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!!!!