Week 3 of the In Between

Week 3 of the in between and again I feel worse than better.  My lower back is killing me suddenly, my hip is bothering me, and my left foot is not happy.  Why am I SO WEIRD!  My coach always use to say that I had a threshold of mileage that if I went below, I had issues, and I am there for sure! Or maybe it is the lack of Cross Fit in my life right now? I mean 1 session is better than no sessions but still, it's got me to thinking.   Going to get in with the Master of Pain at Body First and see if he can get me fixed up and then maybe see a new to me chiropractor. Also, continuing the 3 day a week running just a little bit more before I go into my 12 week cycle.

Monday:  Rest day and New Years Eve!  We had no real plans other than finger foods and board games.  We had been invited to a few parties, but the thought of being out on the roads on New Years eve was a little scary.  We watched some year in review stuff, some Ghost Adventurers (Andrew's new fav show) and some Anderson Cooper ringing in the new year in New York.  Half the crew went to bed at that point, and I stayed up and rang in the New Year with the little apple (Manhattan).

Tuesday:  Andrew and I slept till 10:30 am!!!!!   I haven't slept that long in YEARS! We then had our traditional southern New Year's lunch.

This is Tony's plate not mine. I am not making a resolution to eat better, I am making a goal to eat better and get back to portion control, tracking macros, and making better choices overall.  I had small portions of everything, but none of the greens and the apples.  I really could have done without the bread, and I need to remind myself that I am not really a big fan of bread with meals anyway, that it is more of a habit I have picked up.  

After some house cleaning and lunch, Stella and I headed out to do some running.  I had no mileage in mind since I am still not officially training.  It was cold and I got in four.  My back/hip were kind of ouchy off and on, so I tried the 4:1 running:walking intervals.  I liked using those intervals, but need to program my watch to do the thinking so I don't have to stare at it quite so much.  

sleeping in the tub sparky?

Wednesday:  Rest day.  I have woken up the past few mornings feeling not so great. I figured it was just because we are off schedule and staying up later and sleeping in.  Lots of drainage, lots of hocking stuff up, and some sore throats from drainage.  I could definitely feel that whatever was trying to develop was really working hard today to not make me feel so hot.  I am taking Emergen C to try and combat whatever it is, and trying to get back on our routine!  Andrew is out of school till the 8th of January, so we still have the rest of this week and the beginning of next. All the other schools started back today, but not us!! Part of me has really, really enjoyed having him around 24/7, but part of me is ready for him to go back so I can get back into my routine.  

It's part of the mommy diet.  Whatever you get they will eat theirs and want yours too!

Thursday:  Cross Fit day!  Coach Erin was back from her well deserved Christmas vacation and I couldn't wait to see what she had for me!  I decided to not run in the morning, mainly because my option was the dread mill and I don't want to complicate things with my hip and back at this point.  I walked into the gym a little tentative because of my back and hip and walked out feeling AMAZING! I  LOVE coach Erin and am going to cry when I can't take lessons from here anymore:(  We worked on front squats and dumb bell presses on an incline, and then my WOD included the sled push, dumb bell snatches, wall balls, and reverse lunges.  I walked out feeling a thousand times better.  Next week I start classes EEEEKKKKK!!!!

Friday:  Run whatever you feel like day. Okay, not going to lie, I do love the flexibility that you get with just running 3 days a week for sure.  I wasn't sure what my legs would feel like after all of those squats in CF the day before, so decided to try the 4:1 again (thank you Wendy for always talking about these).  I grabbed the two dogs and headed out.  We are having an incredibly mild winter here in Wamego, so I was in a t shirt and probably could have run in shorts instead of tights!  I forgot to program my watch again, so just used my phone to alarm when the 4 minutes was up. Y'all, I am seeing times that I haven't seen in two years ON MY EASY RUN!!!!!  I kept see 10:50 come across my watch, and I wasn't even pushing.  My Garmin gave me a 5 on the training effect scale, which isn't good, but I didn't feel like I was pushing that hard at all.  I did 5 miles in less than an hour, and I haven't done that in a LONG LONG time!  I don't know what was at play, the weather, CF making me stronger, or only doing 3 runs a week,  but dang it, I hope this feeling stays around. AND I was pretty much pain free the entire run!!!!

Later on I did visit the master of pain AKA Doug at Body First.  Hurt's so good was the theme, and he made it hurt so good.  He really does not think that I have PF, which is good, but the bad news is what he thinks is wrong is never going to go away unless I completely change my mechanics.  He did explain to me what would happen if my PF tore and told me that some runners just get theirs cut.  I wouldn't mind a complete tear, as I am not in a huge amount of pain and it does not hurt when I run.  In some ways, his analysis made me excited and in some ways it made me sad.  I have tried for years to change the way I run, and I have not made very huge differences in my biomechanics.  I am hoping with CF that I can strengthen some things to help bring my feet in and have better bio mechanics but I am not holding my breath.  

Saturday:  Eagle day!!!!  Okay originally I had thought that Stella and I would go do a long run out at Clinton lake for the Frozen Ass meet up.  Then, I remembered that Eagle day was at Tuttle Creek that morning and while Eagle day was from 9-12, the FA started at 12 and I didn't want to rush.  The whole family was excited to go see Eagles, and I could always run on Sunday by myself locally. I am so glad I decided to stay and hang out with the fam!  We had so much fun! 

We started out by learning about all types of birds of prey including hawks, kestrels, vultures and owls.  We learned SO much about SO many birds and Andrew seemed to really love it.  I found so much that i didn't know including that usually females are the larger sex and that these huge birds are usually only a few pounds!  We also learned they basically have no sense of smell (except the vulture)  and owls have ears on the side of their heads, but one is located high and the other low for better triangulation.  

We then boarded the bus and headed out to Tuttle Creek state park to see two sites where eagles had been spotted.  We used our binoculars as well as the spotting scopes they had set up and saw many eagles playing, eating, and roosting.  We also saw a nest sight that has been used for many years by the same eagles.  Afterwards we headed to a Manhattan staple Vista Burger for burgers and cyclones (Think sonic blasts BUT WAY BETTER).  

I have honestly being doing so well this week nutrition wise, but today I just went with the flow and had all the things.  I may have only eaten half of my cyclone, but I still ate all of my burger and fries.  Oh well.  Maybe going to add a cheat day?  We then headed out to Rocky Ford because we heard the eagles were playing there as well.  We hiked on a new to me trail/paved road thingy and saw 6 bald eagles!  SO COOL!  We ended the day and 62 degree weather with some baseball practicing.  We are seeing some huge improvement over last year and are super excited as Andrew is going to a baseball camp all this month on sundays.

A new to me trailish

Sunday:  Long run and baseball camp day! I decided to try a new to me trail and by trail I mean paved trail. I was kind of worried because we went and walked it the day before or some of it and my foot was not happy. I was in just normal shoes though, not my Hokas, and I did not have heel cups in to protect my foot, plus I was one day post massage.  I also had conflicting information on the distance of said trail.  The game warden told me I could easily get 4 miles out and 4 miles back, but when I quizzed my running partner who sometimes runs out there, she said there was no way.  Oh well, try it yourself and see.  

I started out on a paved trail, which was kind of nice because I didn't have to look at my feet the whole run.  I quickly dumped into the campground at the end of Tuttle Creek state park.  I had run through this camp ground for my very first 5k YEARS ago, so I recognized it immediately. I also had the map I posted in my pictures on my phone, so I kept consulting it to make sure I was headed the right way.  I snaked around the entire park, getting to see eagles, snow geese, and lots of ducks.  I took the outer most portion and tried to find the Cotton Wood Trail. Finally, success!

While most of our other trails are mush right now, thanks to the warmer than usual winter, this trail is protected meaning it has wood chips and leaf cover.  Cotton wood goes right down beside the water, so the views were amazing!  Lots and lots of very pretty ducks and geese a stone's throw away.  Unfortunately, the trail itself is super short, maybe 0.5 of a mile at most.  I got back on pavement and headed back towards the way I came. I had no mileage in mind, just enjoying the views.  

If we saw something interesting we stopped.  I sometimes remembered to stop my watch and sometimes totally forgot.   While the pavement was a little hard on my body post deep tissue and ART treatment, I just couldn't stop going and looking at things.  

We caught another trail on the way back, which was a bit longer.  I forgot to look to get exact mileage, but it was a nice way to stay off of pavement and dumped me back to the campgrounds right at the start of the trail that leads back to Rocky Ford.   The best part of all of this run was the fact that we went by tons of restrooms!  No squatting in the woods and toilet paper!!!  A girl could get spoiled for sure :)  When I got back to the car, I decided to try and explore the other side of the trail as well.  I was rewarded with more eagles!  

I am happy to say that all but one dog encounter was good today and the one that was bad wasn't horrible, his dog just wasn't listening to his voice commands to come back.  I was able to step in front of Stella and the dog moved away.  He wasn't big and wasn't being aggressive, but I didn't want to take a chance and of course the owner did not have a leash that I could see.  The other owners leashed their loose dogs up quickly and or called their dogs back to them. I think it was a win/win:).  

One more week before official training cycle starts back up and another week of 3 runs.  Also my first week of Cross Fit class and getting back on a schedule, since little man goes back to school Tuesday.  EEEEK!!!!!  Have a great week!

As always I am linking up with Wendy at Taking the Long Way Home and HoHo runs for the weekly wrap!  Check out all the awesome blogs on the link up, you won't be disappointed!