of school for Andrew for Christmas break.  I had planned on taking the week from Christmas to New Years off, with the rest of this week being bring your kid to work week.  I so LOVE the Pintrest moms in andrew's class.  They bring their A game, and I am taking lots of pictures and asking lots of questions.  Too bad Mrs Hyvee makes the best sugar cookies with the prettiest designs.  They even had snowflakes that looked like the came from the movie Frozen, which the little girls LOVED.

Maybe one day I will be brave enough to make something for my kiddo's class.  OR I could just do something like these!

 

These were great ideas (NO COOKING) and the kids loved it!

Post parties we had to wrangle all of these kiddos into one big blob to take wrestling pictures.  Talk about herding cats.  Wow.  These three together crack me up.  I think they are going to be trouble for sure!

Wednesday:  Cross and Strength.  I did strength!  I may not be doing it after my hard work outs like my coach wants me to, but I am getting it done and that is all that matters.

Post working, our lab that is left headed over to the Christmas tree at the Blue Earth Plaza in Manhattan.  I so love my boss.  She may not have kids of her own, but she adopts Andrew and treats him like one of her own.  How many University Distinguished Professors do you see acting like Cindy Lou Who?

Okay I love these glasses that make the lights look different.  This one is reindeer glasses

Thursday:  4 easy.  Does anyone else love seeing all the Christmas lights on their runs?  Right now it is my favorite part of running.  We always end in the park and it really is like a winter wonderland, minus the snow.  I always put on Pandora rocking Christmas so that we get some Christmas cheer as well.  I am one of those weirdos that can't get enough Christmas music and have to really hold off till after Thanksgiving.

Thursday was the dreaded day of the root canal, possibly two. I think I was the most nervous because I have never had one and had no clue what to expect for my kiddo.  The pediatric dentist that we go to is AMAZING!  Unfortunately, we will have to go back for more, but at least the worst two teeth are fixed now and he ended up only needing one root canal total.  He calls the silver tooth his lightning mcqueen tooth and I have no clue why.  I think it is his inside joke with his dentist.  

103 degree fever.  No fun:(

Friday:  Unintentional rest day.  Oh boy.  So around 9 pm thursday night, little man started complaining that his tummy was hurting.  At first I thought it was a ruse to get more computer time, because he loves playing Roblox that much that he would play on my sympathies.  Anyway, shortly after everyone went to bed, the puking started. I had wisely decided we needed to stay downstairs so that any possible puke would be easy to clean up, and of course, just like any good dog or cat, he puked all over the floor and missed the garbage can and toilet.  Yeah for hardwood floor!  After that, he got pretty good at puking in the garbage can, but he just keep waking up and puking and waking up and puking.  I know we got some sleep, but nothing good and long, and I had to launder some blankets a few times and dig some new ones out to replace the pukey ones.  Then he started complaining of tummy pain and crying.  I have been told conflicting information on pepto, so was super reluctant to give him any, but he wanted some and I just wanted him to be out of pain.  He and I then got a chunk of sleep before his fever started kicking in and he woke up.  I finally started drinking coffee in hopes of being a human being for the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, he spiked a high fever and kept it most of the day, which led to much resting that was good, but also just feeling horrible, which is bad.  

Lucky for us, Grandma was in town, so we got to slip away for a quick 12th anniversary date.  Our actual anniversary was on the 21st (and i put it on FB so it will remind me next year because i am forgetful classy like that).  We hit Bourbon and Baker for some small plate goodness and some exquisite dessert, and then hit up my favorite coffee joint for some after dinner coffee.  I figured it would be a long night again, so I hoped the late coffee would keep me going.    We also hit up the store for some Tylenol, so we could stack some Advil and Tylenol to help little man feel better.  I had planned that if he woke up not feeling well again Saturday, that we were headed to the walk in clinic in Wamego.  Even though I was pretty sure it was a stomach virus, I was a little concerned about him not staying hydrated enough, and then the fever compounding the issue with him sweating out anything he was gaining.  

Found this cute little paint it yourself ornament at the Dollar Store!

Saturday:  5 miles with strides.  With much hope for some sleep and also with not the best dinner for running on board, I had switched my easy run and long run days around.  I didn't know how much sleep I would be getting, since Andrew was still not feeling great.  Lucky for me, the stacking worked and he slept all night only waking up to ask for a water a couple of times.  His fever broke in the middle of the night, and I was so glad that he woke feeling much better.  I was really worried that the coffee I drank Friday night would keep me up, but I was asleep by 9:30, no problems.  Took both dogs on the run as they love strides.  

Then I brought them home and tortured them.  They got lots of cheese for me torturing them, don't worry:) 

Pretty sure Stella is going to murder me in my sleep for this!

Sunday:  Long run day and SNOW!  10 miles in the snow, which was probably only about 1 inch, but GORGEOUS!  The wind however was pretty brutal and was from the north/northwest, which meant pretty much my entire run home was in wind.  The only part of me that was really uncomfortably cold was my hands.  I guess I needed a second layer on my hands, even though I had hot hands in my gloves.  I was pretty worn out and ready for food when I got done.  Running in and on snow is hard work!  Especially in town where the sun had turned it to mushy slicky stuff.  

Post running, we got to celebrating!  Instead of a big Christmas lunch like normal, we decided to try a non traditional meal on Christmas Eve night.  My wonderful hubby took a nice big beef roast, stuffed it with spinach and cheese, tied it up, and grilled it to perfection.  We opened presents from the Colemans and tried to get little red to go to sleep so Santa could come.  We may or may not have had a few libations since Monday was a day off for all of us. 

Hope you have a great Christmas and Holiday week!  This will be the first year I take the entire week off like the rest of KSU, so I am going to enjoy it!!!