Week 9: Training for the Flint Hill's 50 or maybe not?

I am kind of in limbo this week.  I am having pain, not horrible, but pain none the less, so trying to figure out what is causing it and how to fix it.  Do I stop running again and bail on this race and this training cycle or keep running through it?  Also we started Level 2 practices at wrestling, which means instead of 45 minutes to an hour twice a week, we are starting 2 hours, three times a week.  EEEK!  This means dinner at 4 pm and late bedtimes.  Looking forward to adjusting to this new routine.

Monday:  Another chiro visit.  Now we are shifting to other issues, since my pain seems to move around.  Sometimes its in my sits bone, some times it is behind my knee, and sometimes I feel it up and down the back of the leg.  My chiro is now thinking about nerve issues versus muscle issues since it moves.  The problem?  I have never had nerve pain and I have NO clue how to deal with this.  She thought maybe the massage irritated things and and then I went and ran which further irritated things.  She did tell me I could continue to run for now with some new exercises thrown in for glute work. Later on, I modified my day by doing ALL of my PT exercises including ab work and glute work, and got on the elliptical for some 4 minute easy: 1 minute hard work.  I decided to try my altras on during my elliptical time and that was not good.  I felt like my feet were on fire the entire time, not sure why.

Tuesday:  6 mile run.  I tried to stay mostly on pavement, but couldn't resist a little trip down the mud filled gravel.  I didn't think it looked that bad, but apparently it was worse than I thought and I got a little mud on my old running shoes that i had to wear.  My newer running shoes were still wet from their cleaning.  I tried the glute exercises pre run and then I really tried to focus on my core and breathing and I had little to no pain post running, so maybe it's working????  I didn't get my strength done, as it had several elements that needed to be done at the gym and i just didn't have time to get over there.  I am going to have to start running in the am no matter what so I can get to the gym.

Wednesday:  Field trip day (Happy 159th birthday Kansas) + Incline walk on the treadmill.  We had a school wide 2nd grade field trip that I volunteered to help with.  I had three kiddos and one other parent to help me and boy did I need it.  The kids were all over the place wanting to do all.the.things.  I was glad when it was over just to get out of the masses.  We will have to go back to the Kansas Museum in Topeka again and slowly walk around and take it all in at our pace.  Later on post school, I was a ton nervous because my leg had been feeling better and the treadmill seems to aggravate my hammy/nerve/whatever the heck this is the most.  I didn't feel pain during but was a little tiny bit sore post getting off of the mill.

loving the mean face!

Thursday:  6 miles plus chiro visit.  My pain is still there, but not as bad, so the visits are more to up my exercise difficulty and to make sure I am still doing the core of the core exercises correctly. I am glad she always goes back and double checks what I am doing.  I am adding two more to my current slate of dead bug, cat cow breathing (my names not hers LOL) her version of safe side planks, and low bear crawl breathing.  I am adding some band work to my cat cow breathing exercise and a new exercise to strengthen my obliques that involves resistance work with a hoop.  Post work Rockin Robin and I headed out to do 6 in the least muddy/wet places we could find.  The gravel is back to pure gloop and the roads are wet with muddy tire tracks.  We made it work with minimal slop on the dogs and us.

Friday:  Rest day.  I was going to try and catch up on all of my gym work but a busy day at work saw me only getting through my PT exercises :(  This is my first week I haven't gotten through my strength and that is okay.

Saturday:  8 mile long run.  Eagle run!!!!  Since all of our running surfaces were mush, we decided to head out to Tuttle creek and get some eagle running done.   Everything was going great till it suddenly wasn't. We stopped to see some eagles and take a few pictures and next thing i know, Ebby, Robin's dog had whipped around and pulled her down onto a concrete viewing pad.  It all happened so fast and all I saw was flying stuff including her phone and her body.  She managed to sit up and I immediately saw blood trickling down her face.  We think her sunglasses hit the pad first and then cut her face, but saved her from a concussion or worse, a broken orbital bone.  Her ankle also got some major torsion and we didn't know exactly if it was broken or badly sprained.  The major problem in all of this???   We were the furthest part away from the park office in the park and with the park being empty, we had no other way to get there other than walk.  I was concerned about her ankle and the possibility of a concussion.  While the adrenaline was still flowing, we got her up and started hobbling back to the park office to hopefully get some ice packs and something to clean her up with.  We also called her hubby to head on to us from Wamego as we were in Manhattan, which meant he had about a 20 minute drive.  I had thought about sprinting to the park office to get help, but was torn between leaving her and staying with her.  I am glad i stayed with her because by the time we did get to the office, there was no one around to even help us as it was closed.   Her hubby pulled up minutes after we arrived thankfully.  She is in a boot, no broken bones thank God, and stitched up.  Post getting her in her hubby's truck, I headed back to her car to finish my 8 and head back to meet up with them at the hospital.

By the time I got done and headed back to Wamego, they were heading home from the hospital.  I hate this for her so much as I was just kind of starting to get back into training.  As far as pain for me, on and off lots of things hurt and i have no clue why.  My left knee bothered me, my hammy had pain occasionally up and down it, and my right foot decided to have random pain.  Oh well, blame it on the concrete/pavement.  We didn't want mud puppies or mud shoes, so it is what it is.  I also met one of my strava friends in the parking lot before I headed out.  It is SO much fun to meet new runners in real life that you follow on social media outlets.  He recognized stella and came up and introduced himself and I am so glad he did!  Shout out to Scott in Manhattan!  Hope you didn't get too muddy on your way home!

Later we went back out to Tuttle to celebrate the birthday of one of Andrew's good friends Blake.  We had a groundhog hike birthday party and the boys had so much fun!  

These boys have been together since daycare at Little Love bugs and I just love each and every one of them!

Sunday:  Rest day.  I had intended on getting all the things done including catching up on gym work outs, grooming all three of the dogs, cleaning the house, and and and.  Andrew had tutoring and another birthday party pre Superbowl, so I got done what I could and that was clean the house and mostly groom the dogs while soaking up on some much needed vitamin C.  I was in shorts in February on my deck brushing out dogs and I loved it.  Of course later on we watched the Chiefs win the Superbowl and ate all of the good football food you can imagine.  I now feel like a beached whale that is hung over on good beer and winning vibes.  I am not a big Chief's fan per se but I am a HUGE Mahomes fan and can't wait to see what this kid can do.  He has a nice long career ahead of him and is a HUGE role model for our kids.  I hope he keeps his head on straight and becomes the legend I think he could be. 

I am going to try one more week and see how it goes and hope and pray I can get on a softer surface.  If not, I guess it will be back to the drawing board and back to no running :(  Mentally right now, I really, really need running, so I am hoping and praying some softer running and maybe the addition of my orthotics that should be here any day now will help.  As far as the race, I am still not sure if it is feasible to even attempt the marathon at this point.  I just am not sure. Sigh.  Damn body.  You get me across the line for the 50 miler and then you fall apart.  At least you waited till after.