Week 4: Training for the Flinthills 50 and Trail Marathon

Another week of crazy temperatures.  First spring like temps and then snow and ice.  Crazy Kansas winter!  Make up your mind!!!  Get ready for some random pictures as always :)

Monday:  Day off.  Wrestling changed to Monday night, thanks to activities at the high school. Andrew not only had a "green" day at school, he did all of his homework, and had a good wrestling practice.  Should I go buy a lottery ticket?  I was really worried that the Christmas/new years break might be super bad for Andrew, as he was in a good routine,  but now I think it was super good!

Andrew got a buff from Buff international.  He is still a little confused as to how you wear it

Tuesday:  800 meters x 5.  I got up not feeling great.  I had not slept well the night before and I honestly felt like I was coming down with something.  Lucky for me, Mel didn't feel well either.  I decided to try and get my run in, post dropping Andrew off at school, since I have lots of flexibility in my schedule right now (= no research going on:(.  I was hoping the extra sleep and having the sun up might make me be able to power through the work out.  I made it through, but felt super weak and not so great the whole time.  I think my body was fighting something off.  The flu is going around our town big time, as well as several little viruses, including stomach viruses.  You can't do anything about them but suffer through really, but I sure was hoping I wasn't going to have to suffer.

Wednesday:  Strength and Cross.  While I felt better, I still wasn't 100 percent, and decided that resting would be a better option.  I ate a good healthy dinner, thanks to another freezer meal class.  Chicken broccoli Alfredo in the crock pot was amazing!

I hoped lots of rest and zicam would beat this mess.  I still didn't have any real symptoms other than fatigue, but just had the feeling that something was coming down the pike.

Thursday:  6 miles easy.  Woke up to blizzard like conditions.  Ice pellets first, then blowing crazy snow.  Mel and I had already decided that we weren't running outside the night before .  The winter weather advisory had quickly changed to a warning overnight, and schools were canceled first thing in the morning. Predictions of up to 8 inches of snow quickly manifested. Lucky for us, we got more of a coating of ice and then some light snow, but they canceled school and shut down many businesses early just in case.  I don't mind being preemptive, even if they are wrong in the long run.

Friday:  Strength and Cross.  I got the strength done....well most of it. I combined my strength with my rehab exercises plus MYRTL and called it good.  I would like to get my bike trainer out and put it upstairs and get my bike on it so I can do cross in our bedroom.  Problem is that hubby put the trainer out in our scary shed that has all kinds of critters and scary things, and I am waiting on him to get it out for me.  I know, excuses.

Snow Geese!

Saturday:  Short long run.  Hubby had to work again, so I opted to switch long run days around.  Unfortunately, that meant the mill.  I had just finished up season one of Mind Hunter and was trying out some new shows to keep me from loosing my mind.  Lately, this strategy has been oddly working to get me through runs on the mill.  Today I started watching Alias Grace, and wow, it has already sucked me in during the second episode, which is good, because I might be milling it during my 12 miler.  I am kind of scared that I am getting SO use to running on the mill and not suffering outside like the rest of my buddies!  Of course the weather is suppose to get bad again tonight, so I may not have a choice.

Sunday:  Long, long run.  We woke up to a nice fresh blanket of snow.  I needed fresh snow to cover up the ice, so I could run outside.  I am doing better with my treadmill runs, but not ready to commit to 12 miles on the mill.  We slept in, thanks to staying up late to watch Wonder Woman (FINALLY), so I didn't get out till after 10 am.  When I headed out, the paved roads were pretty snow packed, and so was my route.  My yaktraxs did well on the deeper snow, but when the snow wasn't deep enough thanks to the wind blowing it into drifts,  or the rocks were too thick under the snow, they dug into my feet pretty painfully.  The part of my running route that the county has re rocked recently was the worst, and I seriously thought about just taking the yaktraxs off to try and finish.  Thanks to the rocks and the snow or lack of,  I was seeing almost 15 minute miles.  By the time I got back to the paved roads,  the city had bladed most of my paved route, and I had to stop and just take my yaktraxs off completely so I could stay upright and also not have them dig into my feet.  Then I got back to my neighborhood, which had NOT been bladed, and about busted my butt.  Aw, winter in Kansas.  I was even short over 2 miles, so I undressed enough to not sweat to death, and got on the mill to finish out.  I am glad that I at least tried to get my long run in outside, and hope this isn't going to be the theme of my long runs for the rest of this training cycle. 

We are suppose to get more snow tonight as I finish up typing this. We are off tomorrow for Martin Luther King day, so hoping we can get some sort of playing in the snow/getting out of this house done.  Thanks to my van's transmission going in and out of gears and the iffy roads, I have been pretty much too scared to drive much towards the end of this week, thus pretty much stuck inside.  We have been movie watching, playing video games, and generally acting like sloths for a few days now. 

Have a great week!