Tuesday, November 27, 2018

November Runfessions

I have a lot on my mind right now, so heading to the runfessional to get some stuff off of my chest!

I really do have a problem when it comes to outwear and running. I have a huge collection of wind breakers and coats and I keep getting more :)
 I runfess that I tried the Mercury Mile box that everyone is raving about and I wasn't blown away.  Maybe I filled out my quiz wrong?  I was so excited to see what they would send me, and while I did get some nice stuff and will be keeping three items, I was kind of hoping that i would be like others I have heard raving about it and like everything.  Again, don't get me wrong, it was SUPER easy to send back the pieces I didn't like, so there is that.  My box had a new Craft running coat (much more substantial than my running jackets, so kind of excited, plus a new to me brand), an ear cover thingy from Asics that I really liked, a pair of capris from Ribbon (never heard of this brand?) that have POCKETS, a tank that did not fit and was super shear, shorts that had some compression to them but weren't my style, and a super cute tech T.  I am keeping the coat, the ear cover, and capris.

I like the fact that this ear cover does NOT have fleece yet is seems to be very warm
I kind of wanted to keep the tech T, BUT it wasn't anything super special, and I have a closet full of tech Ts.  DO I need new running clothes?  Well....not really.  But it was fun to try this new service, and I would like to try it again at some point.  I do really like the fact that it is NOT a subscription service, so I can get a box whenever and am not locked in to a time period.


I runfess that I think my Torrents may not be my dream shoe.  Let me explain.  This always happens to me, I swear.  I try a shoe and it feels wonderful at the store.  Then I run in them and again they feel wonderful for about 2 weeks.  Then BOOM, my body adjusts or whatever and then the aches and pains start.  Y'all, I freaking LOVE this shoe.  I can't explain it because they hurt my arch and sometimes my big toes for some weird reason, but they are so awesome on the trails.  I only paid about 100 bucks for them, which is a steal for running shoes, so I am going to try to make them work for trails for now by putting some insoles in them. I think I will get either some more Bondis for the road or potentially some Stinsons or some Challengers that should work on road or trail.  The search continues......

I runfess that i am kind of sad.  While Andrew is having an amazing school year, more people are noticing his lack of focus.  He even told his teacher who he dearly loves, that some days he just can't focus.  The school is rallying and trying to find ways to help him, but again the push is to have him tested for other things, namely ADHD or ADD.  I am at the point where I just want my kiddo to be successful and happy at school.  He is on grade level in all subjects and LOVES his teacher, so I want to meet her half way and do whatever we can do to help her out.  Just like his kindergarten teacher, she is really trying all the tricks to help him.  I am really, really hoping that medication does not have to enter this picture, but I runfess that I am scared as hell that it may. 

And there you have it, my runfessions for the month! See ya next month!

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Turkey Trot week and week one of training for the Rocking K trail marathon

Last "race" of the season.  Since Stella likes to PULL on this one, I kind of let her and just see where we are at the end.  I think last year I got my 5K PR as we got in the 26s for the first time.  To be fair, yes she does pull me the entire way and yes this course is pancake flat.  Dog assisted PR I guess it should be called?  Anyway, ready to tackle this week and start my marathon training.


Monday:  Rest day.  Finish cleaning day and get ready for my parents to get into town day.  They broke the drive up into two days so they wouldn't be driving at night, and while it killed Andrew and I to know they were so close, but not really, it was for the best for them.  Andrew was very excited to see them at school pick up and we had a mini tail gate at home for the KC football game.

Tuesday:  Easy 4 and Cross fit.  I little side note, I haven't said too much about my new Hoka Torrents as it takes my feet a good month to really be affected by the shoe.  While they feel wonderful on the trail, on the road not so much.  I hate to have to get a different pair of shoes for just the road, but I am going to have to since these are technically only trail shoes.  I am having a lot of pain in my arch area of my foot any time I wear them and Clayton at MRC that gave me great suggestions on which Hoka's to buy in the first place suggested an insole.  I am going to try that first, because overall I LOVE these shoes even though they hurt me.  I can't explain it exactly but when I run on the trails, they feel magical!


The dogs and I did an easy 4 out on our normal route and then later I got to do cross fit with Kate, who is their resident kettle bell guru.  We worked on technique with the kettle bell dead lift and kettle bell swing and then did some core work including slow mountain climbers and side planks.  The WOD was 5 deadlifts, 5-10 swings, 10 box step ups (5 on each leg), and then farmer carry for 100 meters.  It was an AMRAP for 10 minutes and I enjoyed it and was drenched with sweat afterwards!

Wednesday:  Rest day.  It was a beautiful day in Wamego so we tried to spend some time outdoors.


We had a yummy lunch at the Friendship house and introduced my step dad to beirocks.  Granddaddy also got to spend some time hanging out with little red at the park while mom and I went shopping in downtown.  

Then we got our turkey and ham from Smokin Willies and had to get it chopped up and in the juices for overnight.  Spoiler alert:  both the ham and the turkey were amazing!!!!


We also celebrated my birthday later with cake made by Andrew and hubby, dominoes, and a nice shot of crown in some diet coke.   I could only do one though since I had a turkey trot in the morning.  

Thursday:  Thanksgiving day and Turkey Trot 5K.  Okay going to be honest here, I got a PR for the 5K from this race last year.  It is a SUPER flat and easy 5K and stella pulls like crazy.  The weather was perfect and I had a glimmer of hope that I could at least be around the same time.  


We were close but not close enough.  Our mile splits were 8:25, 8:56, and 9:11.  I wanted to stay under 9, but I just got a little tired and hot and hello, no speed work lately.  I knew wearing a long sleeved tee and tights was too much, but I didn't want to be cold waiting and no one from the fam came to hold stuff for me, so I chose to be warm at the beginning and get hot during the race.  It was kind of funny, my glasses were SO fogged up at the end that I couldn't even see the finish line.  The announcer did call my name and I did some sort of funny pose, so I can't wait to see if they got any photos.  Afterwards Stella and I did close to a mile cool down up and down the hills of KSU campus and then headed back for lunch.  My hubby had been up since 5 am cooking and he always does an amazing job, so I was super excited to sample his food!  

Minus the turkey that was warming up in the oven

Here was the spread without the smoked turkey.  WOW!  I tried to be a little aware of portion size and not gorge myself, but I did have a piece of pie.  Everything was amazing as always and made from scratch!  The rest of the afternoon was spent playing dominoes and board games and playing at the park.




Friday: Black Friday!  Except we don't do black Friday, so it was another lazy day!  I had a decision to make.  The weather men were saying that Sunday was not going to be a good day for running thanks to snow and ice, so I decided to do my easy run Friday to swap with Sunday, and to recover from my race.  I did use the Turkey Trot as a tempo run, even if I didn't exactly hit my speed that I wanted all three miles.  Post run, we decided to hit up Widgets and let little man play before we were stuck in the house due to bad weather, and then later on hit up the Festival of Lights in downtown Manhattan.  We had never been to the live version (always watch via FB live) and I wanted my mom to see the tree before she left.  We got there super duper early to have coffee and sit a while and ended up snagging seats on the Radina's patio.


The tree is supposedly the largest lighted tree in Kansas and the largest pixelated tree in the US.  We usually visit the tree multiple times before Christmas, but the weather was way to nice not to be there in person for the lighting ceremony.  

we mixed it up today and did mostly gravel and then some hills in town
Saturday:  Long run day!  I wanted to get everything running wise done just in case this supposed blizzard hit our part of KS.  My parents were heading out and I had a massage at 10 am with the magic miss Trina at Rising Phoenix Wellness.  We didn't have set in stone plans other than that, but I wanted to get as many miles pre-massage as I could.  I headed out as soon as my parents hit the road, and got about 11 done before my appointment.  Stella hung out with me while Trina worked her magic and then we headed out reluctantly to finish, mainly because I was SO relaxed.  I also should have grabbed some fresh clothes because putting old stinky wet clothes on to finish my run was not fun.  I also didn't have exactly 12 on my watch, but I had run some with my watch off and so I counted that in for my 12 unofficially.  I did have the issue of peeing constantly and also my teeth hurt post run again.  I need to figure out either a different type of fuel that doesn't hurt my teeth/make me pee like a sieve.  Maybe do my honeystinger waffles in the winter and stick to tail wind in the summer?

Post run we headed to a little town called Alma for some good Mexican food and antiques and then on to Manhattan for some small business Saturday at the SOS record store and Varsity doughnuts.  We ended the day at City park and had a GREAT day!


Sunday:  Rest day.  Blizzard day.  Andrew and I slept for 12 hours!!!!  I guess we both needed it.  I got up once to let the dogs out and no snow and no wind.   Woke up 4 hours later to several inches of snow on the ground and super wind!!!!  We had no plans for the day other than lay around so we were good to go. 

Have a great week!  I am excited to start marathon training and praying my body keeps it together for yet another crazy idea! 

Sunday, November 18, 2018

A week of recovery

I have exactly a week to do whatever I want until the next training cycle starts in.  I know I will be running, just not sure how much.  I am back to 2 a week cross fit training, since no snow is in the forecast (YIPEEEE).  I would like to hit the trails again this weekend if at possible for maybe a one looper with the girls out at Fancy.

Monday:  Rest day.  Schedule change.  Usually I coach Mondays and tony takes care of Andrew's schedule, but Tony had a very important meeting at 4, so I went ahead and took off from coaching to take Andrew to music since he missed it last week.  I got the delight of listening to his rock band play jingle bells one hundred million times and I loved every bit of it :)


Tuesday: easy miles.  Since I am technically not on any type of plan or training cycle just yet, I get to choose what I want to do.  My body has felt really, really good post my last race, thanks to salt baths, cross fit, and proper recovery (thank you to almost 12 hours of sleep).  It was really cold, but this type of weather is my favorite, so I headed out in some new gear.


The coat is from last year (Brooks), but underneath I had a winter running shirt from Academy, their (BCG brand) and some running tights also BCG brand.  I am happy to say they worked very well in those temps.  Of course my butt got cold, but even in my mizuno tights my butt gets cold.  Easy fix, just wear a running skirt.  I swear Kansas totally forgot fall this year.   I like having a cheaper alternative to some of my more expensive gear.  While there is a difference in quality for sure, these tights and shirt seem to work just as well.  I will keep you posted as to how they handle this winter running this season.

Back to my Tuesday cross fit session with Erin.  I did some  cleans with a new sand bag that Erin brought in that weighed about stella's weight.  We named it stella and my EMOM was every 2 minutes, 15 kettlebell deadlifts and 200 meters sandbag walks.  I ended with some dead bug exercises to trying work my core and mid line.



Wednesday:  rest day.  Poor boom had to go to the vet.  He had been having accidents all day the day before and i suspected crystals and or pH issues, and I was right.  Went through these with stella ella and it wasn't fun, so hoping since we caught this early, we can get it fixed quickly.  Poor guy seems his normal self just full of pee.  

Thursday:  Easy 4 miler and some Cross Fit.  It was kind of funny, as we crossed the rail road tracks headed out to the gravel, a big truck pulled up and a guy got out and started building a sign.  The sign said road closed, which I thought was odd, but I had just started my run so i kept going.  When I came back, they were working on the railroad and the road was definitely shut down.  


Poop.  Went to the next crossing, shut down, and the next.  Oh well, extra mileage is good right?  Ended up going through the park and had to stop and get a stella selfie.  


GOTR was easy as the girls were working on their service project so no running.  We are almost at the end of the season and I can't believe that the end is in sight!  Cross fit was not easy, but it was fun and I really enjoyed my AMRAMP.   I worked on finding my max for the bench press. and then I worked on some reps at different percentages.  I then did an AMRAP that included sled pulls, ring rows, box step ups, and dumb bell snatches.  I was dripping with sweat when I finshed and felt like a bad ass doing those sled pulls with that big rope!


Friday:  Rest day.  We headed to the dine in movie to see the new Grinch movie.  It was cute but I sure was glad I had beer.  I think the story has been told enough and while Andrew loved it, I was pretty bored.  I think I prefer the Jim Carey verison the best.  Andrew is all about the Grinch right now so we headed out post movie to find a grinch Funko Pop.  We never did find one but we did find some of his favorite characters at Hot Topic which cracked me up.  Haven't been in that store in YEARS!

Saturday:  Rest day....again.  We had plans for the day and I just didn't get up early enough to get started pre plans.  After we got done, I was just not in the mood to run.  Andrew has shared his cold with me and I was not feeling great.  SO far neither of us have fevers, just lots of congestion.  


We did a lot of this and I am fine with that.  It was super blustery outside and yucky and after some lunch in a little cute town named Alma we just took it easy.  I am going to write a separate post about what we did Saturday morning so stay tuned.  It was called The Santa experience and it truly was magical!  One of the mom's from Andrew's t ball team does these photo sessions with Santa, and she had asked if  I would come and then talk about my experience on social media and my blog.  We will definitely be back next year and for years to come!


Sunday:  After an 8 pm bed time and then sleeping till past 9 am, I had to get some things accomplished for the day.  We HAD to get Thanksgiving dinner shopping done.  We are getting our turkey and ham (trying something different this year) from a local small business called Smokin Willies.  The rest my wonderful hubby is cooking, so we had to get all.the.things along with most of Manhattan/Wamego!  I knew the weather would be pretty nice later on in the afternoon and I only wanted to do 6, so running could wait.  After some shopping and some good coffee, we headed back to put up all.the.things., and got ready to run.  Even though it was feels like 30s, it was still chilly out and for once, I under dressed and was not very comfortable.  I seriously contemplated heading back home after the first mile to get some gloves and my Brooks jacket, but I decided to tough it out.  My feet have been bothering me on and off during the run and today was much the same.  I hope that it is just me running on the roads/gravel more than trails and not my new shoes.  I can't get to the trail during the week so my body is just going to have to deal.  

And with that, recovery week is over and marathon training begins!  I am so excited to try a brand new type of training cycle (low week/high week) and try to get my love back for speed work by incorporating some fun short sessions in my easy runs as well as getting back to hill repeats!   

Have a great week! My mom and step dad will be here to celebrate Thanksgiving and I can't wait!!!!!

Friday, November 16, 2018

Tales from the back of the pack or Why being the back of the pack trail racer is RAD!

I thought of this list while running, because sometimes you just need to take your mind off of the crazy thing that you are doing.  I thought of pros and cons of being a back of the pack trail racer because that is usually where I am at!  Plus, here are the amazing photos from Mile 90 that I just had to share!  Cindy, my fellow back of the packer also contributed as well! Enjoy :)


First up, you don't have to share your photographs with anyone!  You are pretty much always the only runner in frame...if the photographer is still there.  We are lucky that in our area, the photographers are VERY good at getting at least one photo in each location of all of us!  WE are pretty spoiled though with Mile 90 being at most if not all of our races.  


Second, if you need to pee or poop, no biggie, just step off the trail and no worries!  No one is behind you to see your bare butt or catch you going.  Enough said.  


Third, you can talk to your self and give yourself pep talks and no one hears you but you (and your dog) .  No one accuses you of being crazy because well, they are so far ahead of you that they don't even know you are doing it!


Four, you don't feel guilt in getting the last drink or food from the aid station.  They are probably going to have to throw it out anyway from sitting there all day, so why not?  Plus, you can take as much as you want because no one else is going to eat it!


Five, if you want to stop and take a selfie or take a picture of your dog, do it!  No one is behind you to complain!  Note to all, on a single track trail i would never do this if anyone was behind me anyway, but since I am usually last or next to last, it's nice to know that when I see something amazingly beautiful, I can stop and take a picture.
  


Six, and this is probably my favorite and all Cindy's suggestion but the course sweep can become your personal pacer!

Seven, and another favorite, some races in our area give a last finisher award.  I don't ever expect it, but its kind of fun, plus most races I do in this area also have plenty of runners waiting to clap and cheer you in like you were in first place.  I train hard and can't help that I am not blessed with speed, so it warms my heart when I get recognition of my hard work.  Heck sometimes I am out on the course for several hours past what most are.  


There are a few cons and I would be remiss not to name them here.  One is if it is a trail race on technical trails that are anyway confusing, you can get lost because you don't have a runner ahead of you to follow.  I am really bad at this, even on really well marked courses.  I am very literal and sometimes that gets me in trouble, plus I rarely look up when running trails.  Another con is that it does get lonely with no one around, but I have my pup so that helps.   Another con is something we really don't deal with here, but I have had in other areas, particularly road races, is that everyone is packing up and heading out.  At one of my marathons, I was almost an hour under the time limit and yet when I crossed the finish there was no finish line photog, the food vendors were packing up and leaving, and the awards ceremony for the marathon was going on (i won third place in my age group but it was a super small race).  It didn't bother me as much because this was not my first marathon, but if it were, i would have been super sad!  I do sometimes feel guilty that I am out so long that the volunteers are also kept out so long.  This is why I usually try and do races that have a longer distance than what I am doing.  

Overall, I think the positives outweigh the negatives!  Happy Trails and thanks always for reading!  

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Sander's Saunter 25K 2018



This was not my first time out at Clinton Lake running, but my first time doing this race, Sander's Saunter.  I chose the 25 K distance, because I have lost my damn mind and I can't find it.  It was my last really big distance race of the year and a trail race that Stella could do with me.  It was suppose to be SUPER cold, so layers was the name of the game with my Mizuno base layers, plus a buff, a light wind breaker jacket from Brooks, some lobster gloves, hand warmers, and fleece ear warmers.  I don't mind running in the cold and actually enjoy it, as I have the right gear to make sure I am comfortable. 




Teri and I were planning on getting to the race about an hour early to pick up packets and take care of bathroom breaks.  I figured the race would be at the same start/finish as the other Hawk races and I was right because the theme of the day was get lost! 

stolen off of teri's page because well, I totally forget to take "before" pictures!
I am vaguely familiar with the trail system having done the Hawk birthday run, the Night Hawk (sort of) and The Snake.  I honestly don't remember ever being on the white trails but surely I have been?



When we started, we went out blue and turned up the gravel pathway out to Sander's mound.  While it was very beautiful, there were way too many people to stop and take a picture both going up since other runners were going down and then going down because I didn't want to fall and break my neck.  We settled in with a group of runners and I was kind of excited to have others around me for once.  When we came back from Sander's mound, we headed out on white for a bit.  The white trail is very rocky and technical in my opinion, so no pictures there either.  Overall, I think I tripped/almost fell 7 times total, but never completely fell so WIN!  I have never felt confident running down hill on rocks, so I quickly let the guy behind me pass. I played leap frog with a lady and her off leash dog who ran with stella for a while, once I felt comfortable letting stella off leash.  The 50K started an hour before us, and while I knew super fast 50K runners would lap us at some point, I figured it would be a while before I needed to corral her.



We ran white all the way to Land's end.  This is about the time I thought i was lost.  I knew there was an aid station at Lake Henry that we would pass twice, first time around mile 3ish.  I thought I saw it, but I didn't see the way down to it and then I backtracked to make sure I didn't need to check in/out.  They told me to keep going and keep going I did, but I kept thinking, am I going the right way?  Now a little bit about me, I am a nervous pee person, so I started getting super nervous and that tailwind just kept going straight through me.  This is an advantage to being a back of the packer at trail races, I can just step off the trail and pee and no one will see :) Until I got to Land's End, I was pretty sure I was somehow lost, so Land's End was an amazing sight!  The aid station volunteers checked us in and quickly filled both of my bottles with water and helped me get my tailwind mixed in, and sent me on my way.  They even filled Stella's bowl with water and got her fixed up with lots of love! We did a quick 4 mile jaunt around, in which we picked up blue and headed back to Land's End.  I did get a few pictures from then on, as we were close to the water and the blue trail is a little nicer.  These trails are very very beautiful, but the challenge of leaves on the trail was tough.  When you can't see the rocks, they tend to jump up and bite you!  I seriously don't see how these guys do a 7-8 minute per mile pace!  I want their floating genes!


Being on blue was so much better, and I felt like I kind of knew where I was...till I didn't.  I went to cross a road and didn't see the sign to get on the trail on the other side of the road. I could see a wrong way sign on the other side of the road,and even though the sign on my side of the road  said go straight, I couldn't tell where straight was.  I saw a sign to the side of me turning back into the trail, but just felt in my gut that the trail didn't double back like that.  I walked across the road and found the sign for the right way and continued on.  Whew.  Then I came to another spot that said straight, but when I went straight, I actually saw a wrong way sign pretty quickly.  There was a trail to the right that had pink flags, so once again I trusted that and it was right.  Whew. I was SO glad to see that dang black drainage pipe that meant I had a mile to go!


This next photo is funny only because I had stopped to take a picture of the lake and of Stella and I didn't even see Rick of Mile 90 sitting there.  Look closely as he was head to toe covered in black LOL!


He probably thought I was an idiot stopping and taking pictures of the lake and my dog, but it was SO pretty!

I am happy to say that I was shooting for 5 hours for my finish, since I run about 3mph usually on trails, and I managed to finish in a little under 4.5 hours!!!!!  I was still pretty much at the end (one runner behind me so not DFL this time), but I felt like I did much better this trail race and can't wait to do more!  That time was with a couple of pauses and backtracks and a few minutes at the aid station x 2 to refill bottles and water Stella!


As always, I can't WAIT to see the pictures from Mile 90.  I think Kristi took 100 at the finish line and Stella LOVES Kristi!  While I was hoping they would be at Lake Henry to take some Lake Henry shots, they weren't there, but I do have an amazing shot from John from the Snake 10 miler that I still need to frame with Lake Henry in the background.
  

Afterwards I felt very sore and I had a horrible headache. I actually had the headache most of my run, but it kind of went away once I drank some coke at Land's End the second time.  My neck was also sore, so not sure if I was running all tight or with my jaw clenched or what.  I had my normal coffee pre-run, but i did forget my run gum so maybe my body had gotten use to that extra kick?  I also had horrible tooth pain any time I tried to chew on the left side post race.  I guess it's from the tail wind I drank, but that hasn't bothered me before? I  only drank 4 bottles full.  As i type this several hours later, I still can't chew on that side.  So weird.


While it was SUPER cold, it was beautiful, and even though I thought I was lost several times, I enjoyed Sander's saunter and would come run this race again!   I want to say a HUGE thank you to all of the volunteers.  It was SO cold out there and windy so I know they about froze to death waiting on us!  

Sanders Saunter 25K week!

borrowed from the Sanders Saunter 2018 FB page
Another week another race. Again as I have said previous, I call them "races", but I am not running all out!  I am excited to try a new to me race again and be back on the Clinton trail system.

handing out lap bracelets to the girls
Monday:  GOTR day/rest day.  We are starting to decide on what group we are doing our service project for and it's a tough compromise.  The girls all had great ideas, but it boils down to what we can do with the money we have and the time we have.  The girls decided to do something for veterans in hospital.  Stay tuned to see what we actually do for these veterans!  I ended up doing one lap total, as Andrew was at practice with us, and he wanted to earn a bracelet.   He had had tummy issues earlier in the day and had been sent home from school,  but seemed fine after a bathroom break.  One lap in, his tummy started bothering him again :(  I hope this isn't some sort of virus as he has a very odd tummy that likes to do odd things periodically.


Tuesday:  5 easy miles.  Took Deuce and Stella out for an easy run.  It was our first feels like below freezing days and it was amazing!  I also did a lunch time cross fit session with coach Erin.  We worked on 5 x 5 with dead lifts at 100 lbs, some banded monster walks (side to side, front and back) and some sets of good mornings with just the bar.  For the WOD I did 15 throw overs of the 40 lb sand bag in which I not only had to throw over the boxes you use for step ups, but also had to try and jump over them to throw the bag back over.  Erin said I could get over them anyway I could, except i couldn't put my butt on the boxes.  I am not a fan of banging my shins on those boxes, so Erin took mercy on me and put a pad on the top.  I also had to do 15 wall ball sit ups in addition to those 15 sand bag throws for 10 minutes.  It was a really great work out and I was pouring sweat at the end!

Wednesday:  Rest day.  Life is about to get very, very busy so I am enjoying my slow days and resting like a boss.

Thursday:  hilly 4 miler.  While I prefer to hit the trails on the gravel these days, I needed some hills and the best way to do that and not drive was to find all the hilly streets on the west side of town and go up and back down them.   Not sure if it was because it was cold or  the fact that i am strengthening all the things, but those hills felt GREAT.  Yes, I said it, the hills felt great!!!!!  I felt strong going up, not out of breath and dying, and my heart rate stayed in a great zone the entire race.  I ended up canceling Cross Fit, because of the snow and the possibility of bad roads.  I don't regret it even if the roads were perfectly fine. You just never know.


Friday:  Rest day.   Pre-race pizza and early bed time for stella and I.



Flat Stella and flat Michelle were ready to rock.  Packet pick up was bright and early and we were headed out around 6 am to get there about an hour before our race started at 8.  I will probably write a separate post about the race so stay tuned.


Saturday:  Race day!  Saunders Saunter 25K at Clinton Lake.  Read my recap here!


Sunday:  Rest day.   When we got back from the race, I was real quick to get in a tub bath as hot as I could stand with some salt.  I was pretty sore and felt pretty beat up.  Kudos to those who do big races on that trail because 15 miles seemed like more than enough for me!  My feet in particular felt super sore.  I soaked for at least 30 minutes.....while my son sat on the toilet and pooped while watching people play mario brothers on youtube.  Sigh.  Such is the life of a mom.  The rest of the day I laid around as much as I could and just rested.  I couldn't really eat because my teeth hurt so bad. YEs, for some odd reason the whole left side of my jaw, top and bottom teeth, hurt so badly that I couldn't chew anything.  Not even soft french fries.  I am not sure what is going on, maybe I was running with my jaw clenched or maybe I was keeping the tailwind liquid in my mouth for too long?  Maybe I need the bottles with straws instead so it doesn't sit in my mouth so long before swallowing?   

Andrew and I just took the day to get some errands run and hang out.  Nothing too strenuous or exciting since hubby was at the chief's game and i was in full recovery mode.  I have a couple of weeks of in between so I am going to use them wisely and rest, recover, and do some strength training!

Have a great weekend and stay warm!!!!