Week 10 of 24: Training for the Run Amok 50 miler

This was a tough week for me.  Trying to get over viral mess, shuttling kiddos to the last camp of the year, and craziness in life in general dominated.  I am proud of myself for handling the ups and downs better than I use to, because the old me would probably be in tears 24/7 with the crap that popped up this week.  Enjoy my beautiful mess of a life right now.

Look at my V02 max!

Monday:  Rest day.  I woke up feeling much better, fever free and ready to get back it at sort of.  I had kids to take to camp in Manhattan and a full day's worth of work at the shop some of which I had planned on getting some done during the weekend.  Cue the fun that is Monday.  Tahoe wouldn't start which meant Tony had to hurriedly get dressed and take the boys to camp in Manhattan.  Got the Tahoe jumped off and to the dealership, was only a battery thank goodness.  Roofing nail in the tire of our shop truck.  GAH.  Then to work to deal with some issues.  AH the joy of owning your own business, you know all the things.  Sometimes I think I would like to go back to knowing nothing.  I am learning so much about the ebb and flow of business though and how to be patient.  Then, found out the bank I financed my Tahoe through still had my automatic payments all screwed up and I HAD to go to Manhattan to a local branch or pay a fee to pay my payment.  Sigh.  This is the third month they claimed it would come out of my account automatically and it didn't. I even had paper work to prove it was set up and set up correctly by said bank.  Oh well, patience is a virtue right?   Stress level through the roof but was able to get to bed early, read to Andrew some really good books, and read myself before getting to sleep.

The dogs laying on top of us AKA cuddling

Tuesday:  Rest day.  I honestly didn't know how many miles my body would allow. I had 10 on the schedule and I was cautiously optimistic while preparing my tail wind and Stella's water the night before.  I slept HORRIBLE.  I had nightmares all night about Andrew getting kidnapped and kept waking up with a headache and sore neck. I kind of thought I was just sleeping wonky or at least hoped that was the case.  I finally got up around 3:56 am before my alarm was going to go off and shuffled down stairs to get my coffee started, the dogs fed, and the thermometer.  My temp was 99.6 and quickly started increasing.  I quickly sent my running partner a message (who was out of town but mirroring my run where she was at), and asked her what should I do.  I was planning on immediately taking advil for my headache anyway, but should i push it?  It was PERFECT weather outside, low temps and not horrible humidity.  I went out and watched for meteors and contemplated taking another day off versus forcing a run. In the end I decided to not run and take it easy one more day. I kept my eye on the prize, the long runs this weekend versus getting the other runs done.  I hoped it was just the stress of the day that caught up to me and hoped one more day of doing nothing would help. I knew it wouldn't hurt for sure.  Who am I?  In years past I would be frantic that I didn't get my run in.  I think I am finally growing up and making smart choices LOL!!!!!

Wednesday:  I woke up well rested, fever free, and most importantly headache free.  I felt like an easy 6 with no hills would be okay.  I would just play it by ear and go back home if I was feeling bad or whatever.  I noticed my weather app said it might rain but the radar looked clear.  As I head out running east two things happened.  One a weird SUV that is NEVER on our road at that time of morning was out cruising around (not a cop) and two, there was HUGE cloud to ground lightening in the distance.  I don't take either of these things lightly, lightening can kill and so can not being up on your stranger danger.  I quickly checked my app and it appeared all of the lightning was at least 25 miles away.  Whew. Pretty to watch, but still super scary.  I also passed a male runner who Robin and I have been seeing out on our route coming back from where I was headed and stopped him to ask if he had seen the man.  He told me the man had not come his way so I was safe and that also there was a cop out on our route patrolling.  Whew.  We finished drenched in sweat and happy to be done!

Thursday:  Easy 8.  My body has this thing now where it likes to wake me up around 3:45 every morning.  I usually go back to sleep and sleep the hardest 15 minutes ever right before my alarm goes off.  Robin was back so we were ready to conquer the 8 miler together.  It was nice to run and talk and just get those miles done.

Friday Night Cudddles!

Friday:  Well....I had intentions of getting my 2 hour run done because Andrew has another night race and I knew Sunday would be a bust.  OR I could do 10 that I missed on Monday and still run Saturday and Sunday.  Either way, when I woke up, it was thundering and lightning so the decision was made to postpone till later.  Except it rained, all day long and the thought of doing 10 on the mill just never sounded appealing.  Even when it wasn't raining it was 100% humidity out and just plain yucky.  I chose to take a rest day, have a good dinner with the family and watch a movie.  No regrets.

Saturday:  Long run day and race day!  Based on the weather predictions, I fully expected to wake up to more storms.  I was surprised to wake up to very humid conditions, but no rain.  I had stayed up a little later than normal watching the movie The Upside with Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston.  I kept thinking I would just go to bed and finish the next day, but it was very good! I honestly didn't feel too bad getting up at 4 am, as I thought I would.  We did a quick 3ish miles in town and then dumped the dogs off as the sun started coming up.  The humidity was kicking both of our asses and we were SOAKING wet when we got done.  Thank you 4:1 intervals for getting us through 100% humidity safely.  We were super lucky that the clouds hung around so at least we didn't have the sun to compete with too.  I didn't get any pictures because oddly enough I left my phone at home after a bathroom break we took.

After long run and clean up, we had to get ready to race.  We had our next night race and I was nervous/excited to see how Andrew raced after 3 weeks off.  We have had some one step forward, 2 steps back races lately, and I just never know what we are going to get because well, he's a kid and he's 7.  In practice it seemed his car was really tuned in and running great.  He had the fastest lap he has ever run in practice.  He was running a beautiful line until other kids got out on the track and then he started running their line.  Sigh.  Oh well, heat race one he got 3rd, wouldn't pass even though I felt like he had the faster car of at least the second place car.  Second heat race he was in the back and decided to just hang out there.  Double sigh.  There was a wreck and he thought they would throw the caution so he slowed down, let all the cars pass him and guess what, no caution!  Lesson learned, never assume.  Feature race was super late and super long.  They ran over 100 laps before the race was called due to cautions/time limit.  There was lots of upset parents and the flag man quit before the race was over.   I was a little shocked at how some of the parents were acting and kind of embarrassed.  Oh well, I am learning this is everywhere no matter what sport we do.  We finally got home around 1 am and crashed.

Sunday:  2 hour run.  Andrew and I slept till 10:30 when I forced myself to get up.  The dogs actually woke me up at 6:30 to feed them, but I quickly went back to bed.  Getting up early to get this run done was not an option, so instead I focused on a late afternoon/night run.  I use to be an afternoon/night runner for years so it would be quite fun to try again. The boys went to the track to practice with another restrictor plate (less restricting + more gas = faster), so i had the afternoon to clean, listen to podcasts, and read books.  I finally got geared up to go out around 6 pm, and it was feels like 92.  Surprisingly, the run went really, really well. I got almost 10 miles in, maintaining a faster pace that I normally do, go figure.  I have been listening to the podcast The Teacher's Pet so that took my mind off of the heat.  Stella didn't get to go but hoping this coming week will be nicer for her. 

We MADE it!  What a week!  One more week of no childcare and then school starts back EEEEK!  I can't believe this summer has gone by so fast!  Have a great week y'all!