Conjunction junction, what's your function?

Our beautiful city park in full bloom

How's your week going in quarantine day number one billion forty two?  MK from Fitness protection program had a great info graphic she sent out via email and I had to share it!

The writing is tiny but I love the thoughts and points that this brings up.  My favorite paragraph for sure is brain freeze! I remember when this all first started several of my friends had color coded charts and time blocks for each activity for their kids.  They are amazing and i really hope they are sticking to these schedules but I am leaning more towards less is more.  I am not sure how you are handling things but we have our ups and downs over here. I am homeschooling my child (7 going on 13) who probably has un-diagnosed ADD and or some executive functioning disorders.  Having me to himself 110% is great for him and his learning needs, however he is still sometimes very taxing for me as I am NOT a trained teacher. Yes, we have slowed down at work, so I have more free time, but dear lord some days I just want to run screaming and or start drinking at 10 am.  And yes, that is totally okay to feel those things and I am letting myself.  I am trying to start up some zoom virtual happy hours for anyone who wants to join to just sit and talk and of course drink, outside of working hours of course LOL!!!!

Running continues to improve. I have good runs and bad runs nevertheless, I had those before this stupid injury.  I really can not slack off on my PT exercises and that is main point that i am trying to keep in my brain.  I have been doing this 100 rep challenge (Check out Phys Ed Kansas City)  where a fellow local trail runner who is a running coach and has her own gym, posts an exercise every day to do. I am loving it because it makes me get up and do something every 30 minutes or so at work to complete the reps for the day.  I am honestly not great about getting up and moving around throughout the day, so this forces me to.  I have several work out classes I also want to do, but honestly have been a little lazy about.  I have done 2 yoga classes, which challenged me intensely and I would like to do some barre classes and or some HIIT classes.  There is SO much variety out there right now of online free or low cost classes!  I do NOT want to miss out and I like helping local gym owners for sure.  

  

We did two runs with our plan of half of a mile of a power walk and 4.5 miles of run/walk. We also headed to the trails for some dirt and hills.  I really didn't know if my hammy would like hitting hills again, but I thought the trails would make for at least a more forgiving surface.  News flash, it did not like the hills however I feel like we are at a point where once a week I need hills or at least trails.   I forgot every year how rocky and rooty Fancy Creek is until I am out there. Here are some pictures for our run.

Lots of water crossings that aren't usually there and not really sure why.  We haven't had a particularly wet spring.  Stella loved it though and got nice and muddy and I didn't have to stop and pour her water in her bowl.  A note here, I only let her drink from water that is moving and clear.  Nothing cloudy or murky for drinking.    

Can't forget all the cool rocks you climb up and over.  I honestly don't know how bikers ride on this?  My watch is always super variable on this trail. I have had as many as 6.7 miles come up and as little as 5.7 miles.  The trail does have many sections that are tree covered so probably the reason why the variation.  Plus it appeared that they had done a work around one section of the trail that probably cut some mileage off.  Since we had been running for 2 hours at that point, I didn't care, my legs were done.  

Stella was very happy to be out on the trail after taking it easy all week.  On Monday at the shop she came up three legged lame chasing boom and then protected that leg for a few days so she stayed on the injured reserve this week while Boom got a some run time.  I wish I could run with both of them but they race and pull on me HARD and my hammy can't handle that pulling strain. 

We also did a family bike ride this week which I am SO excited about.  I took my bike in to get a good check up and a new front tire and Tony bequeathed his BMX bike to Andrew and started riding his older hybrid bike, and now we can go for family rides.  We loaded up to our local state park where I have been doing lots of running since it is mostly flat and road on all of the roads.  We did have to stop and take breaks, but overall Andrew did AMAZING!  Now I just need to get him to ride with me out on the gravel!

my new gypsy runner sweatshirt that is sure fire way to cheer me up.  Bright colors and comfortable?  YES!

Hope you have an amazing week!  I am still trying to figure out how to get 4 days a running back on the schedule without doing some back to backs.  We can try M, W, F but then Saturday would be a back to back or we would have Sunday backing into Monday.  I just want to be smart about all of this and not get to the point where I can't run again.  I had a little pain during my trail run and it wasn't bad, just a reminder that I haven't done hills since this whole thing began.  Unfortunately to train for this upcoming race, I will HAVE to be on technical trail and or hills.  I am just going to ease into it slowly and surely and not go overboard with back to back long runs yet.  See y'all next week!