Winging it: Week 4

This week may be the week I start triathalon training.  We have two weeks of every single day predicted rain.  We have baseball, we have track, and we have running and racing to do, but it may all be postponed.  At least the gym won't flood, but the roads to it might!!!!

ended up with a 168 max!

Monday:  Cross fit day.  Today was the day for maxes and I was super pumped and super nervous.  I decided instead of rushing and doing the WOD, I would just take my time and work towards my max.  Once I hit 168, my form looked crappy and even though I got it up and didn't have to go to failure, the form said it all.  I felt so powerful and excited!  Can't wait to de-load and then start this cycle with my new max!  Baseball games were canceled for the night thanks to storm and rain.

Tuesday: Storms!  The theme for this week and next is going to be when to run to avoid storms.  We had maybe a brief hour of nothing, and while I thought I could get out and run, the wind picked up and we had 50 mph wind gusts.  No thank you. I can battle a lot of things but that is not one of them.

Last day of school lunch

Wednesday:  Sunshine!  I knew we were suppose to get better weather, so I had plans on doing some sort of run.  Got Boom's mile in first and then got the other dogs for three-four.  My dang watch died again and I swear my dogs had poopitis.  Since our normal running route is under water, we had to stick to the pavement.  I think the dogs sensed this and decided to poop multiple times meaning I had to bag and carry to a can and reload on bags.   I am not kidding when I say that these dogs were full of poop.  Boom pooped twice on his way to deliver Andrew to school and then once on his mile.  Stella pooped once and Deuce pooped twice.  SERIOUSLY DOGS????

a field that has a concession stand?  YES!

Sunshine also meant we got a ball game in.  We figured it would be canceled due to field conditions but we were lucky in that it stayed warm and dry all day.  We headed to St. George, the town I lived in for years when I was in grad school, to play at their new field.  We saw some huge improvements in fielding and some batting, but mostly our bats were quiet and we lost 2-0. The boys all tried and I am happy with the fact that we got our very first out!

Last day in Mrs. Martin's class

Thursday:  I wanted to get a little mileage in either Thursday or Friday before the race.  Just a little 3 miler to make sure the legs were good and warmed up.  The only down side, I had andrew all day since his summer stuff doesn't start till next week, so I needed to get up super early to get everything done.  Did that happen?  Nope.  I need to get back into my routine of getting up at 4 am, but I just couldn't leave my bed. I also got a message later in the day that open gym was off for the day so I couldn't get my deadlifts in.  Boo.  I have joined our local gym but I have heard nothing about my request for bumper plates or a women's bar.  Super boo.

We had batting practice post work and while I probably could have run while the kiddos were batting, I enjoyed watching them bat and learn, and talked to their parents.  We didn't get home till 8 and I was bound and determined we were going to have a home cooked meal and we did.  Chicken, broccoli and rice casserole from Mom's Life Meals that was delicious!  I am not a huge fan of broccoli but I ate it and really enjoyed it.  Who am I lately?

Friday: Rest or run?  I chose to rest and just run Saturday and Sunday.

love that downhill, hate that humidity.  90% at the start!

Saturday:  4 am wake up call to be on the road to the Bill Snyder Half marathon in Manhattan.  I was pacing the 2:30 group and I was super excited to be pacing a faster group for a race that has some serious downhill.  Unfortunately when I woke up we had 90% humidity, which was my biggest fear.  I have NOT acclimated to any of the heat or humidity yet and this was a sucker punch.  This is also a point to point race, so we had to get on buses to head out to the start and our leader wanted us on the buses by 5:45 am.

Thanks to Jennifer for this picture!

These are just a few of the pacers.  I LOVE working with these ladies!  We started out nice and slow and did some K S U chants at the first few mile markers.  Then the heat and humidity really started to affect everyone.  We lost most people around mile 8.  Some had pushed out already to go get some faster times and that makes me SO happy.  I had three or four ladies that were trying to hold on to a 2:30ish finish and the weather just got them.  I hate that, but we had discussed that this should be  B goal race due to the conditions and the main goal of the day was to stay safe.  I had my handheld full of watermelon Nuun and was still dumping water on my head at every aid station.  There was a little breeze and I was able to get some cooling effect even though it was super humid.  I was encouraging all of my runners to do the same.

Thanks to Paula for this picture!  I'm the one in the back holding up my pacer stick

Finishing on the field was pretty darn awesome!  I need a GoPro!  Watching my video will make you seasick, but here it is anyway :)  I will say, no offense KSU but being on the field at the UT Knoxville game was way cooler and maybe if the stands had been full of screaming fans it would have be super duper cool too.  Running on the turf was weird and I can't imagine playing on that.  I can remember having issues marching on it in high school too when we marched at Vanderbuilt's stadium.

How cool are these medals?  This is my third year of doing this race out of the 5 years they have had it and it gets better every year!  I love know what's coming to prepare my runners better.  While I think this course would be super fun to try and PR some day, for now I think I will stick to pacing and sharing the beauty of the flint hills with others.    

Sunday:  Recovery miles.   I knew I wanted to get out and do something mileage wise, but I wasn't sure what.  I knew one thing, I wanted to get lots of rest and not get up early. I have my 50 mile training starting next week possibly and I wanted to be well rested going in.  I found another plan that I kind of like better than the plan I was going with.  The problem?  I would need 24 weeks to train instead of 18, BUT this plan has cut back weeks instead of just a steady build and i kind of like that. 

the bridge going out of town heading south towards I-70

Took boom out for a mile and then grabbed Deuce for another 2.  We took it super duper easy and stopped for many pictures.  The Kansas River is SUPER high in Wamego right now and with the planned water releases happening soon at Tuttle creek, we are going to probably see some flooding.  The good news, it floods south of the town which is mainly ag land, but the bad news is it floods at all.  My knee also started hurting about 2 miles in.  I felt it twinge the day before when I ran out onto the field.  I figured it was just the change in underfoot, but this was pretty ouchy for several steps before fading into a dull roar.  WTH body????  Why now?  I have been being so careful.  I have a day off tomorrow and will probably skip Cross fit and rest it and re evaluate. I think my first run on my new plan is 6 miles and I sure don't want to start out this training cycle already fighting an injury.  I also am going to try running 5 days a week and this will be new and different for my body so this may add a huge wrinkle to my plan.  

Totos around town with a dog that won't look at the camera

Have a great week!  Hope you are high and dry where you are and not battling rain, rain and more rain!