Week 5 of 24: Training for Run Amok 50 mile

Started out the week with no hot water or showers thanks to our basement flooding.  Ended the week with family, racing, races, and fun!

Monday:  Rest day!  Another day of sleeping in.  I needed it for sure.  This week is going to be crazy again with baseball, racing, and a night trail race for me.  Plus my parents are coming into town as well as my in laws to celebrate a week of 4th of July in Wamego.  Our town has a HUGE week long celebration culminating in the largest hand fired fireworks show in the country.  It's crazy that every year out town goes from about 4 K people to 60 K!!!!!

Tuesday:  Easy 7.  I broke it up into an easy 6 with Stella and then 1 with boom.  Boom got to experience sprinklers for the first time and loved them.  I need to start inching his mileage up slowly.  He is ready for more than a mile at a time and I just need to figure it out with my current training.  It's not the best time to get him up to speed but we will find a way.

We finished the day with baseball in our very first tournament.  We were the number 15 seed out of 16 playing the number 2 seed.  We had no expectations of winning, just wanted to continue our path of improvements and hits.  We had success on both fronts but they out hit and out fielded us and that is okay.  I wrote a long sappy post on my FB page but the gist of it is that we had a great group of coaches, parents, and kiddos. They tried hard, they had fun, and learned a ton.  We had fun coaching them and are already looking forward to next year.

I love seeing hill repeats on my garmin map.  So cute!

Wednesday:  Hill repeats.  We had 5 miles of hill repeats on our schedule.  Again I did a 1 mile warm up with miles 2 and 3 being full of repeats and mile 3-5 being a cool down.  My running partner has joined me all week and our dogs raced each other on the last repeat which made us finish strong.  May bump it up to 10 next time.  The plan allows for anything hills so it an be repeats or just a super hilly run.  We may experiment with both.

Boom was very worried that I was in bed the majority of the day

Thursday: Let's back up.  Wednesday night I started feeling like I had a stiff neck.  On a whim, I took my temp and it was 99.3.  Then throughout the night it spiked higher and higher.  Finally got up to 102.  I spent most of the day sleeping and sweating.  Fever would spike and come down, spike and come down.  I also had a really bad headache and my stomach was not settled at all.  I finally got some pudding down and some 7 up from when Andrew was sick.  Finally had to take some advil for the headache and that seemed to help bring the fever down to the 99s.  Spent most of the day in bed either sleeping or watching Yellowstone.  Missed my work out obviously.  The goal was to rest and beat this mess.  I don't have time to be in bed.  Of course my hubby was also gone this entire week during most of the day and afternoon at training in Topeka so I had to find rides for my kiddo to camp and rides home for my kiddo and the others I was playing mom taxi for.  Thank god one of my BRFs was a counselor and could help out because honestly I could NOT drive with the fever being so high.

I even missed the boy's end of baseball party at Widgets but all of the moms took pictures and sent them to me to cheer me up.  I just LOVE these boys!!!!!

Friday:  Rest day.  Yeah for rest days!  My fever was still bouncing around so I headed to the dr's office to rule out strep or West Nile.  While West Nile is a virus and is self limiting, I wanted reporting done to indicate it was in our area if it were West Nile.  Dr wasn't concerned with WN so we swabbed for strep and when lab test came back negative, we sent in for type and culture just in case.  He offered antibiotics but I refused.  There is no point in taking antibiotics for viral mess.  I still had some sort of glimmer of hope that I would be magically cured by Saturday and could still run my trail race.  I did ask IF I was fever free could I go to see Andrew's inventor's showcase and he gave me the green light as long as I wasn't coughing (i wasn't) and I wasn't planning on kissing anyone or licking them.  I said I could do that :)  My fever was staying down and was gone by the time of the showcase and I was SO excited to see all of the creations my little dude invented.  The above is his robot that completed many tasks in a robot challenge.

Here is his boat that he made for a competition where they floated boats and completed deep seas tasks.  That's captain fluffy on the helm.

Here is his farm complete with hello kitty weather vane and windmill :)  I love Camp Invention with this being our fourth year of doing it.  I hope he continues to love STEM because I surely did not love it as a kiddo and didn't get near the opportunities he is getting to explore all areas of STEM.  

New stove.  I don't even cook and I am smitten!

Saturday:  Race day.  DNS.   While I woke up fever free, I was super fatigued.  We had a million things to get done prior to my parents and tony's mom getting to KS, and I decided to focus on getting as much of that done as I could and forget the race.  I am so glad I did because with the heat advisory, there was NO way I could have struggled through this tough, but super fun trail race at night.  I have no FOMO because there was just no way my virus riddled body could have coped with it.  I wanted to be well enough to watch Andrew race and be able to get back to training next week.  We worked on all the calamity that has happened in the house this week including replacing our stove that died, defrosting our freezer that died that we hoped we could save, helping our dying hot water heater that is newish, and also get ready for our house to be re-roofed and new skylights to be put in.  Yes, all of this happened in a span of a week half of which I was sick for.  Go figure.  Even being in the AC all day, I was super wiped.  The boys had yet another end of baseball party thrown by one of the moms and while I had planned on staying home and getting to bed, I had to sub in at the last minute.  I was still fever free but I was SO tired.   We made it through and the boys had TONS of fun.  We had over 300 water balloons for the boys to play with and they had a ball.  

Sunday:  Race day!  Another hot one but we got it done!  Two heat races and a main and not a ton of people.  I had high hopes this would be the day that Andrew finally got his first checkered flag.  He and daddy had practiced the night before and the car was in tiptop shape.  Except daddy decided to change a whole bunch of things post practice.  Then all of the problems started.  His car would start going, he kept saying he was in the gas, but nothing was happening.  He ended up second position outside in his first heat race and he managed to just say ahead of everyone and win.  Then his second heat race, he was put at the back since he won the previous race, and he just hung out there.  He claims it was the car, we are still not so sure.  The car was doing odd things, but Tony figured out one of the problems before the feature and fixed it.  Andrew was 4 out of 5 and inside which is not his strong suit.  Again, he let everyone pass and got lapped and refused to try and pass anyone.  The jury is still out, yes we made changes, not sure if that is what made him not be able to pass or if it was mental.  It was SUPER hot and they had the longest race EVER right before his feature in which he had to sit in his car for at least 45 minutes fully dressed and strapped in.  I am not going to over analyze, he is a kid but we have time now at night to go to the race track and practice and practice we shall!  I just wish he could have gotten his first checkered when his grand parents were present.  Oh well!

What a crazy and busted week!!!!  Monday is another rest day and I am intending to take it before hitting my running schedule hard.  Can't make up missed work outs but I needed those rest days to recover from this mess and glad I took them.  I'll be back Night Hawk 2020!!!!

Week 4 of 24: Training for Run Amok 50 miler

Two more weeks of baseball and I am sure when it is over I will miss it dearly!  We have tournaments coming up, but single elimination and we will play the best team in the league so let's just be real, it will be one and done. In other news CUT BACK WEEK #1!!!!  YAAAAASSSSS!!!!

Monday:  Rest day and baseball.  No lifting, just couldn't fit it into my schedule and yes that is a big fat excuse.  I worked at both jobs, plus Andrew started KSU baseball camp.  The above picture is him at check in.  Sometimes I look at him and wonder where in the heck my little boy went!  He didn't even want a hug or kiss post check in, just gave me a head nod and headed in ALL BY HIS SELF!  How did we get from the kindergartner that had to be walked in, to the kiddo that doesn't even say bye mom???   Post baseball daddy picked him up and they hit up the lazy river water feature and had McDonalds.  Then we had baseball that night.

We played a team that had many young players too and it was a super fun game. Our boys got some hits and still got beat, but it wasn't such a painful ass whooping.  Both sides did some great things offensively and defensively.  Andrew knocked down a ball at third and saved the runner from getting an extra base, and had a nice clean catch that he could have attempted to throw to first, but instead he threw to the pitcher.  Oh well, they are learning and that was his first time on third base.  

Tuesday:  4 easy.  I am telling you right now, cut back weeks are the BEST!  It's so nice after having some hard weeks to see only 4 miles on your schedule and NO speed work for the entire week.  Of course we had 90% humidity at 5 am, but details.  We headed out with one of my BRFs and her dog Ebby and talked ghost stories and got it done.

when you can't go swimming because it's storming, just swim in the gym in the rain water that comes under the door

Later post picking up Andrew from camp, we went and got lunch and then headed over to the gym, so I could work on my heavy rep of 8.  I didn't want to do this without a person around watching me and helping me get to that heavy 8.  Coach showed me a new way to grip and position the bar on my back for more comfort during back squats, and we slowly worked up to a set of 8 at 75%.  I could have gone one more set, but I decided to stop where I was and be good with what I got. 

Wednesday:  Easy 3.  I decided to take Boom for the entire run and see how he did.  Yes, this goes against everything I preach, but the majority of his run would be on soft dirt/gravel, and we would be run walking with my hubby on stand by if he needed to be picked up.   It was cool, but the humidity was high, and he immediately wanted to pull and catch up to Ebby.  He has to figure out pacing and not moving so much side to side, but overall he did GREAT!  He got to play in the puddles from the rain storm the day before, and he learned how wonderful walk breaks are.  I was SUPER proud of him and how he adjusted, but he has a lot to learn to be a distance doggy.  Oh well, we have lots of time :)

Baseball was LOADS of fun!  We had a team of similar skill level with lots of young kiddos and we both had our ups and downs.  For a while it was 5-4 with them barely winning, but we had runs and hits so who cares!!!!  The pitching machine has kicked our asses this year and we are finally mastering it!  Andrew even got a little dink of a hit and got a single and advanced on a throwing error.  He had a couple of good stops at 2nd base and even caught a few balls thrown to him!  I am super proud we are ending this season on a high note!

Thursday:  Easy 5.  I couldn't sleep the night before, not for any one reason, just couldn't get my brain to shut off, so when my alarm went off, I surely just wanted to go back to sleep.  Had both of my BRFs waiting on me, so I had to drag my tired and sore butt out there.  One BRF couldn't make it so the other BRF and her dog Ebby and Stella and I got it done.  Wow, the humidity has been high lately, but the cooler temps have made it tolerable.  I was cool, but wet with sweat that wouldn't evaporate.

Later on I headed in to Manhattan to do my dead lift series on some sore and tired legs.  Coach Erin had given me some dead lifts series to work on a while back and I am still working through them.  70% on some deficit dead lifts, 75% of my max on 4 x 4 regular dead lifts.  I finished up with 2 x 10 on Romanian dead lifts at 45% of my max.  I took my time, focused on form, and had great conversation with Coach while we both were lifting.  Then it was back to Wamego for our last batting practice of the season.  We did some batting drills, worked on hitting off of the Ts, and then did a fly ball competition for sno cones.  Of course they all got sno cones because they all got a catch and worked hard. I hate that the season is ending because it has been so much fun working with the boys that come to every practice and every game and hustle and try hard.  They want to learn and Tony has a lot to teach them.  His passion is baseball and I think he has found his niche in coaching, and I love seeing that!

at the ice cream shop.  so nice and it made andrew's day too!

Friday:  Rest day!!!!  I needed a day to do nothing!  I had hoped for some extra sleep, but the dogs had us all up at 6 am due to thunderstorms moving through.  We had a super busy day at the shop and then post work we headed to target.  Why is that place SO magical?  I could seriously walk up and down every single aisle.  Andrew had saved up his money and wanted a Woody doll and was delighted to find that with the money he saved, he could get a woody and a buzz light year.  We can't wait to go see Toy Story 4!!!!!

Saturday:  10 miles.  Woke up to storms at 5 am that didn't look like they would be out of the area till around 9 am, so opted to go back to sleep.  The dogs weren't happy, usually once they are up, they are up, but they were nice and went back to sleep with me.  Got back up at 7.  Looked like the storms would be gone around 8:30 am, so I fueled and got ready to run.  This is the first run that I feel like Stella was back to her normal self.  She wasn't dragging, was jumping back up to go when my watch would signal the walk interval was over, and just had a smile on her face pretty much the whole run.  It was hot, but there were TONS of lakes left over from the storms, and a nice breeze was blowing.  The gravel was a bit soft in some places, but not too bad.  I am sure the trails are still under water and will be for some time with all of the rain we continue to get.  As I was heading back to my house, I saw hubby and Andrew leaving and whistled out and got their attention.  They were headed to brunch, so I really quickly  dropped Stella off and headed to where they were eating.  Post brunch I mowed and then we headed to town to watch Toy Story 4.

If you haven't seen it or want to see it, GO see Toy Story 4.  I was skeptical that it would be good since it's the 4th one, but it did not disappoint.  

Sunday:  My schedule called for active rest.  She said we could bike, swim, or elliptical, or even take it is a full rest day.  We went to bed to storms and woke up to storms.  Our back yard was a lake and our basement flooded.  Active rest quickly moved to just rest, which is also allowed and probably needed.  I think house cleaning counts as active rest anyway right?

I really had hoped to get more rest this week, but instead lifted twice and spent most of the week sore, but feeling happy that I got back in the gym.  Got a little more sleep, which was needed and even slept in one day till 8:30 am, WAHOOOO!!!!  Tournament week of baseball is up next and obviously since we play the #2 team, we will be one and done unless some crazy miracle happens.  I also have a race coming up at night on the trail, and my mom, mom in law, and step dad are traveling up to celebrate the 4th with us early to watch Andrew race his car.  Busy week, but my heart will be happy and full!

Week 3 of 24: Training for Run Amok 50 mile

As I alluded to last week, this week would be a true challenge to me.  Mileage goes up as it does, 3 nights of baseball games, and one super long day at the track for midget cars.  I wouldn't want it any other way:) Please pray for my sanity and my ability to sleep and or recover.

Monday:  Should have been a Cross fit day, but once again getting up at 4 am in the morning just didn't sound in the cards for me.  I needed some sleep badly and I chose sleep over working out.  Balance right?  I had hoped to go do open gym and at least get my back squats in before I headed back to Wamego to work at the shop and it just didn't happen. I had to get back, we had a lot to do at the shop before baseball, and I chose to make this a total rest day instead.

We had baseball later on and we played the first team with very, very intense and LOUD coaches.  We have had differing opinions on dead ball rules and things got a little heated as the umps didn't want to seem to call dead ball when they were suppose to, so they were advancing their runners too many bases at a time (according to our interpretation of the rules, which could be wrong but who the heck knows).  We would have lost anyway, they had some amazing hits, but the score wouldn't have been quite so bad, and we could have finished the game instead of it being called.  I really didn't know why we were viewed as a threat to their win. I look at it this way, you can bat 5 players and let them score and get in the park homers OR you can let each kid get a double or a single and bat more of your entire team more times.  Your players get more offensive time and our players get more defensive playing time.  Oh well, some people play like this league is the step below the majors and some don't.  We view it as a learning experience and a way to develop players and give them the confidence to move on to the next level. I am learning to let go of things i can't control, but it's hard for me, and I will be the first to admit it and this game really bothered me.  Andrew had a great catch and throw to first base and would have had the runner out but our first baseman took his foot of of the bag.  Oh well, we celebrated like it was an out anyway!  Our players are getting so much better with defense and I am SUPER proud of them.  Our bats were super quiet again, so no runs, but we will figure it out eventually.

Beautiful sunrise

Tuesday:  Couldn't sleep all night.  Got maybe an hour, hour and a half all said in done, but I was wide awake at 5 am and got my 6 miles in, 5 with deuce and 1 with boom and Stella.  Stella has been a little off in her gait, so I wanted to be able to see her run from behind.  When I run with her and Boom, she races him and really strides out, so I could get a clear picture.  I still can't figure out what is going on, she isn't clearly lame, but she isn't 100%, so I will keep her mileage low for the week and rest her and watch her like a hawk.  Ran with one of my BRFs Robin and we talked through a lot.  God bless my friends because I can get verbal diarrhea and they take it and help me process.  Andrew woke up with a low grade fever so he headed to the shop with daddy while I headed to the lab to process samples.

he may be 7 but he is still my baby!

When I got to the shop, I could tell Andrew wasn't feeling very well at all.  His fever was creeping into the 100s and he just wanted to sleep.  I had a PTO meeting to get to so he and daddy headed home to get some rest and chill.  All was fine till about 10:30 when Andrew, who of course was in our bed, puked ALL over tony and the bed.  Stripped the bed, got everyone cleaned up and back to sleep to be woken up again around 11:30 with him thinking he might puke again.  Got him up and downstairs to the couch.  Daddy took the night shift as he knew I was exhausted from no sleep previously.  By the morning his fever was down in the 99s again, but he was still feeling pretty weak.  Thank goodness I can pretty much work from wherever as long as I have a computer. 

helping me groom the dogs 

Wednesday:  I decided to hit the treadmill and do my speed work versus waiting till tony got home or post baseball.  I had 5 miles of speed on the plan for the day, so did a one mile warm up and then I did 30 second strides for three miles before getting a cool down mile.  My watch and my treadmill didn't agree or anything, pace nor mileage, but I didn't care, I knew I worked hard and that is all that matters.  I tried to stay around 4.6-4.7 mph for easy and 6.5-6.7 for my strides.  

Baseball game number 2 for the week.  One of the best team in the league and lots of my friends and their kiddos on the other team.  I felt like I was fighting off fatigue and possibly whatever Andrew had, but the show must go on. We got run ruled again, BUT the coaches were SUPER nice and held their runners when they could have clearly gotten in the park homers every hit.  SO nice to play coaches that know that this age group is for teaching and NOT a step under the majors.  We had a few hits, but not many, and the boys had a few offensive outs and are starting to figure this whole thing out slowly.  I can't wait to see what next year brings for our Wamego Royals!!!!

Thursday:  7 miles and yet another baseball game.  We had another late night with Andrew getting sick yet again same time same way.  At least this time we made it to the bathroom and not in the bed.  Unfortunately, it was in the bath tub instead of the toilet, but details.    We all got to bed fairly quickly post puke, but I didn't want to wake them by getting up at 5 am, so I slept in till 7 and then went out and did a lunch run.   I took Stella and watched her like a hawk and other than some cross firing when she was on the pavement, she ran fine.   Andrew's fever broke some time in the night, but we kept him home anyway.  We had promised him a trip to target to get some Legos with his birthday money and a lunch date, and while I couldn't go due to being in the office all day, it was fun to see what he picked out.

Again baseball was a run ruled situation, but the other team was SUPER nice and held their runners, so more of their batters got to bat and our kids got more fielding practice.  It was a huge win win for both teams.  The opposing coach came post game and had a long talk with Tony about keep with it and see the fruits of developing young players. It was super nice and above board.  We know the future is bright, and we are trying to make this season all about learning and fun and I think we are doing so.

at least we have birthday legos to keep us busy!

Friday:  Rest day.  Another sick day.  URGH!!!!  After a day of being fever free, I had hoped we could all go back to normal.  This stupid viral thing reared it's ugly head and once again Andrew had a low grade fever and felt like poop.  At this point I am trying to keep him quiet and resting because I don't want him to miss baseball camp next week.  I am not sure if he will be well enough to race.

at the top of the stairs.  See the trail way below?  I did that hill x 2!!!!

Saturday:  Long run day!  I had another range of mileage and wanted to hit 15 miles for sure.  I had three options, my normal route, hit up Clinton lake for a preview of the Night Hawk's alternative trail, or hit up Konza minus Stella. When I got up at 5:00 am, there were storms all around us and it looked like Clinton Lake was getting rain.  I checked in with one of my trail hawks friends and she said that the trails would be muddy so they were canceling the preview.  Off to Konza I headed!

I make no bones about it, I have a love hate relationship with Konza.  They don't allow dogs, and for a VERY good reason, it's a research station first and foremost.  Also, there is little to no shade and if the sun is out, you are at it's mercy the entire way.  The love part?  The views, the wildlife, the challenge, and the beautiful wildflowers that are blooming at this time of year.  

I got lucky.  The sun stayed behind the clouds most of my run and a cool breeze blew.  I was able to get 2 of the big loops done (~6 miles per loop) and feel really, really good including two trips up the big hill and stairs.  I didn't listen to music or podcasts, just listened to the sounds of nature.  I used my car at the trail head as an aid station, so every six miles I refueled my tailwind bottles with ice cold tailwind.  By my third loop, more and more hikers were out, so I opted to do an out and back on the bottom half of the big loop.

Post running I headed back to Wamego for some yummy brunch and some work time/car time/andrew time.

After getting some much needed in office work time, I headed to the house while the boys headed to the track to practice.  I cleaned the house, did some laundry, and just sat around and rested. I actually watched a movie on TV and read a book during the commercials!!!!  Who am I?  

Sunday:  1 hour 10 minute run plus track day!  Once again I made a tough choice to get some sleep and run post track time versus getting up super early and getting my run done.  It was a bold decision since being at the track all day in the heat might not at all be conducive to me running, but I felt pretty wiped post my trail 15 miler and I felt like that was a better decision for my body.

Andrew was fever free and excited to race, so to the track we went! This week was the qualifying, heat race, main schedule.  I was SUPER excited to see what would happen after his success last week.  Right after Andrew got on the track to practice, one of his friends decided to pit as andrew was turning, and this caused Andrew to hit the wall and flip onto his side.  It was SUPER hard for me NOT to climb the fence and go straight to him, but Tony was right there and I could see his face and he was not crying.  After getting him right side up and checking him out for injuries, he went back out on the track and finished practice.  I could tell he was hesitant to pass once again, so I knew the day would be a crap shoot.  Qualifying went well and he captured the fastest time for junior novice for the first time.  We had heat race next, which meant other cars on the track, including 2 new drivers, one that it was his first race ever.  We had 7 cars total and Andrew ended up in 4th overall, due to not wanting to pass.  Oh well, the fact that he was going out there period made me happy.  Then we started the main.  Andrew started in 5th as they put the faster cars in the back from qualifying and heat.  It was a super long race as double file starts always are super hard for the novice kids, so it took forever to get them started.  Then a couple of kids were struggling with spinning out and or going through the infield, so we kept having to re start at 25 laps which meant more double file restarts.  My phone actually got too hot standing in the stands doing live FB videos and shut itself down.  I had to put my cup of ice tea on the back of my phone to cool it off enough to get started videoing again!!!!  I can't even imagine how hot it was for our kids in those cars in full gear.  We finally had a big long green flag stretch and Andrew slowly moved up to 3rd place where he stayed.  Except for some reason instead of crossing the finish under the checkered he immediately after white flag went to the  pits.  They gave him third, for what reason I do not know since he left the track and didn't cross the finish, other than he had lapped the field several times along with his first and second place drivers.  We celebrated like it was official, since I thought for SURE he would be done post wreck.  

After stopping for our normal celebratory ice cream and getting dinner, laundry, and dishes started, I headed out to get my 1 hour 10 minute run in.  It was hard because I was exhausted, but I managed it and I think I got around 5.5 miles again.  My watch threatened to die at 30 minutes in, so to be safe, I switched to letting strava track me, but strava had a hiccup and didn't record correctly, so I had to guess mileage once again.  

Week 3 in the books!  Week 4 brings 2 baseball games, a cut back week in training, and hopefully some more quality trail time and lifting.  Have a great week!

Week 2 of 24: Training for Run AMOK 50 miler

Made it through week one!  Five runs, two days at the gym, and lots of late nights thanks to our crazy schedule right now.  I keep telling myself just make it through baseball season and things will calm down a bit....maybe.

Monday:  Sort of rest day.  I usually go to Cross fit class on Monday mornings, but I was exhausted and opted to get 2 more hours of sleep versus getting up at 4 am to go to Manhattan.  Went and lifted at the local gym that is not even a minute away from our shop with the hubs.  It was kind of fun to have him there with me as I did my normal back squat warm up/lift.  I didn't do the WOD I missed at Cross fit class because we didn't have enough time, but I felt pretty good with my lifting and hitting some squats with my new max percentages.  I didn't like the men's bar and it's stupid gnarling right where it fits on my back, and I didn't like the weird plates they have, but all is good, I got it done with tony's help on the math.

Tuesday:  6 easy miles.  I woke up to 70 degrees and 90% humidity. YUCK.  My back door was completely fogged over and that is NEVER a good sign.  I took it super duper easy since neither Stella nor I am fully acclimated to this mess.  I also had some stomach issues, but that is what happens when I get up and immediately get out of the door for a run.  I am not going to fight it at this point and just run with toilet paper or find the nearest porta potty (or ditch).  Until I can get to bed earlier at night I won't be getting up at 4 am if I can help it.

Wednesday:  4 miles of hills.  My plan was to do 1 mile warm up, attack a hill for some repeats, and then 1 mile cool down on a flat surface.  I have a few hills in town that are quite steep and fun to run, but all pavement.  We did a down and back through down town and headed over to our favorite hill repeat hill on Popular street.  I try to vary my hill repeats on different hills in town, just so I get a variety of steepness and climb.  We did one mile warm up and then hit the hill for two miles of running up and walking down.  I really, really wanted to quit at 6 repeats and then just finish out my mileage with easy, but I asked Stella if we could do just one more and she gave me this look:

We finished our last two which got us a little over 3 miles and we headed back towards the house to finish our 4 miles total.  I did walk down the hill to catch my breath for recovery, because 90% humidity is killing me and it totally affects my breathing.  

Thursday:  6 miles.  Again late night with baseball.  We got run ruled again, BUT we got some hits and some contact with the ball.  We also got TONS of fielding practice since the other team could rip the ball, but once again their coach was super nice and held his runners so more of his kids could bat, and more of our kids could bat as well due to getting through 4 innings before the game was called.  We still have a lot to work on, but we are making a ton of progress and I LOVE it!  Anyway, I prayed for rain so I could get 2 more hours of sleep and the Lord answered with a big thunderstorm at 5 am.  I reset my alarm and fell back into a deep sleep.  Post getting my kiddo to camp and getting back to the shop to do some work, I decided to do a lunch run.

The weather conditions weren't horrible, but we have no shade most of our run out on the gravel roads.  I carried ice water in my handheld and hoped for the best.  We were both hot and draggy, but at about mile 4 I got the WORST cramp in my upper ab that would NOT go away.  I was doing my usual 4:1 run/walk ratio and that quickly changed to 30 sec run 30 sec walk, and that quickly changed to power walk.  I was 2 miles out, and hubby was at one of the industrial client's site, so I had no choice but to power walk it in.  Any time I ran I would get searing pain in my upper ab. I have no clue what it was or what caused it, but I was SUPER glad when I was done.  I lifted later doing my dead lift series and felt fine go figure.

Post work we had baseball practice.  I sure do love watching tony work with the boys.

This is one of his drills he does to teach them to swing level.  They have to hit both balls with one swing.  They love it and it's fun to see a light bulb go off in their heads when they get it right.  

Starting out with some flights

Friday:  REST DAY!  I worked part of the day at the shop and then headed to KC to hang out with my good friend Trina.  We hit up the Legends outdoor mall for some shoe shopping and some clothes shopping for myself, and then over to Bonner Springs to see a concert.  I always buy for Andrew and this time I thought I would treat myself to some NON running clothes.  I got some cute sandals that aren't athletic or flip flops, and some dressy tops and new fancy jeans that didn't cost 10 bucks LOL!  Big spender here!  After shopping we headed to an early dinner and beer flights, and then made our way over to the concert.  There were 4 bands total playing and we weren't in a huge hurry to be in the stadium.  

We had pit seats but we could really sit or stand anywhere.  We found some seats pretty early on and planted ourselves. I was so mellowed out thanks to the second hand smoke.  Trina and I just had so much fun listening to music, talking, and people watching.  So much 90s fashion!  I saw fanny packs and high waisted shorts and jeans and jumpers and rompers and Doc Martins. Brought back memories of my junior high/high school years.  

Sublime was amazing, but the second band that went on the Common Kings were my favorite!  Very chill crowd, lots of fun and a late night, but I needed to get away for a girl's trip.  Driving back was a little scary, we were both very tired and then there was a wreck on our highway to our town which we had to sit at for quite a while.  By the time I got home and into bed it was 2 am.  YIKES!  I don't stay out late EVER, so that was pretty big to me.  I knew the next day would have to be the easy run and it would have to be later in the day.

Early b day present!

Saturday:  1 hour 10 minute run.  I woke up with a ton of energy, go figure. I wanted to tackle cleaning up our yard and back yard/deck because both of our families will be coming to Wamego for fourth of July.  We had a ton of stuff that needed to be loaded up and taken to the dump, and i needed to mow front and back.  Plus, the dogs desperately needed a good grooming/toe nail trimming.

Post yard work/mowing, I headed out to get my 1 hour 10 minute run in.  Andrew wanted to ride his scooter while I ran.  While I was doubtful he would  make it the whole time, he did pretty good getting 40 minutes in on the rec complex concrete track.  When he was done, we headed back to the house and I hopped on the dreadmill to finish.  It was SO hot out that this was one time I didn't mind doing the mill for the AC.  I totally forgot to switch my watch over to indoor mode, so I didn't get a total mileage, but I estimate i got around 5.5 miles.  

Sunday:  OH boy is all I can say about this day.  Long run planned, birthday party, track practice, and baseball practice.  First woke up at 5 am to get started.  Had looked at the weather the night before and the temps looked amazing and the humidity low so opted to sleep in till 5 am and run around 6ish.   Post waking up and making coffee, my phone made a noise indicating weather was on it's way.

Seriously?   WTF weather????  I have no leeway in time today due to the party and baseball practice.  NOOOOOOO!!!!!!  I was tempted to just dump my coffee and go back to bed.  I was NOT about to do 13-14 miles on the mill.  Sometimes they are wrong about the speed of storms so I decided to solider on and get what I could outside.    As soon as I stepped outside the bottom dropped out but the temps were cool and there was no thunder or lightning so I kept going.  We got around 10 miles on the gravel and then did 3 around town.  I would say overall it was a really good run.  The cooler weather and my 4:1 intervals really worked well.  My pace was pretty slow, but I kind of fell into a flow and just stuck with it.  I didn't have my headphones so I just ran without music or podcasts for the entire time and kind of enjoyed just listening to the birds and noises around me.

Post running we had Andrew's b day part at our local gymnastics gym and then had baseball practice.  I was one super tired mommy by the end.  Thank God for mom friends who helped out including cleaning, wrangling kids and handing out drinks/cake/utensils.  We truly are blessed to have some amazing friends!

And that's a wrap.  I am exhausted and next week is going to be even harder with three baseball games, a practice, and a midget car race.  I shall survive, but it's going to be tough.  Longer runs, harder speed work, and a midget car race on Sunday.  I will probably not do any 4 am classes and probably get up at 5 am for most runs reluctantly.  Pray I make it and don't turn into the walking dead!

Week 1 of 24: Training for Run Amok 50 miler

I am still up in the air about what to do.  I really took it easy during my winging it weeks and was planning on building my base back up in June and adapting to heat and humidity prior to starting on my plan the first week in July.  Then I found a free 50 mile plan on one of my favorite ultra blogs, Relentless Forward Commotion, and I really, really liked certain parts of it. The problem?  It was a 24 week plan meaning I needed to start 6 weeks earlier than I had planned on starting, and also I needed to start out with some pretty high mileage compared to what I was currently doing.  The reason I loved this plan over the one I had previously found?  Cut back weeks.  The old plan I had found just did a gentle build throughout the 18 weeks with a couple of short cut back weeks.  The new plan had three weeks of build and then one cut back week throughout.  I did like the lower mileage overall of the first plan, as I know my body can't handle the higher end of mileage that most people can, so how to decide??? I shot a message to one of my best ultra running friends to run by my concerns and comments and she helped me think through it.  In the end we decided with some small modifications, the 50 mile plan from RFC blog was the better of the two for me.  The nice cut back weeks and the big taper at the end won us both over.  My plan as of now is to do easy runs on Tuesday and Thursday, some version of speed on Wednesday, and then run long long on Saturday and for time per the plan suggestion on Sunday.  Welcome to week 1 a few weeks early!!!!

Monday:  Memorial day.  The cross fit box was doing the Murph and I really wanted to do it, but instead I headed to work to do end of month financials and contact leads.  Sigh.  I also HAD to get the yard mowed before the next round of storms.  My hubby had hurt his back, so he couldn't help which meant I had to sub in and push some very wet, very tall grass.   The mower kept dying over and over, and I was sweating buckets thanks to the humidity.  I also had to get some yard work done as in the gutters and curbs around our house had accumulated a lot of debris/dirt/leaf litter thanks to all of the rain we have been getting and needed to be cleaned out. I guess I got my weight training after all!

And of course even though it isn't technically hot out yet (more humid than anything) the swimming trunks and  sprinklers had to come out.  

Tuesday:  Day 1 of 24 weeks.  EEEEKKKKK!!!!!  Easy 6.  I had gotten very use to getting up at 6:30 am, coffee and breakfast, and then running post dropping Andrew off around 8:30ish.  Unfortunately, the heat and humidity and the fact that the runs are going to get much longer dictated that we start much much earlier in the day.  I was already getting up at 4 am for Cross fit, so why not.  I tried getting up at 5 am and getting out of the door by 5:15ish, but as the summer progresses, this is not going to be early enough.   Hello two cup of coffee mornings!!!!  I took Stella out for 5 easy miles, and then stopped and took a potty break and switched out Stella for Boom for his mile.  I was dripping sweat at the end thanks to 90% humidity, but my run/walk method (I hope) will help ease me into this summer!

Wednesday:  Speed work day.  The plan alternates between hills and speed on Wednesdays and I like that plus, speed isn't defined, it's whatever you would like to do.  Well, right now I am liking strides. so strides it is!  I warmed up for a mile and then tried to do two 30 second strides in each 4 minute run period.  Of course it was so humid a fine rain was falling, so I felt like I was drowning and I had to stay on pavement thanks to the flood of rain we got yesterday making my normal gravel routes impassable.  I tried to pick a moderately hilly route around town.  My tummy was NOT happy and I really need to think if I should try and get up earlier, eat and drink coffee, and then run or what. I haven't been having any tummy issues this fall/winter doing this, but of course that would mean getting up at 4 am to eat and let everything figure itself out before going out around 5-5:30.  My body doesn't seem to freak out as much about getting up at 5 am every morning, but 4 am turns me into an eternal zombie.  

Baseball game number 4.  We have started having regular two a week practices to try and get these boys ready for the game.  There is so much to learn going from t ball to baseball, and there is only so much time.  Add in all of the rain we have had and missed practices due to it.  We ended up loosing 11-0 and having to call the game in the 4th inning, BUT we got 4 defensive outs, which means the boys are getting it and that is a WIN in my book!

Thursday:  Easy 6.  My plan was to return to getting up at 4 am so I could eat and flush out the system.  I have never been one to hit the snooze button but today, I did.  I finally drug myself out of bed by 4:30 and shoved some coffee and food down to see if I could get my system going and cleaned out.  While my stomach felt more settled, I couldn't get anything to move if you know what I mean and I was meeting up with one of my BRFs for some mileage.  She knows me and my wonky stomach but still, I haven't pooped in a ditch in a long time and i would like to keep it that way.  I got 5 done with Stella, made a pit stop, and then finished up with Boom.  Kind of nice that my last mile is my fastest thanks to boom boom.

I also got the gym over lunch.  My job at KSU needed me, so I had to head in and get some stuff done.  Instead of heading back later and missing some of batting practice, i ran over post lunch and got in for a little time of open gym.  I did some dead lifts that coach Erin had given me.  I had to do some pretty quick recoveries to get done before open gym was over.  

Batting practice was good, kiddos still aren't hitting off of the machine very well, but they are getting better thanks to the soft toss/hit stick drills.  I can't wait till Andrew goes to KSU baseball camp to see if they can help him with his swing.  He is always swinging over the ball, but his soft toss is on point.  I don't want him to hate baseball because he can't hit a 40 mph pitch coming off of a machine, when in kid pitch the ball is NOT coming off of the kid pitching that fast.  

Nelson's landing 

Friday:  REST!  I needed it after 3 straight days of running.  I wasn't sore, but my body was definitely feeling it!  I had to work at both KSU and at my hubby's shop, so lots of running back and forth.  Then we headed out to a baseball game in a town we had never been to.  Long story short, we were down 2 kiddos and had to redo the line up a few times, but we got there early so I had time.  The other team also did some things not in the rule book that they claimed were legal that i am pretty sure were not.  I left the game with a bad taste in my mouth for that team and the coaches that are teaching their kids it is okay to interpret the rules anyway you like.  While I think we would have lost no matter what since we still can't hit the ball, the cheating did give them an advantage our kids did not get.  

Saturday:  Long run day!  On the plan I was following, I had a range of 10-12 miles.  After a late night at baseball and then not getting up early enough, I picked the 10.  I felt fine till the end and then it hit me how hot it was.  Stella and I have not acclimated very much if not at all, so I felt pretty crappy for a while afterwards even though both of us were hydrating like a boss.  Once I kind of stabilized and felt better, I decided to further my heat acclimation by mowing our yard front and back before eating a nice lunch and resting.  We had a night race coming up and I needed a nap, so I slept on the concrete on a blanket while Tony worked on the car.  Yes, I was so tired that concrete sounded like fun.

We had our first night race and boy was it fun!  Andrew had some different racers in his class and some really young kids starting their first time, which always presents some challenges.  Our goal as always was to try and try he did!  We were back to the 2 heat race then main format, and that isn't usually his favorite.  He prefers qualifying by himself and then heat and main.  The first heat race he finished either 3 or 4th, we couldn't tell.  The scoring pole takes a while to update and we think he passed a couple of people right at the end.  The second heat race he won first place!!!!!  He suddenly is passing and having fun and we LOVE it!  

The only problem with two good heat races is that you are at the back with the feature.  BUT since he was in the passing mood and seemed to get better the more laps he ran, I was excited to see what he could do.  Going into the feature, he had some challenges.  His ear piece was screwing up and he could hear nothing but horrible static, he was super hot and sweaty in all of his gear, and he was tired as it was after 10 pm.  He went out and handled those challenges like a pro though even hitting the wall once and having some bumping and bashing.  He ended up finishing third and I couldn't be more proud!  From last to next to last to third!  We are moving up!

Sunday:  Easy 1 hour.  My plan called for a time instead of a distance.  Dependent on a lot of factors, I can get 4.5-5 miles in, in one hour.  I woke up feeling super exhausted so instead of getting up early, I slept till 7 and then just took it easy getting work, blogging, and emailing done.  We had told Andrew since he did so well at the race we would go see Aladdin as a treat and we were delighted it was in the big fancy theater that you can have lunch in.  Post lunch we had baseball practice and post practice I headed out in 80 degree weather to do my run.  The good news was it wasn't humid and there was a nice little breeze blowing.  The bad news was I have little to no heat acclimation and I had to resort to pouring water over my head several times to cool off.  Stella and I got 4.72 miles in even with walk breaks and I will take it.  As I sit here and type this, I am drinking a beer and thinking about an early bed time!

I am pleasantly pleased at how my body responded to it's first 5 run a week, week.  I am tired for sure but that is all the late nights, not the running.  I am looking forward to maybe not as late of nights this coming week and much the same running wise plus some hills.  Have a great week!