Week 11 of 24: Training for Running Amok 50 miler

One more week and then it's back to school time  AND another cut back week!  I can't believe that this summer has gone by so quickly. I will miss the flexibility that is summer, but I am looking forward to getting Andrew back on a consistent schedule with regards to bed times, wake ups, and day time activities.  I think he has had a very memorable summer, even if we haven't stayed up on our schooling like I had hoped.  Oh well, 2nd grade should be interesting no matter what.  Last year at his current school before moving up to be with the big kids, EEEEKKK!!!  This year he got an older teacher who has 16 years experience so I am hoping this will be a great thing for him since he has had two younger teachers previously.

School hair cut time!  Meet the curlhawk...that lasted one day LOL

Monday:  Rest day. We are starting back to our regular in school routine.  I can't believe this summer is already over with :(  Monday nights will be music nights again and Andrew was ecstatic about being back in class.  Since he turned 7 this summer, he has to start figuring out what instrument he likes so he can start specializing in it.  Every week it's something different, so time shall tell!  Right now it's the drums, but in the past, it's been the electric guitar and or the keyboards.  I would be happy with any and all instruments so I can play along with my trumpet.

Happy girl!

Tuesday:  Easy 8.  My running partner was out of commission, so I had decisions to make.  If it were too hot and humid to the point that Stella couldn't go, I probably needed to stick to the treadmill and not run by myself at 5 am.  When I woke up, we were right on the line with the dew point at 70, the humidity at 92, and the temp at 72.  I decided I would do a mile and see how Stella reacting. IF she was struggling, we would go home.  If not we would continue and I would re-evaluate at the 2 mile mark.  I figured any miles on the road was better than all miles on the mill.  She seemed okay and I had plenty of water for both of us, so we kept going to the turn around at 4 miles.  We both made it home sweaty and happy, but missing Rockin Robin :(

Game night!  

Wednesday:  6 miles of speed.  As always or should I say as lately, my body woke me up at 3 something and I quickly checked the radar as we had predicted storms.  I honestly don't mind doing speed work on the mill, as the changing of the speeds keeps my mind off of the fun that is dreadmill running.  It appeared that they would hold off until after 7 and I had planned on being done before that.  I decided to reset my alarm for 5 and go out around 5:15, since it appeared that i had plenty of time.  I took a little while to get ready and as I checked my radar and lightning app, everything still appeared to be pretty far away.  I headed out and got about a quarter of a mile before I turned around due to lightning.  Even though my app said the strikes were more than 25 miles away, they looked super close and I did NOT want to get stuck in a storm. I am so glad i went back because 2 minutes after I started running on the mill, the bottom fell out.  As I am typing this, it is STILL storming like crazy and roads are flooding everywhere around us. Later on we had game night.  Screen time for all of us has been a little out of control at night and i get it, everyone needs to zone out, but I feel like it has been a little too much lately.  We played Outfoxed, Sorry, Scrabble, Yahtzee, and Uno. I LOVE board games as mom and I played many nights just her and I, and I can't wait till Andrew loves it as much as I do.

stick a fork in me!

Thursday:  Easy 8.  Once again we were suppose to get morning T storms.  When my body woke me up at 3, it was already lightening outside.  The radar showed it going south of us, but the lightning was just too close for comfort. I made the decision to sleep in and run later.  This always makes my day not go so well, I am not sure why I always chose sleep because the whole day I am thinking about when I am going to run and stalking the weather.  Plus, normally if the sun is out and it's august, Stella can't go. When I finally got off work and ready, it was feels like 90 outside, but very low humidity.  I decided to try with Stella and have my hubby on stand by so that if she showed ANY signs of heat stress I could call him.  We were fine till we got to the turn around at mile 4 to head back.  We were out of water as I had frozen my hand held and Stella and I had drank all of the water that had melted.  The rest was still frozen solid and not melting for some odd reason.  I called the hubby to come bring us water and he showed up with my bladder.   Which is great.  Except, I had no pack on so no way to carry the bladder AND no hose LOL!!!!!  Great idea just didn't work, so I had him take Stella with him, and I managed on the little bit of water I had left.  I missed her dearly, but it wasn't worth her over heating without water to drink.

the aftermath of stella being in the hubby's truck.  Whoops.  

Friday:  Rest day.  I probably should have gotten my Sunday run in since we have a car race Sunday during the day, but sleep called my name and I enjoyed it.  The boys even went to a movie  so I could get into bed super early to get up super duper early.  My hubby is really rocking this training cycle by doing stuff with Andrew,  which means I can get in bed early, I really appreciate it!l

Saturday:  Tried to get in bed early and take some melatonin, but my body had other plans. I think I finally went to sleep around 9 something after some false starts of sleeping and then being awaken by noises/dogs.  The boys went to the movie theater, so the house was quiet, but the dogs swore they heard boogie men several times.  Up at 3 am as my body now automatically gets me up at that time anyway.  Fueled and got ready to head out.  Feels like 72 with 92% humidity. Sigh. I didn't know how much time i would get with Stella, as the dew point was already at 69 and suppose to get worse as the morning went on.

We did an out and back on my normal route (10 miles) and then hit the house up for a new cold bottle of tailwind, some more jolly ranchers, and a honey stinger waffle. I wanted to try alternating tailwind with something solid so I am not just sucking down tailwind for hours.  I quartered the waffle and tried taking a quarter at each walk break.  Stella also likes this strategy, as she gets a little bite now and again, so she says more waffles mom!  After our second out and back, I felt like the sun was out and it was getting to hot and gross for Stella. I was stopping periodically to give her fresh water and there was some water still on the road, but the cloud cover was spotty at best when the sun came up,  and I didn't want her to get into danger.  I dropped her off and headed back out to get the final 5 miles.  I know I need to vary my route and get more trail time, but right now to beat the heat, I have to get out on the road by 4 am.  The safest place for me to do that is on my normal gravel roads that are pancake flat.  I am doing hills when I can, but I am kind of glad my 50 miler is on a pretty gentle trail that is a 6. something loop.  

Yes I add syrup to my waffle, yes that's real butter, and no I did not eat the sausage patties because they tasted odd

Post running we had a nice brunch and hit up our local running store for me to order some new shoes.  Sigh.  High volume training = more than normal pairs of shoes.  The new Hoka Stinsons are out and I pray they haven't done anything crazy to them because the 4s are the bomb and work great for my weird feet and body.  Also, got the new tailwind Cola singles.  They said it tasted like drinking coke on the run, so I am pretty excited to try it!  Plus, it has caffeine and while I do like my Run Gum for a caffeine kick and actual coke at aid stations, it would be nice to be able to change up my flavors of tailwind and get some added bonus.  

it won't be long and he will be taller than me and that is crazy!

We also on a whim checked out the Hyvee Birthday Bash (our local grocery store we love).  It's their 10th birthday and they had all kinds of fun stuff including free bouncy houses, lots of samples, pony rides at 5 bucks a pop, all kinds of animals to pet and feed (feed cost money), and face painting/balloon art.  Plus, they had the most amazing shaved ice and food trucks including our favorite local food truck Smokin' Willies.  Just add a beer garden and we would have been set LOL!  

Sunday:  I had to get my 1 hour 45 minute run done pre race and that meant yet another early morning. I had volunteered to learn how to do computer work and the tower for the races and I was kind of nervous.  Other than the novice moms I hang out with in the stands, I really don't know any of the regular moms.  Plus, and I sound like a broken record here, the weather reports for the morning looked horrible.  Sure enough when my alarm went off at 4 am, there was lots of lightening and the storms were on their way.  I went back to sleep, even hit snooze when my alarm finally went off meaning no running pre-race.  I had a very full day learning tower stuff and I still am very overwhelmed.  The computer scores everything as the cars have transponders on them, but you have to have two hand scorers as well, because the computer can get confused.  I was super confused when cars got lapped. I have to get some sort of system down for accounting for every single lapped car.  It can get confusing because the oval is very short and lapping of slower cars for certain classes can happen very fast.  I also did not get any video of Andrew.  

I have alot in my brain about the day but I will keep it brief here.  He got 1st in qualifying with his fastest time ever, 3rd in the heat race (HE PASSED A CAR) and then last place in the feature.  I am not sure what happened in the feature other than he didn't want to pass, has lost total confidence in passing basically, so if he is at the back (fastest car goes to the back) then he will sit there and putter around.  I hated not being able to talk to him and see what was going on, but I had to work and work I did.  I even got to hand out awards at the end and talk in front of people which I LOVE!  The boys went to dinner and I hightailed it home to hit the mill.  I finally got on around 7 and finished close to 9.  Then I was WIDE AWAKE till 11:30.  Yeesh.  I don't like doing that, but it had to be done and Schitt's Creek and 4:1 run:walk intervals got me through.  

Thanks for joining me this week and see you next week when I will be in yet another wonderful cut back week!!!