Week 4-Training to pace the Hawk 100

Oh boy talk about nerves.  I have my first night race where I am pacing this weekend.  It's only 10 miles, but it is my first real long run since my last pacing duties a few weeks ago.  Plus it's trail at night.  Gulp.  I can do this right?  I will joining my friend as she finishes up her last 10 miles of her 50 K.

Monday:  Rest day.  First day of camp for my little man!

Last year was his first year at camp and he was a newly minted 5 year old.  This year he is newly 6 and way better at handling the challenges that Camp Invention throws his way.  One one hand it makes me so happy that he is growing up, but on the other, sad that he is quickly maturing.  

Tuesday:  Easy Speed work (say what????).  Coach dropped the S work on me after the chiro gave her the blessing that intensity isn't going to screw anything up.  This routine was an easy one, the first 400 was to be 5-10 seconds faster than my easy pace . The next was recovery.  The next was 10-15 minutes faster than easy pace, and the final was recovery.  Then you repeated that cycle 3 times after a mile warm up and then a mile cool down.  The hardest part was defining easy.  I decided to do a 12 minute mile as easy, and work back from there.  Of course when we got up at 4:20 to head out, we were greeted by storms and lightening.  Back to bed and another wake up call at 5:15 to yet again lightening.  I decided to just sleep in and run post T ball practice to get some heat training and some afternoon/night running. I got plenty hot and sweaty at practice, so I was primed and ready to go.  I headed out with my nathan handheld full of ice water and several chunks of ice wrapped up in my buff.  

I use to be a night/evening runner and since I can't get my butt out of bed, I may return to that.  Anyway, I started my first set of 400s and got to the recovery round of 400 meters and felt like I had been running an awfully long time.  I looked at my watch and I had put 400 miles instead of 400 meters.  Whoops.  Stopped, got on my phone and edited the work out (thank you garmin for adding that to the phone app) and got started again.  It was tough and I felt like quitting several times, not going to lie.  I used the tall corn to shade me, and just about when I was done, my hubby showed up with fresh ice.  I filled my hand held back up and then stored as much as I can in my boobs. See getting fat does have it's advantages, I now have an abundant amount of cleavage that holds a ton of ice.  

these two crack me up

Wednesday:  Unintentional rest day.  Too much going on, not enough time in the day, and another morning slept in.  Not good excuses I know, but it is what it is.  My bike stared accusingly at me all night, as I had promised we would get out.  

Thursday:  easy 4 with the ladies.  It was feels like 84 at 4:40  am when I got up.  All of the doors and windows were completely fogged over which is never a good sign.  We all had our handhelds and we took walk breaks and took it super easy.  It was still BRUTAL out and the sun wasn't even up.  I truly hate summer running with a passion.

His "Smart house" that has functioning lights and amenities!

Friday:  Rest day again.  I know, I know, I need to get my butt out of bed and do SOMETHING!  Andrew had his last day of Camp Invention and we got to go around to all of the rooms and see what he learned and what he made.  He had such a great time this year at camp that he cried at the end!

Saturday/Sunday:  Pacing the Night Hawk.  Last T ball game :(

It's been a blast coaching these kids this year.  They have ALL improved in so many ways.  I can't wait to see them start regular ball next year!

Okay on to the race which happened post T ball, post sparky vet visit number 2, and post one fun birthday party.  Our idea was that I needed to get some night races under my belt as that would be the time I would probably be pacing Lindsey the most.  I needed to get a feel for the terrain and for how it is to run trails at night.  After a brief misunderstanding in which the RD was not going to allow me to either pace or register for the 10 miler, I was allowed to step in and pace her last 10 mile loop.  Well, we had several wrenches thrown in the mix including 40 mph winds  and a hellacious storm that held all the runners for 30 minutes and put me in my car for a bit, muddy trails that made our times much slower, and busted cut off times.  Lindsey still got her medal and swag and I got 9.5 miles of nice technical trail goodness.  I have a MUCH better feel for the trail now and a much better feel for how I operate at night/early morning.  Note to self, when I stay up that late, I get hungry....a lot so bring lots of food to graze on.  Also, while reading books is a good way to pass the time, bring either a friend or some other form of entertainment to pass the time.  Sitting by your self in the dark for hours can put yourself in your head way too much and that is a scary place.  I kid but it's kind of true.  I sat with another group that had a runner they were working with but the storms and the dark drove us to our cars.  I spent way too much time thinking about stuff sitting in the dark:).  Running at 3:20 am didn't seem to bother me, I felt normal, even though I had had maybe a 30 minute nap in the car.  That was the best take away message from the experience, I can do this.  

I think someone missed the momma

 I got home around 7:20 and had a shower, but not time to sleep. Andrew had music lessons and swim lessons, and I was pretty much a zombie all day.  I decided to try and stay up versus naps all day, and other than a 30 minute nap in the car between music and swim, I was able to stay functioning till 8 pm, where I crashed hard and got around 10 hours of glorious melatonin induced sleep.

I even made it down to the carnival to watch little man ride some rides

Another fantastic week of training with minimal pain. I  am sure post trail run I will be sore thanks to running on slick mud, but overall, nothing hurt while I was running other than my hand when I grabbed a thorny bush to pull my butt up a slick hill.  I did run in my new hokas and I did run in my PF sleeve, as I forgot I had it on.  Finger's crossed nothing gets too angry at me and stops my training this week!  Have a great week!!!!