Week 18 of 24: Training for the Run Amok 50 miler

Just surpassed my biggest week of running and back to back long runs of 20 and almost 15 miles!!!!  Feeling great, but tired of course and ready for another big week.  Lots going on this week including working at both jobs, a car race, and coaching.   Let's GO!

missed hearing his rock concert due to coaching but daddy got lots of pics and videos

Monday:  Rest day.  2 miles with the girls at GOTR.  Woke up feeling great other than a little tired, which is to be expected.  Long day at Coleman Electric and then long night at KSU.  Then I couldn't sleep.  Two jobs is really stressing me out.  I am stress eating and not sleeping and i don't know what to do.  I can't walk away from my KSU job, but for the sake of my sanity, I may have to.  Andrew had his concert for rock band, probably his last.  He has decided he wants to take piano lessons and i am super happy that he chose the piano.  As a kid, I was always jealous of those who took lessons, and I am intrigued with the format they use at Miss Emily's.  It's called a deluxe lesson and there is private instruction as well as group instruction all included in that hour of class time.

Tuesday:  gulp.  12 miles on super tired legs.  I know there is a method to this madness and I am trusting it, but boy am I one tired person.  I didn't sleep well at all, but somehow my body woke me up at 3:58 am ready to go.  Robin and Ebby did 6 with us, and Stella and I finished the final 6 solo.  It was chilly but humid and surprisingly, instead of slowing down when i left robin and ebby, I managed to stay the same or a little quicker.  I blame or rather give credit to the cooler weather.  Now if the humidity could just dial it down a notch, that would be great.

Wednesday:  8 miles.  Funny how this use to be too much for me during the week and now I see it on the schedule and I am like, ah, only 8 miles.  Started a little earlier again and got 6 with Robin and then switched out stella for boom and got the final 2.  It was SO amazingly humid that we were drenched by the wet dense fog it was creating.  The wetness was also making me cough for some reason, so we had to stop a few times while I was fighting the mucus in my chest.  I don't think this cold/virus/whatever is ever going to leave my body.

Thursday:  10 miles.  Well, at least it isn't 12.  That is what I had to tell my brain when it woke up at 3:56 am.  Day 1 of my monthly friend, a little bit of a headache, and a tummy ache from some yummy pumpkin beer at our favorite bar/eating place the night before, and some soreness from all of the running I had already done greeted me when I woke up. I decided to just do 8 since we had been doing around 2 or more at Girls on the Run, and add the mileage together instead of putting the mileage on top from GOTR.  I am worried about these extra miles, especially since the girls are really running this year and loving the run/walk method.  Yes, our pace is slightly slower than my normal pace, but not by much!  I did 4 with robin, ebby, and stella and then grabbed boom and did 3 more.  When we headed back out to finish our three, the young foxes were out playing on the gravel road.  They didn't even notice/hear us as they played until I tried to get my phone out to video and then they abruptly stopped and then ran in the soybean fields.

Storms building to the south of the ball field

Friday:  Rest day, glorious rest day. We had our first baseball scrimmage with the fall ball league we have been doing.  Andrew did great, getting a few hits and fielding a few grounders and one pop fly that he kept to a double.  While i grumble about the fact that we have something every friday night, it really is helping his confidence immensely. This first year of baseball was such a rude awakening for many of the boys coming off of t-ball, made even harder by the addition of a pitching machine that throws 35-40 mph.  I've said it before, the kids in the next level in kid pitch don't even pitch that fast. 

Saturday:  1 hour and 45 minute run.  Since we had racing all day, I couldn't get my 24 done pre race ,so I had to shift  my long runs around.  It was a PERFECT morning.  I so wish i could have done my 24 but oh well.  I ran a little over an hour with Stella and then exchanged her with Boom to finish out.  The foxes were out as well as the coyotes.  SO much fun to see foxes, not so much with coyotes, especially when they aren't scared of you AND they move towards you when you are yelling at them to GO AWAY. 

Post running I had to get cleaned up and head to Topeka for Andrew's second time in junior honda.  We never know what kid we will get and Cautious Coleman was in the house.  He qualified with a decent time, but then let pretty much everyone pass him in the heat race and again in the main.  Oh well, he's 7 and his nerves got the best of him.  We have another race this coming weekend, so fingers crossed that competitive andrew comes back.





Sunday:  Long run day!  Once again the weather reports were horrible for Sunday.  I had hoped they would be totally wrong as they were the day before.  I woke up at 4 am and looked at the radar and all of the storms were north and south of us all and lightning was at least 28 miles away.  Does anyone know where the 25 miles with respect to lightning comes from?  There was a very tragic death at a local race the day before due to a lightning strike, so I was very aware of the lightning.  We delayed our run long enough to let the northern closer storm pass and then we headed out.  Still saw lots but according to our apps, no where close.  I just don't know what to think anymore about lightning.
 

I did 3 out and backs, two of 10 miles with Stella ella and then the final 2 out and 2 back with Boom.  It was super humid and I sweated major salty.  There was water on the roads so I didn't have to carry water for stella but boom apparently doesn't know how to drink out of puddles, so stella is going to have to teach him.  It was nice to have a gentle pull the final 4 miles because honestly I was so done after 20 miles. 

goodbye corn :(

61 miles this week for me!  I am so ready for a cutback week!  I think i have one HUGE week left and then taper time.  I seriously love cut back weeks with all of my heart and soul.   Have a great week!!!!!  Hopefully fall is in your area because it keeps teasing us here and then going away.