Week 15 of 18: Training for the Flint Hills 50 and Trail marathon

Hello Spring...I think.  This week is going to be yet another interesting trial in how to get long runs done with a thousand things going on :)  Spring sports are starting in earnest and hello Easter weekend!

Can't resist a peep meme!

Monday:  Rest day.  Nough said.  I rested like a BOSS.  Except for working.  And Sylvan.

2018 Spring school picture.  STOP GROWING!

Tuesday:  I moved my speed work till after work hoping that would help my motivation.  Coach had 2x 3 mile repeats at a quite brisk pace.  I had decided that I would run around marathon pace or what my marathon pace use to be rather than what coach was hoping for.  I am NOT interested in a PR right now, so there is no advantage to doing crazy fast speed work.  I did my mile warm up and when my watch beeped, I had nothing.  No gas.  Nothing to give.  I even looked at my phone to check humidity because that is usually what makes my chest feel heavy and keeps my breathing out of control and nope, low humidity.  I had plenty sleep and was well hydrated, so I have NO clue what was going on.  I decided rather than beat myself up or continue to spiral down, I would just run the 8 miles prescribed and end on a good note.  It was cloudy and cool and the dogs and I just did our run at a comfortable for us pace and enjoyed it.

Form Drills!  My favorite!

Wednesday:  Coach Track club!  2018 season has begun.  WOW!  Huge turnout for the first practice and parent's meeting.  So many kiddos returning and SO many NEW kiddos!  I am super excited to help coach and can't wait to see some kids get turned on to running.  I am stepping up my game this year and coming up with fun games to play with the littles to encourage running in a fun and positive way.  Not that I wasn't positive last year, I just did drills and many of the littles had no interest.  If you have any fun games that are actually skill drills, let me know!

Thursday:  Speed work again.  2.5 mile repeats x 2 with 1 mile warm up and half a mile cool down for 7 miles total.  I tried a different tactic with this one. Instead of putting a specific number in my watch I decided to go out and run hard.  Whatever hard felt like, that would be the number I would settle in and shoot for instead of a program where my watch yelled at me constantly for going too slow.  Hard for me was from 10:30-10:55 so I tried to stay under 11 and be happy with what I got.  I tried not to think about how 10:30 a few years ago was my easy.  I tried to remember instead how 10:30 was my goal for my first Chicago marathon and that was what I would like to try for again.  I always have an A, B, and C goal and I don't mind putting 10:30-11 minute miles as my A goal knowing that this is a trail marathon and the odds of that happening aren't great.  While this isn't technical trails, it isn't road and it is hilly, so I will be happy with whatever my hard is that day, but I need to set a time goal somewhere and there it is.

Friday:  Day off from work, Good Friday.  Really glad we had the day off because little man was up puking again till after midnight.  His normal routine again, two puking sessions, lots of tummy pain, a visit to the toilet, and he was good to go to sleep.  Not sure if we are the most unlucky people in that he gets every single tummy virus that goes around, or if he has something truly wrong.  I guess we need to get back to food logging again to try and check for any food intolerances that might be present that we are missing.  Anyway, we got to sleep in, and I was really glad for any sleep I could get.  Was going to actually get my bike out and ride for once on the roads.  My will to ride on the trainer in the house was 0% this winter.  Hubby got off of work just in time for us to head straight to sylvan and then post sylvan, we went to a playground and played.  Looks like bike time is going to have to happen in the dark of the morning again if it is going to happen outside.

X marks the spot!

Saturday: LONG RUN DAY!  Since we had the Easter egg hunt in town and sylvan right after, I needed to get up at 4 am and be on the road by 5-5:15 am.   I woke up with my alarm, but quickly shut it off and went back to bed.  We had had Chinese the night before and for whatever reason, it had sat super heavy on my stomach and made me feel horrible.  I ate what i always eat, steamed rice and some sweet and sour chicken, and I had taken an indigestion pill right after eating just in case, but neither of those strategies helped.  I am wondering since it isn't our normal joint that we go to if that caused the issue. Some secret spice or ingredient that my body just isn't use to???  Anyway, sleeping in and letting my tummy figure itself out was the best decision, even if it meant an afternoon long run thanks to our crazy morning schedule.

After years of trying to find a prize egg, Andrew finally succeeded!

Post crazy Easter egg hunt in Wamego, Tony took Andrew to Sylvan (we are trying to make up for the time we missed during spring break) and to see Ready Player One at the local movie theater, while I ran for 4 hours.

Me trying to distract myself and take a pic of stella.  She was too nestled behind me to show up!

This run started out great, but the wind just beat me down.  North wind sustained at 18 mph made for a horrible head wind, and for that matter also a horrible cross wind, so no matter where I ran, I just couldn't get away from it.  I also felt like the wind was shifting and coming from the east as well at times.  I did 13 miles with Deuce and Stella with the the remaining 7 with just Stella.  I made a pit stop at the house to drop off Deuce and to get a jacket.  The temperature steadily dropped during my run and my shorts and a tech T were not good enough anymore and I was NOT comfortable.  I had to take my hat off and hold it almost immediately, and then attach it to my pack because the wind kept blowing it off.  Lucky for me, I had my trail nerds buff already on my neck, so I just moved it up to cover my ears and keep my hair out of my face.  Win/Win.  I tell you what, going back out to finish was tough mentally, but I got it done.   Now to see if my coach is going to try and get me to do one more 20 or if we are officially in taper.  She always has a different approach, so excited to see what she does this time!

Sunday:  Easter and an easy run.  I will admit, the long run made me super sore and I did everything I could to thwart that soreness.  I was surprised I was so sore since I ran on mostly flat good gravel roads.  I even took some aleve before bed and I slept on the heating pad, I was that sore!

The Easter bunny came and brought a mine craft themed Easter basket.  I am not sure I like the fact that he is growing up so quickly and is in to "bigger kid" stuff now.  I want to go back to Disney Channel and Doc McStuffins and Mickey!  We have a tradition of going to Cracker Barrel on Easter and having Easter lunch.  When we headed to Junction City to get food, the weather was fine, cold, but fine.  When we pulled up in the parking lot, there was something falling from the sky, some sort of slush.  When we got done, it was full blown sleet, and as we drove the 30 or so miles home, we were creeping and watching cars slide off of the interstate left and right.  

That is pure ice he is driving on.  So glad it was him and not me!

My hubby was driving, so we decided to cut off on a scenic road and try Manhattan roads, which turned out to be equally as bad.  We took our time and saw several wrecks, but made it home in one piece.  I ended up on the #insteadmill to get my 5 easy, finishing up the series The Night Of and starting on Forensic Files. I took it super easy and took walk breaks every mile for a tenth of a mile and surprisingly, my body and hip felt fine.  Yeah for good recovery!

What a week!!!   My coach says this was peak week, but I never believe her because she is always psyching me out.  I will eagerly await final surge to update later today and see my fate!

Have a great week and hope you are actually having spring where ever you are!