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!