A 5K that benefits Dogs? Sign me UP!

official race shirt from the FB event page

I am so excited to do a dog themed race this weekend, even if it is just a 5K!  I did this race years ago with miss stella ella and loved it.  It just never fits into my schedule thanks to Chicago and the other big races I have done.  While I am not specifically trained for this distance or for speed, I am a sucker for dog races so here we go!

Monday: Rest day.  GOTR day.  Rain, rain, go away!  We had to run inside thanks to the rain.  I am sure all of the teachers still in the building loved us.  The girls wanted music, so I allowed a few of them to have very quiet music on their phones.  Then they all wanted to take off their shoes...and run on the hard floor.  I told them this was a terrible idea, but if they were dead set, go for it.  I will be curious to see how their feet and ankles feel in a couple of days.

this is pretty much what the radar looked like all week

Tuesday:  I woke up to yet more rain.  It's been raining for quite a few days, so most of my running routes were under water.  Stella and I debated about waiting another day to run when it might not be raining, but I wanted to keep my rest days truly rest days since I am doing my cross fit on Tuesdays and Thursdays with my running.  Lucky for us, when we headed out there was just a nice slow gentle rain falling.  We kept on mostly pavement and since we didn't have an exact mileage to go, when we hit home, we stopped.  In some ways it was very freeing to just run as much as I wanted and to not have a specific number to hit.  In other ways my scientific brain was going nuts about the what ifs.  What If this isn't enough to get me through my next race, what if this is too much, what if I injure myself because I don't have a coach looking over my stats and numbers?  I finally had to tell my science brain to shut up.  I have been doing this since 2009 so I got this.

After work I did my next Cross Fit session.  We worked on the snatch and the elements that make it correct and then we worked on an AMRAMP that included toes to bar (I am scaled and doing knees up at this point), dumbbell snatches, and jump squats.  I think I did 7 minutes for time, but I honestly can't remember.  It didn't seem horrible hard, but I was sweating my butt off and was super tired afterwards.  Again, I need to quit overthinking everything.

Boom, that doesn't look very comfortable!

Wednesday:  Complete rest day.  I probably should be cross training, but with all of the rain and now the cold, that just wasn't in the books.  I also had a full and very complete physical complete with iron testing, thyroid testing, and hormone testing since I am having some signs of menopause.  Hopefully I will have an update in the next few days as to what they find!

I never can get both of them in the same photo post run!

Thursday:  GOTR day.  Easy 5.  Cross Fit!  I didn't get up early, but instead dropped off Andrew at school and headed out.  Again, I am totally off any plan, so I just kind of came up with a number and went with it.   My run felt like a slog and i think my flu shot probably had something to do with it or so I hope so.   I wasn't really sore from X fit thank goodness.  It was feels like 32 degrees out and it was magical.  I so love winter running.  Coaching went a little better, I had to do several jobs including counting laps, giving out bracelets, and writing words, so I couldn't really watch all of them.  Our other coach thought they were walking a little too much, so we made the laps distance shorter so we could do more running and less walking.  Since we stopped counting laps and giving out lap counters, I could run with the girls.  Post coaching I headed to Cross fit to get my weights on! Y'all, I dead lifted 85 lbs on my last set of 5 x 5!  That is a LOT for me!  We did a skill drill (10 minutes of hollow body/superman plus TGU one per side) then we did strength with dead lifts 5 x 5 and then finished with a WOD including burpees, deadlifts with the kettle bell, and weighted step ups.  It was fun, I was soaked with sweat, and I learned a ton!

Friday:  Rest day!  Andrew was off of school so we decided to do fun things that included a target trip, lunch with daddy, and an afternoon at Widgets.  I did get my labs back and everything is within range except one of my liver values and of course my cholesterol.  I have to do a recheck in a month to see if my liver values are within range then but between Trina and I, we have found several articles about liver values being out of whack for runners/weight lifters.  Do I take these in to show my Dr or do I just let her do her thing?  My normal DR is a runner but she is not so not sure what to do.  

Saturday:  5K day!  I had 0 expectations of what Stella and I could do post Flatrock.  My only hope was that we could stay upright on the wet grass.   This course is trail with most of it being mowed grass and hills, which equals me on my butt with the amount of pulling she does.  Add in two kind of scary bridges and  some single track through trees and you have a ton of fun.  The trail was muddy and wet, but not horrible.  I had to be careful because the downhills were pretty sketchy, but we made it through and got a 1st place in our age group!  Yeah for super small 5ks :)  I also totally left the house without my bib, a first for me.  Thank goodness I know the RD and he is super nice so he just got me a new one.  

One of my very few podium shots.  Stella just wanted to back out on the trail.  I think she was confused that we stopped at 3.  My watch said it was short, but I have no clue if that is right or not.  I did try wearing true trail shoes and I really think they made a difference. I guess I need to try them out on more of my trail long runs and see if they still feel good.

After the race we had soccer and then I had a wonderful massage and sauna visit.  Trina sure is hooking me up wonderfully right now.  Over an hour massage and then 30 minutes in the sauna to detox.  Lots of cupping on my feet too.  After massage I just felt kind of eh.  Not good, not bad, just wanting to hang out in my sweats and do nothing.  For those of you who know me, this is not me at all.  I spent the rest of day lounging around and not doing a dang thing.  I went to bed early and hoped this was nothing.  

Sunday:   Long run day???  Other than getting up at 6:20 am to let the dogs out and clean up some messes, I went back to bed and slept in till 9:20 am.  I haven't slept in that long in a long long time!  Then the debate started.  Should I take another day off and lay in and do nothing and kick whatever this is that I am getting, or have or should I get out and slog it through?  I had no real symptoms, maybe a little bit of drainage, feeling tired, and feeling like I had a hang over even though I have not had a beer in several days!

I decided to go and just see how I felt.  The weather change was quite drastically during my run and I am really, really glad i over dressed.  I always over dress for a while when the seasons change, but since we are skipping fall this year and going straight to winter, I think this strategy is going to work for me for once LOL!  It was feels like 42 when i started, but I still wore tights, long sleeved shirt, light jacket, buff, and gloves. I  figured I could shed stuff and put it in my pack versus being cold.  The above picture is what it was at at the end.  BRRRR! The wind was horrible and the little bitty stingy rain was rough but we got in 10 and had a blast doing it!  I was perfectly dressed this time!

A great week of training even though I seemed to be fighting something off.  I hope this translates to an even better week next week since i have yet another trail run coming up.  Hopefully this will be my last until my next training cycle beings for the Rocking K trail marathon in april but you know me, SQUIRREL!

Have a great week!