Hello New Readers!

Hey new blog readers!

Just wanted to kind of give you a Hi and thanks for checking me out!  I am a mom of one 2 legged kid and three four legged fur kids that is a scientist by day, coach of youth sports by night, as well as helping with my hubby's company.  I try and blog weekly about how my work outs went and then as I find gear I like or have a topic come into my head, I try and write that down too!  I have a couple of pages that are always pinned at the top of the main blog page including the races I have done (which should all include links to race reports if you click on the race name), about me page, and my favorite dog gear that includes links directly to product websites.  I did recently reformat my blog and am always looking for new blog templates.

Please note while I am a Honey Stinger ambassador this year, most of the products I talk about do NOT sponsor me or give me any compensation, so I speak about them with true love :)  I run with two of my aussies, Deuce and Stella, so if you follow me on instagram @redaussie3, you will see lots of pictures of those two, as well as pic of my kiddo.  I admit, Twitter is not really my thing, and I need to be more active there (follow me at redaussie31), but I mainly post on my blog Facebook page Running With Reds or on Instagram.  I do try and share any articles I come across about dogs and running or dogs and running + gear on my Facebook blog page.  There have been lots of good articles coming out lately so check it out!

Again thanks for checking me out!  I appreciate the love!

March Runfessions

Another round of runfessions is ready for you to read!  As always, my mind wanders all over the place when it comes to these, but here is what is in my crazy head that needs to come OUT!  Grab your favorite springtime beer and settle in!

okay random pic but a dog and beer in your logo???  You had me at dog! And then beer.  And DOG!

Update on Andrew's tutoring:

I think things are progressing well.  We have had our latest round of Parent Teacher conferences and again, mostly 3s (3 being the highest) with a few 2s thrown in.  The only part that is confusing me is the fact that he won't participate in Science or Social Studies, as I know he has science on lock down.  Just the other day, we were driving somewhere and he loudly proclaimed, "Hey Mom, you know gravity is the reason we walk on earth right?"  WHAT?  So you are learning and taking it in, even though your teacher says you are very distracted during science and social studies.  Maybe this is classical boredom?  Who knows.  I do know that his writing is improving amazingly and he actually seeks out books to read to us.  He still struggles what I consider appropriately, but I am happy with where he is at.  In fact, according to his report card, he only has to be at a reading level of A and he is at a level of B.  We have signed up for 70 hours at Sylvan, so I think he will be more than ready for 1st grade next year!  YIPEEEE!!!!!  I think the biggest change we have noted has been confidence.  He will actually pick up books and attempt to sound out words where before he wouldn't even attempt if he perceived it to be too hard.  He also is constantly sounding out sign names and logos and trying to figure out what tags say at the grocery store.  Apparently now he is flourishing at math as well.  Go figure!!!


Coaching:

even though this is soccer and I am NOT coaching soccer this year, this cracked me up!

I guess I am throwing my hat into coaching T Ball, track and field, as well as wrestling.  While part of me would like to just sit back and enjoy my kiddo playing sports, I totally understand that without parent volunteers,  our kids would not be able to play these sports.  I do enjoy coaching and while coaching wrestling scares the hell out of me because I still feel like I know nothing, I will do whatever it takes for my kiddo to stay on task and have a good experience.  My only concern you ask???  Well, little man is getting very use to me being on the field as a coach and I think that comfort at some point needs to change.  He needs to be able to be out on the field without me and be confident that it is okay. Not such a problem in wrestling thus far, but could change once I start having mat time too?  I guess we shall find out! 


Carnicross:

https://www.facebook.com/canicrossusa/

Okay part of me really wants to start a chapter of this dog sport in our area and try to get at least ONE race on the ground.  The problem?  See the above on coaching.  Right now I am coaching two nights a week with a third night coming up with T ball season starting soon, and we have two nights a week at Sylvan.  Plus I still work two jobs and am the head of the committee for the 5K andrew's school puts on for 2018.  Should I take on more or let someone else take the proverbial reins on this one????  We have three dog themed races in our immediate area (Topeka and Manhattan) and we have the Trail Nerds races that allow dogs so is that good enough?  I need to get input from the dog people in our area.  I also need to see how well the MO carnicross event goes.

There you have it, what is on my brain this month!  Stay tuned for how coaching, school, and canicross all turn out in the future!!!!!

Week 14 of 18: Training for the Flint Hills 50 and Trail Marathon

This is me leaping into spring break week

Ah, spring break.  Time for resting, traveling, and eating everything my mom and mom and law cooks, as well as trying new to me beer, and getting my hair cut.  Now that Andrew is in school and I can't just take off and go when good races are happening back home, I have to travel when he is out of school so no races this year:(  Another week of exploring the city i grew up in on foot!

Monday:  Rest day.  In Martin with my mom  in law.  We had heard that eagles were all out in force at Reelfoot Lake, which is a short drive away from where she lives.  If you have never heard of the story of Reelfoot lake, you need to read about it.  Basically an earthquake caused the Mississippi to flow backwards and it formed a lake, which wiped out an entire tribe of Indians.  The lake is very unique in that it has Cyprus trees that form knobby knees all in the lake.  We took Andrew when he was young to the Coleman reunion there, but now he could remember and enjoy it.  Unlucky for us, the weather kept changing from sunny to raining and super cold, so we couldn't really get out and enjoy as much as we wanted to.  We didn't see any eagles, but we did see deer, ducks, and a few blue heron fishing in the swampy sluice area.  We had lunch at Boyette's, which is over 100 years old and is known worldwide for it's amazing catfish.  Too bad I am not a fish lover!

Tuesday:  7 miles of speed work.  As usual, Andrew changed all of my plans.  Monday morning around 4 am, he woke up with a sick tummy and actual threw up.  Once he got whatever out of his tummy, he felt fine and went back to sleep on the couch.   Well, repeat on Tuesday morning, but this time he couldn't throw up.  We would get up, he would cry and cry, and then we would get settled and go back to sleep.  An hour later, we would get up and repeat.  He finally got some relief via the other end, but then every hour after that had horrible diarrhea.  I am really not sure what to do about his tummy now.  We are both on good probiotics, and the sick tummy doesn't seem to follow any type of pattern with regards to food.  I ended up going back to the ball park with the 1 mile loop and getting my 7 in, but at a much easier pace that what was expected.  100% humidity plus lack of sleep just wasn't conducive to me running a good speed work session.

Wednesday:  Rest day.  Grandma came up from Martin and we had lunch at the garden of olives, and then tooled around bargain hunt and big lots, two of my mom's fav places to find good bargains.  We got some knock off legos for 10 bucks and some other good deals and then just hung out while little man built.

Thursday:  6 miles easy.  I headed out to Pinson Mounds State Park to do some running.  I had looked at the trail map and I thought with some back tracking and looping I could get 6 miles no problem.  I had so many great memories of field trips out at the mounds walking on the trails and hating it (i had a great fear of getting lost and never getting back to civilization), but i knew this time I would eat it up and love every minute of it!  Most of the park is paved trails with some crushed gravel and a nature trail that reminded me of single track in KS.

Running out here brought back so many memories. I can remember wanting to be an archaeologist after one of the many field trips here because I thought this place was so cool!  Basically the Indians that inhabited the area at the time built huge mounds for both ceremonial and burial purposes, but did not actually  inhabit Pinson Mounds.

Saul's mound is the tallest at 72 feet but there are numerous other smaller mounds.  You can climb to the top and Andrew and I counted 125 steps to the top.  I didn't stay long though because I am not a fan of heights!  There is also a single track nature trail that takes you out to a boardwalk area and out to the Forked Deer River.

It took me over an hour to get my 6 in and I did pause to climb to the top of Saul's mound with Andrew, as well as paused several times to read some of the signs to refresh my memory.  I easily got in 6 with minimal backtracking.  I loved the single track nature trail and the obstacles we encountered.  

I had mentioned to Andrew that i wanted to go roller skating at the old roller skating rink that I grew up going to multiple times a week.  You can believe every Friday and Saturday night, me and my girl friends were at the roller skating rink playing the claw game, couple skating, and playing limbo/hokey pokey.  I kind of hoped that Andrew would forgot I had brought it up because I was so tired, but in true kid fashion, he didn't forget.  In the end, I am glad he didn't forget though because we had a BLAST!  They even played the Ghost buster song for him just like they use to do when I was a kid.  There were mainly kids there and Andrew started out with one of those trainers, so we skated until the place closed down.  I am not going to lie, shed a few tears at all the fun we had at that place and all the memories that came up while we were there:)

A random S.  Last week it was a random M.  SO.MUCH.TRASH.EVERYWHERE

Friday:  Long run 18 miles.  I had looked at several routes, but nothing was safe enough or all side walk for a Friday morning run, even with leaving at 5 am.  I decided to stick to my parent's neighborhood and go up the side walk a different way to try to avoid having to do 3 loops.  Other than the fact that I was SUPER sore from roller skating the night before with little man and the leering weird guy in the park, my run was good, a little faster than the week before even thanks to low humidity and no sun.  I still had to do some back tracking and I was super sore from skating so going down hills was ouchy, but i got it done!  Urban running is so different than what I am use to.  Tons of traffic right next to you and no place to go for emergency bathroom breaks makes it challenging.  Really glad I live where I live and have the routes I have!

Saturday:  Drive day.  I again had no plan other than take my time, stop when I needed to, and stay a night somewhere if I was tired.  It's always SO bittersweet to leave.  I love my mom and step dad and I love where I grew up but it has changed SO much.  I was ready to be home and in my own bed and see my baby Deuce (and hubby LOL).  The drive was much like the first time, uneventful with a few stops.  We made good time and had no drama other than little man claiming to have to poop a few times the last few hours.  

Sunday:  5 easy miles.  I really did take it easy.  I walked every mile for a tenth and enjoyed running with Deuce by himself.  It is so good to be back and back on my nice flat running routes :)

Next week has some pretty big mileage including my 20 miler and of course it is a holiday and  my hubby may have to work, so who knows how this will go.  As always I will get done what I can and go from there!

Have a great week!!!!

Week 13 of 18: Training for the Flint Hills 50 and Trail Marathon

No one can resist a Princess Bride reference!

Daylight savings time, I hate you.  You wreck my world in so many ways.  My kiddo, who just started regularly going to bed at 8 pm now stays up later, my body thinks it's 2 am instead of 3 am when I get up to do my now high mileage weekly runs, and my dogs want to be fed all the time because they don't know what the hell is going on.  Why do we have to inflict this torture on ourselves every year????

Finally we can share an addiction!

 Monday:  Glorious rest day.  We had dinner down in aggieville at our favorite new Mexican restaurant post Sylvan.  My son  FINALLY tried a sopapilla and LOVED IT!  YES!  We also tried a new to us ice cream place that does rolled ice cream.  I didn't get any, but I sampled Andrew's chocolate sprinkles and tony's banana hazelnut.  Both were really, really good and now I can't wait to go back and get my own to indulge in!!!!

Tuesday:  7 easy.  Okay I decided to drop the 5th run a week because I just can't seem to fit that in right now.  I am officially giving up for now.  My coach kind of forgot I don't like 2 speed work sessions a week, so she had put two in for this week.  I quickly asked of the two which was more important, and she wanted me to do a 9 mile of 1.5 mile repeats (GULP) and drop the 7 miler with 2 x 2 mile repeats from last week.  I decided to do the 7 mile easy with the girls, and then do the 9 mile torture fest by myself.  This week is going to be pretty crazy anyway with Andrew and I leaving for Tennessee Thursday.  Mel and I headed out for 7 miles of gabbing, farting, and LEAVE IT.  For some reason my headlamp died about a mile in, so the dogs tried to give me a heart attack every mile or so by chasing after or acting very interested in things I couldn't see.  We had lots of leave its because it's black and white kitty love season and I don't want to be washing dogs at 4 am.  I am pretty sure they just like to try and give me a heart attack anytime my head lamp dies on purpose.  

Wednesday:  The plan was to get my 9 miles of speed work done either before work or get off work early and get er done.  Neither happened. I woke up feeling horrible, sure I was coming down with a another cold.  I decided to sleep in instead of getting up at 4 am to see if that helped.  I had a full day at work with more seminars to go to and more people to line out before I could take off for a week and half.  We also had Sylvan and another meeting to see how he was progressing within their system post work, so a full afternoon/night.   Plus, I still needed to pack both of us and get Stella ready for the journey.  I think through rest and Zicam I was able to thwart the cold somewhat, and I got most if not all packing done post Sylvan which helped us get up and going on Thursday morning, so I will call not running a win.

This was at a super cool rest area at the Welcome To Missouri visitor's center

Thursday:  Travel day.  The plan was there was no plan.  Sleep in and get some good sleep, drive as long as I felt like, stop if I felt like stopping, and go from there.  The weather was good, the traffic was manageable, other than St. Louis traffic that almost drove me nuts, and little man was very, very helpful and wonderful for this driving mommy.  We got in around 9 pm, and I of course couldn't sleep.  Then I was awake around 2 am and couldn't go back to sleep then either.  FUN!  With three hard work outs coming up, I needed my sleep, but I tried not to panic.  I had gotten good sleep the night before and that is what counts.

Friday:  I had lots of options on where to run, but I really wanted to check out this park mom told me about.  The loop around the park was 1 mile, and since I needed to do 9 laps, mom and Andrew were going to hang out at the playground while I looped.  For the most part, there was no one else out, so I listened to my podcasts and enjoyed the nice weather.  I don't think either of us were really ready for hotter weather, so my long run probably needs to be super early Saturday morning for sure.  Unfortunately during my running, mom stopped me to tell me that my step dad was being admitted to the hospital and that we needed to go.  My step dad has been having some breathing problems and they had progressively gotten worse.  After a Dr's visit that morning, he was sent to the ER to to be admitted as quickly as possible, but he was not allowed to drive.  Mom got him settled in while Andrew and I headed to lunch at Snappy Tomato and did some shopping.

Snappy Tomato was where I lived in college and I am so glad Jackson has one too.  It's basically pizza buffet all day long but super good pizza and super awesome dessert pizzas.  They also have an arcade, but I am the one that never has paper money so Andrew was bummed.  We instead headed to Walmart to stock up on legos for building while we were here.  

Saturday:  18 miles.  I had looked at several routes for running, but just never felt totally comfortable with any of them.  I decided to try to run around our house and made a ~5 mile loop that was an out and back and try that first.  I ended up doing three loops of that with minor variations to get my 18.  It was 99% humidity when I started and 81% when I finished, and I was drenched in sweat very quickly.  Of course the route was also super hilly, so by the end I was walking up hills, but I don't care, I got it done and that is all that matters.  I also caught up on my back log of AMR podcasts which is nice.  I hate getting behind as I feel like I am missing out!  Let's just say that I will be looking at other routes for my 20 miler, BUT it was super nice to stop by the house for potty breaks, load up on fuel when needed (although I misjudged when I would be back at one point and my dear old mom saved me by bringing me what I needed), and let Stella get a drink.  As we say in the south, it wasn't purty, but it was done!

Sunday:  Easy 5.  I meant to tack on an extra mile to make up for the 7 that I did instead of 9 on Thursday, but that just didn't happen.  I was at my in laws house in martin TN, where I also went to college, and running on back roads that I didn't totally know.  It's all farmland and cattle farms, but you just never know when there will be loose dogs.  After not encountering any at my 2.5 mile mark, I decided not to try my luck and turn around.  Wow, once again, I totally forgot how hilly western TN is.   

I am going to relax and enjoy my week at home.  I will be sharing my time between Jackson and Martin and will be getting runs done as I can.  Have a great week!!!!!

Stop: Recovery Time

Okay I hope I haven't heard that title somewhere else and am ripping it off, but I thought it sounded catchy so there!  I have had several questions privately about what I do for recovery, so I thought I would write a short post about what I do to recover from either a long run or a hard speed session.  As I am getting older, these tools are becoming more and more important to me, as my body seems to think the time now is to fall apart.  Here are my favorite recovery items in no certain order.

Tart Cherry Juice

I read about how important Tart Cherry Juice was in the Book Roar by Stacy Sims, specifically for sleep, but also for inflammation.  Since my body seems to be full of inflammation lately, and I am trying NOT to use any pill form to control that, this juice is my go to.  I am not a fan of blueberries (unless it is in a muffin, YUM) or other anti inflammatory fruits, so Tart Cherry juice fits the bill.  I drink 4 oz either before bed if I am trying to influence sleep specifically, or after hard workouts or long runs.  There are a few brands I really like with the Cheribundi brand from Target being my favorite!  I am lucky that our usual grocery shopping store has an organic/health food section in which I can get Tart Cherry juice regularly.

Protein

I have always tried to stick to the protein within 30 minutes of running strategy.  I have used various bars and chocolate milk in the past, but these Simple Scrambles are my new go tos!!!!  As you can see, the version I had today had 23 grams of protein and was super easy to cook and YUMMY!  I was a little skeptical that the egg would cook enough for me to consume it, as I am a huge texture freak and can not do mushy or runny eggs.  I did increase the cooking time a little bit over the instructed time, but that may be because my microwave is as old as I am and doesn't work properly.  

Taking care of sore muscles

My pro compression socks have been a go to for years.  I sometimes wear them during runs, but I always try and get them on post long run or race for sure!!!!  Here lately I have been pairing Deep Blue Rub from Doterra on my calf muscles with Pro compressions on after that.  Wow, talk about recovering in style!!!!!  I have been using Deep Blue Rub for a few years now, and wow, it really works!  We have a local oil store that sells or you can become part of the Doterra family and buy your own. The cooling sensation is great, but the ending of soreness is WONDERFUL! I usually put this on before bed every night on my hip and down my IT bands.  Yes, I smell like a hippie as my hubby likes to say, but I don't care because it feels amazing!  I also really like to roll out using my Stick.  I am not a fan of the foam roller and will use it when I have to, but I feel like I get the job done better using my Stick.  I like the fact that instead of me getting in all weird positions to get the right part of me rolled out, I can just use the handles to move the stick to whatever spot I need it to be in.

If you have any questions or have other suggestions for recovery let me know!  Hope this helps someone out there looking for other ways to recovery. 

Week 12 of 18: Training for the Heartland 50 and Trail Marathon

Meanwhile in KS

Oh weather, this week has been maybe spring or maybe winter, who knows!  Kansas, try to calm it down.  We don't need all seasons in one week.  We promise as runners we like to go slow and see one season at a time.

Monday:  Rest day.  Run around town like a chicken with your head cut off.  Picked Andrew up from school and was planning on heading to Sylvan, but Andrew's stomach had other plans.  Ended up being late for Sylvan, but then all was well, till the night hit and the stomach issues came back with a vengeance.  He was fine after we ate, but he passed out shortly after, and when we moved to upstairs to get in the bed, the fun started.  He burped and farted and pooped every hour on the hour. #momlife.  Finally at 3 am, he settled in and didn't wake up till my alarm clock went off.

Tuesday:  Well, plans changed after my night of no sleep.  Coach had some pretty ambitious speed work on the docket, and I just wanted to survive a run.  At 3 am i sent a message to our running group that I was not going to get out and run due to lack of sleep.  Since I would be stuck at home, I decided to hop on the mill later and just get in an easy 6, and go from there.

the new return air vent.  Yes, someday we will have trim to cover up the gold paint!

our harry potter closet is now for duct work!  At least I still have some storage space

Wednesday: Rest again day.  Sigh.  We are in the throes of having our heating and air changed out (new furnace and AC unit) and the duct work revamped.  Home ownership can be SO much fun (said no one ever).  Our house is in disarray and clutter drives me NUTS.  I am very big into everything has its place and when it's out of place, I can't function.  While we still have a little bit to go, most of the big stuff is done, and back in place.  Now the cleaning and reorganizing begins.  A silver lining to this, or maybe two is, we now have zone heating and air, so maybe the upstairs won't be so frigging hot in the summer (meaning we won't spend a fortune on fans and window units), and we had to go through a ton of stuff we had stored in the two closets and de-clutter and get rid of a ton of stuff.  My heart sings when bags go to be donated.  I mean seriously, why were we keeping every single attachment to every single vacuum we have every owned in our lifetime  (most of which we no longer own)?????

am i the only one that thinks of belt from the croods when I make that noise?

Thursday:  Speed work.  Dun Dun DUNNNNN (see crood's reference above).  I had two options, 7 miles with 2 x 2s at marathon pace or mile repeats for 8 miles.  Today I chose the later, call me a wuss.  I was up at 3:40 am to get dressed and meet the group for some speed work fun. Kansas blessed us with a cold but windless morning, and we got it done despite the stupid rocks trying to kill us.  I love our running route except when they re-rock and grade the roads.  OUCH!  I really didn't know what to set my marathon pace as.  Coach had it set as my half marathon almost 10 K time in Final surge, but that was not and is not where I am at.  I decided to give myself a range of 10-10:30 and let it be.  You can tell when I am running on the horrible rocks, because my time gets slower but other than one mile, I was able to hang from 10:15 to about 10:30.  Sad that this pace use to be my easy run pace and sad that it feels super hard now.  #gettingoldsucks

Friday:  Running around with my head cut off part two.  Seriously.  Andrew had the day off of school and since it was a day off and not a sick day AND the weather was perfect, we had to get out.  We went to the library, doughnuts, McDonald's play place in Manhattan, my work, the MRC for new shoes, a new to us playground, sylvan, target, and Pizza Ranch for carb loading.  Whew.  When  i got home, I was ready to for bed! I also got some new shoes and my first pair of trail shoes!  I stuck with my Saucony triumph's for the regular pair and am trying per the resident ultra runner, Brooks Cascadia for my trail shoe.  Guess that means I need to hit some trails right?

Saturday:  Long run 16 miles!  My goal was to meet up with the Manhattan runners group for 12 and then get my additional 4 somehow.  My propensity to be lazy and stay in bed won me over and I didn't get up at 4 am like I had intended.  Well, I take that back, I woke up at 4 am and looked at the clock and promptly went back to sleep.  There is just this part of me saying, don't worry, the time will be SOON that you will HAVE to be up at 4 am for every run during the week, so savor these mornings to sleep in.  We are already going to have to get up at 4 am to get our weekly runs done due to the number of miles we need to do.  Anyway, I slept till 7, ate breakfast and drank my coffee, and then headed out.  After last weekend's race, I actually was looking forward to my long run.  Every once in a while you need the running gods to throw you a bone to get you back on track.  That run last weekend proved that to me that I still have it, and that i can do a long run even at a faster pace that I normally do them at and be fine.  I decided to do one out and back with Stella and then come back and grab deuce to finish the mileage, so each dog got some mommy and me time.  This was my first run in my new Triumps that had everrun in the entire shoe!

Since I am pretty much sore all over right now thanks to my wonky hip, these certainly seem to help, but I think my body just needs to get use to them for a little bit before I can truly judge if I like the everrun all throughout the sole.  I do like the colors and hope my body adjusts.  Of course they have re rocked a huge portion of my running routes and it looks like they are doing more, so it was hard to tell if the rocks were hurting my feet or the shoes.

Stella and I sharing a bite of honeystinger waffle

The run was pretty good, the gravel of course affected my pace, but overall, other than getting a tiny bit warm at the end, and some pain from my body trying to figure out what the heck I had on my feet, I had a really good run.  Caught up on My Favorite Murder podcasts and started listening to a new season of Missing and Murdered.  I desperately need to catch up on The Moth and AMR, but also saving those for some of the tough races coming up :)

Afterwards a tried a new recovery food.  I found these little egg scramblers at Hyvee on sale, and snagged a couple to try out with some wheat tortillas.  I am actually super impressed and will be getting more of these!  Super easy to pop in the microwave and mix up and eat and bonus, 22 grams of protein!  SUPER YUM!  Don't mind the diet coke with lime. I  am currently addicted and dealing with my addiction.  

Sunday:  Easy 5. Sigh.  My kiddo is going to be the death of me.  Andrew hadn't felt well all day Saturday, so we just kind of hung out at the house and watched movies and cleaned (or I should say I cleaned while they played legos).

okay one of my favorite food trucks!  Smokin Willie's

Saturday night we ate at the local food truck and Andrew had a McDonald's cheese burger or two.   No big deal right?   Well, around 10 pm (yes we are lame, we were in bed by 9ish) Andrew started puking his guts up.  I mean violent puke all over the bed, and the pillows, and us.  I tried stripping the bed as quickly as possible, while daddy took him to the bathroom and got him to the proper spot for projectile puke.  I am the cleaner and tony is the comforter and we do our roles well.  I quickly got laundry started and the couch made up for us to sleep on (TMI hardwood is easier to clean than beds and sheets).  We were up till around 2 am, which lucky for us was 3 am thanks to the STUPID time change.  We all slept till about 10 am at which time I resumed laundry duty.  Let's just say the amount of material that comes back out of that kid is amazing.  Anyway, got my five in on the road and in the cold and wind.

I was full on ninja mode, but the dogs were loving it.  I am already so over KS winds and the spring winds just started.  At points when we were headed due north, I just had to power walk because if not, I felt like a cartoon character running in place.  

The dogs loved it and that is all that matters.  Sometimes i am too quick to wuss out because of the weather and that doesn't help get the dog's energy quotient met.  I just have to remember that I technically run for both our mental health and for our regular health as well.  

What a week!  Weekly mileage is jumping up and weekend mileage is as well.  I am feeling better about my runs and now wishing the stars would align so I can get back to strength and cross and stop making excuses.  I am heading home to TN for Andrew's spring break next week so not sure what all adventures we will get into but I am sure there will be plenty with Grammy and Grandma involved!  Have a great week!!!!

Week 11 of 18: Training for the Heartland 50 and Trail Marathon

Some weeks are more about being careful, recovering, and getting to the next week unhurt.  The race on Saturday really kicked my ass, thanks to having to stabilize in the mud for almost 4 straight hours.  Both of my hips were tight and sore, so the week was going to be more about babying them and getting through this pacing gig, than getting good miles in for training for the full.  Since I like to do lots of races on top of my goal race, this is something I just have to deal with.  I know it probably drives my coach batty, especially when I change up the schedule for the week on Final Surge, but she has been with me for a few years now so she probably expects it :)  This week was all about Dr. Seuss's birthday, so get ready for lots of crazy pictures of the kiddo.

Wear as many colors as you can day!  We tried!

Monday:  Major rest day.  Both hips are still quietly roaring at me.  I have been doing some hip opening stretches and trying to listen to their demands.  Of course this week is going to be the best week ever for running thanks to the perfect temperatures and NO humidity.

Eating outside on a February day!

Tuesday:  Slept in instead of getting up super early and going with the girls.  Was on the fence about even running or working out at all.  Decided to go ahead and do an easy 3 with walk breaks, and just see where my hips were.  Well, my hips were still pretty sore.  Plus, I ran out of daylight and was just in shorts and a tank top with no reflective gear, so decided to cut it short and head home.  The dogs were super happy to get out and enjoy the weather, and other than the wind, the temperatures felt great.  I am excited for warmer weather, just not humidity.

Wacky Wednesday!  Clothes on backwards and hair bushy!

Wednesday:  Active rest day.  Lots of yoga and hip opening exercises and stretching.  I am glad that at work, I had a ton of stuff that I set up and then had to wait to get done.  Lots of time to get down on the mat in my lab and stretch.  Not as sore today, but still tight even with all of the stretching and yoga I am doing.

Orange shandy in a bottle YES!  Come on spring!

Thursday:  5 very easy miles with the crazy ladies who run at 4 (that is the name of our group message on FB:).  I took it super easy.  We did loops at the rec complex which does have a nice little hill to hit every loop.  I was again tight and a tiny bit sore, but feeling way better than Tuesday's run.  I am starting to look forward to my pacing duties on Saturday with a smile instead of dread!!!!

Friday:  Travel day: rest day.  I was staying with my favorite newly graduated lab technician Becky down in Olathe KS.  I could pick up my packet on Friday or just go to her house and chill, and I decided to hang out with her and explore her new hood.  I could pick up my packet the morning of, and that sounded like more fun than driving all over KC.  I love her new digs and she is in a prime location.  We checked out Granite City Brewery and had a beer flight and some flat bread pizza.

Of course the garlic on the pizza gave me horrible indigestion, but I was armed and ready with Zantac.  I also super hydrated after the beer flight to make sure I was plenty hydrated before the race.  We then went to Trader Joe's for some dessert and to walk around.  We also visited an upscale dog/cat food and treat place and Williams and Sonoma.  

Saturday:  Liberty Hospital Half Marathon.  Pacing the 2:40 group.  Recap here.  Needed a total of 15 and got 14.5 before I stopped.  I really liked this race and would like to do it again either pacing or running it for time!

Sunday:  Easy run.  I honestly didn't have an idea of how many miles I would do, I just set out and let how I felt dictate how many I did.  I ended up doing 5 and while my hip is still slightly sore, I don't feel like it is going to go into full injury.  It was a wee bit windy, but we were all happy to get out and run!

I was a little short on miles this week, but I did what I needed to in order to make sure my body recovered.  While the half being super hilly didn't help, I am hoping the week ahead will continue the healing and recovering from both.  I don't have another race until my 10 K in April and then my full and then I can have lots of fun pacing half marathons! 

Have a great week and hope you get out and get some miles while the weather is nice!