Week 5 of 18: Training for the Heartland 50 and Trail Marathon

Another week of training, another week of crazy weather!  I had been contemplating adding back an extra day of running for a while.  This week, I had a group run on a day I hadn't planned on running, so now I guess was a good time to try this plan.  My coach and I decided to stick to the Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday/Sunday plan, but add in a Wednesday run when I felt like it.  My body may hate this or I may love this and be so happy to be running 5 days a week again.  Who knows, but I won't know till I try!

Pork tenderloin and wild rice

Monday:  Rest day.  No school day due to holiday.  Add in negative wind chills and you get another day pretty much inside all day. Other than a brief trip to wrestling practice, we sat in the house and played games, read, and stared at screens.  I did cook a meal that I really, really liked.  Of course I say cooked, but i really only dumped stuff into the crock pot and then cooked some rice so not sure you can call it cooking.  Maple apple pork tenderloin plus wild rice.  YUM!  This will be a repeat meal for sure!

Tuesday: Speed work.  1000 meter repeats x 4 with a mile warm up and mile cool down.  I had to do this one on the mill thanks to the negative wind chill and the sheet of ice that is my road.  I won't lie, this one was tough.   I had the mill on 1% incline with the speed set at 6.6 mph for the repeats and of course walked the 400 meter recoveries.  Broken record, the speeds did not match up on my watch versus the mill, and neither did the mileages, as my watch reported 5.48 mile, while the mill reported over 6, but I did the workout, I struggled appropriately, I wanted to give up but didn't.  Alias Grace continues to keep my attention and it is taking everything in my power to NOT binge watch it post treadmill.  Since I was stuck in the house due to weather, I was also able to do my strength training and rehab exercises.  Boy am I going to miss these days where I can just run and work out and do whatever I want during the day.

Wednesday: Cross and possible group run.  Wednesday was a ball of stress at work and at home.  I am not proud that I had to have a couple of beers to de-stress, but it is what it is.  I have my bike and trainer ready to go, but instead I did some melting down, helped tony with a big project for his work, had a couple of beers and a cheeseburger to de-stress, and went to bed. I also decided not to drive back to Manhattan for the group run and Hoka event. I am kind of bummed that missed it, but I was not in the right frame of mind anyway to enjoy it.  I am glad that I was able to help tony get something done for the company that he was having issues with. 

The Wamego Wrestling Club-  There is so many of them that you can't see all of them!

Thursday:  6 miles easy.  On the mill thanks to waking up to a not so happy tummy. I had actually been up most of the night with gas and bloating and just plain tummy pain.  I decided to let the girls run without me and run post work.  We had the Wamego Wrestling Dual that night, so I had to hop on the mill immediately after work.  Let's just say I am so glad I chose the mill because running made pit stops frequent. I was very, very glad the bathroom was just a few steps away.  I also finished up Alias Grace.  I really need to read the book because the ending was SO weird.  So was she possessed?  Was that innocence all an act?  What did she actually do to Nancy and her master?  Does the book answer these questions????  I need to know!!!!

Friday:  Strength and cross.  I did neither.  We had set up for our local wrestling club's tournament and weigh ins, so post work and picking up Andrew, it was a mad dash to get to weigh ins and start helping with set up.  Post set up it was again a mad dash to eat, get snacks for the next day, and get home and get to bed.  We got in bed way later than I wanted to and then none of us could sleep.  I had to finally take melatonin to get some zzzzzs.  Andrew fell asleep around 9:30 and was up around 3 am for no apparent reason.

Saturday:  6 miles.  Wrestling tournament all day.  One exhausted mom=no running.  The plan was that for each table worked at each mat(the table being where the scoring is done electronically by a person punching buttons) that there are three workers who can interchange and all work the computer and get to watch their respective kid's matches.

Unfortunately this year, the ones of us who had experience had to be spread out on the tables, which meant us working the computers we got NO breaks for over 6 hours.  I had to score my own kid's match and work the clock while screaming and yelling for him.  Talk about stressed! I got 0 bathroom breaks and had a fig newton and half of a hot dog all day to eat with a few sips of a coke.  Needless to say at the end of the tournament, I was TOAST.  Horrible headache and major neck ache due to me being so stressed about getting things right.  Parents and coaches are BRUTAL at wrestling matches.  They will call you out if you get anything wrong the SECOND you push the button.  The system itself is easy to use, unless you screw up.  Since the matches move so quickly, once you screw up, it's like a tidal wave that is hard to come back from. And of course parents and coaches don't like it when you have to stop the match to get the ref to help you fix mistakes or help with a cranky computer.  I was at least lucky that I had a wonderful parent who wanted to learn and took a paper score for each match to double check my electronic scores.  I hope next year she will have the confidence to work the computer as I think she really got it in the end!

We saw MAJOR improvement this year.  If you remember last  year, we had three tournaments and all but the last match of the last tournament was immediate pin.  Sometimes he would even fall before the kid even took him down LOL!!!!  Andrew had three matches and the first went two rounds before he got pinned, the second match went almost a full three rounds before getting pinned, and then got pinned pretty quickly the third match. I knew he was tired by the third match, and while I would love for him to not give up, I wasn't surprised he got pinned so quickly.  We have so much to work on, BUT we saw SO many good things, which means he is absorbing what he is learning in practice.  We have two more tournaments to attend, and I think we are going to continue to see good things!  Plus, while his aggression isn't crazy yet, he is trying to fight back more this year.  Now if we can just get his confidence up enough to shoot and take down rather than avoid take down and ride, we will be good to go!

Sunday:  12 miles.  After a good night's rest, some hydration, and some advil (thanks horribly sore neck) I had a pretty good run.  Other than some south wind,  it was pleasant outside and the mud was only slightly annoying. 

The dogs however enjoyed the run and the mud and muck.  Glad aussies just dry and the mud falls off.  I do wish we had a mud room though with some sort of tub.  It would be nice to just plunk them in the tub post run and not to have to sweep the floors for several days.  I did end up taking my pack and some Nuun with me. I can't seem to get rid of this dehydration that I have had since Thursday.  I have been trying to get at least one to two bottles of Nuun down a day, but I just can't seem to catch up.  I did have to run a few loops around my neighborhood as I can only get about 10 on a true out and back without any back tracking.  Even had to re route thanks to a train sitting on three different crossings. Oh well, kept me on my toes!

I am ready to get some runs done outside but I am NOT ready for more snow and ice.  I am glad I have a treadmill but I miss my running partners and the dogs are not happy being stuck inside so much!

Have a great week!