Week 8: Training for the Hawk 50

How about a sentence or two per picture post for this week?  I love these because I usually get lots of great photos on race day and during my runs.

Donny Reed takes amazing photos.  This was right before Andrew passed both of the top cars to take first.

Porch beers with my BRF and Ebby to finish out a rest day while the boys are at football practice.

4 miles to start out the running week and I think I broke him.

WE FINALLY GOT A TRAILER!  Now we can all travel in the same car to races and take BOTH cars!

6 miles before my BNI meeting at 7:30.  What a beautiful sky!

8 miles on Thursday and we had a friend!  Stole Robin's photos because mine sucked!

Did my long run on friday so I could have the weekend free.  2 miles with Rockin Robin who is doing the 4 x 4 x 48 to celebrate her upcoming birthday, the rest on my own.  Let me just tell you, not getting enough sleep AND not eating a real dinner the night before made for a very painful long run.  

Post run I was super grumpy and hungry so I took myself to breakfast and had some breakfast beirocks on the patio at The Friendship House. 

Took a car from this....

To this in just a few days.

Cars loaded, now time to load all of the STUFF!

We borrowed an RV for the weekend and while driving it was scary with the Kansas winds, having AC and food and drink at our fingertips was SO nice.  Plus, we didn't get done racing till super late saturday night,  so having a bed right there to collapse in was again super duper nice rather than driving an hour.

New car, no practice, NO PROBLEM!  4th in the heat with 5 laps of practice and 3rd in the feature!  Still have lots to do to get this car ready but SO thrilled with him going out and trying and doing something hard.  Not his MO at all!

Post race fireworks and scootering.  That is what it is all about!

Exhausted.  No one wanted to get up the next day :)

Day 2!  Let's do this!

Trading cards.  This pretty much happened all weekend.  LOVE IT!  Making new friends is super important to me.

Struggling with nerves all weekend, but managing some smiles and some good times. We got a 7th out of 9 in the heat and a 6th out of 9 with two passed cars in the feature for his Jr Honda car.  I am looking for small victories since we are dealing with some nerves.  Didn't finish the heat in his Jr Animal car due to a broken part, but thanks to the track dads for figuring out what was broken and putting it back together so he could attempt the feature.  Ended up lifting (two tires coming up off of the track out of a turn) multiple times, and it scared him so he pulled himself off.  Nothing wrong with self preservation even though he only had 6 laps to go.  We will work on it and be better next time!  

HOME!  Exhausted and hungry, but home and unpacked:)  I was suppose to get an 8 mile run done but by the time we got home and settled there was no way I was going back out in the heat for 2 hours.  Not crying over split milk this time.  Resting, getting ready for some high mileage, and a week of family.  

Week 7: Training for the Hawk 50

Monday:  Rest day + rehab exercises.  I had to cancel my chiro appointment because I was still covered in welts/red rash.  I still didn't feel like it was poison ivy as it didn't itch or ooze.  I sent pictures to my chiro and she said let's cancel until we figure out what it is.  I didn't feel like I needed to go to the DR since it didn't itch, but I did do some asking around of ultra friends and once again, I guess it's pretty common to get this kind of rash during the hotter part of the year.  I don't know why it hasn't bothered me till now (I've been running in the KS heat and humidity since 2009), but oh well.  If it gets worse I will be going to the DR, but for now I am just going to watch it and get some cream and some allergy meds to take.  

Tuesday:  4 miles.  I know i have said this before, but boy does my brain and body need this lower mileage start to the week.  Took boom since it was manageable outside temperature and humidity wise. Of course the killdeers all have their nests right now so they were ALL out over the roads trying to entice our dogs, making much pulling and gnashing of teeth.  If you don't know what a killdeer bird is, find a video and watch it.  They are SUPER annoying and i don't know how they have evolved as a species.  They basically lay their eggs on the ground and then have to defend them by acting like they are dying away from the nest so you are drawn away from the babies.   They are great at doing pitiful acts of being hurt and dying and the dogs eat it up.  My stomach also revolted not once but twice, but I did drink 2 beers the night before, and I am not sorry because they were amazing.  If you can get Shiner Sea Salt and Lime GET IT NOW!  It is going to be my summer jam this year for sure.  

Wednesday: Had to take stella ella on the 6 miler no matter what.  Humidity was in the high 80s and the temp was in the low 90s, but there was a cool breeze blowing.  Apparently she howled like a banshee the entire time we were gone Tuesday, waking the entire family.  I really do not want to run with both her and boom as they get competitive and try to kill each other to be in the lead, plus I let Stella be loose most of the run as she stays right with me, but boomy still need work in that department.  We stopped for two potty stops for me (dang wonderful summer beers) and several water stops for her.  If the sun would just stay low for just another hour, we would be golden. No calf or Achilles or hammy pain. Knocking on a HUGE piece of wood that this continues.  

Thursday:  8 miles.  I was kind of dreading this run just because I have been SO tired lately, but we got up and got it done and honestly we both had so much on our minds that we just talked the miles away.  Please do keep my running buddy Rockin Robin in your thoughts and prayers.  Her brother in law is missing under very strange circumstances and we are all sending prayers up that he is found safe and sound.  

Friday:  Rest + Rehab. Kind of slacked of my desire to log and get my exercises done so trying to be better. I know one or two days missed isn't big but I want to keep up at least 6 days a week with 2 days of just exercises.  I also got to finally go to Target!  My hubby had been the one doing all of the outside shopping to protect Andrew and I but we felt like as long as we took lots of precautions, that we could venture out and be part of the real world once again.  I was kind of shocked that they only had one cashier open and that the self service was booming (are they cleaning anything between people ????).  Granted there weren't a TON of people there like normal but there were a fair amount and the line to the one register was pretty dang long.  People were for the most part doing a great job of distancing themselves and there was hand sanitizer everywhere.  Most of the shelves however were pretty bare, even the toy aisle where my kiddo wanted to purchase some Legos.  I knew things like toilet paper and cleaning supplies were low but Legos????  We did wear our masks as well as we are trying lots of different styles to see what works for when Andrew hopefully goes back to school.  So far our Boco masks are the favorite!

Saturday:  20 miles.  The weather played tricks on us.  According to every weather man and EVERY weather app, we were suppose to get rain all day Friday, all Friday night, and all day Saturday.  We decided to adjust our times of running since we were worried about morning storms.  Instead of our usual 5 am start time, we decided a 6 am would be okay as it would be cloudy/rainy and lower temps.  We also decided to forgo trails due to bad muddy conditions.  Sigh.  I should have know when I woke up at 3 am and it was not raining that we had made a mistake.  

Oh well, got 2 more hours of sleep before getting up and fueling, which I probably needed.  It was cool but humid and the clouds came and went pretty quickly.  Our group decided to do two 10 mile jaunts and use the houses as our aid stations.  Stella started with me, but I decided since we were in full sun to not take her back out for the rest of the run, and I am so glad we did.  It quickly heated up and seriously if it weren't for a slight breeze and an occasional cloud, I would have been in trouble.  My newly acquired heat rash came back with a vengeance, I was sweating buckets, and I kept having to ask for an additional minute of walking with our 1 minute we were already doing on that final 10.  We finally finished in 4 hours and some change and I spent much time on the porch just sitting trying to exist.  Finally got up and got my day started, but a few hours later I laid down and took a 2 hour nap. I am NOT a napper so this was big for me.  

Sunday:  10 mile and RACE DAY.  I was SO excited for Andrew to finally get back to racing season but I was not excited to do 10 post 20.  My nap the day before, as expected totally threw off my sleep and even though we were in bed by 9 pm, I was in and out of sleep until I finally got up at 10 something and took some melatonin.  Once again we were suppose to have cooler temperatures, but it was 69 with 88% humidity at 4 am, making it a hard choice on taking the dogs.  I decided to take Stella with the understanding that we may have to go back at some point and drop the dogs.  Once again, no rain, no clouds, but we have the cover of darkness for long enough to keep the dogs safe.  Post running I immediately got showered and headed to Topeka.  We had a long day of racing ahead with the first race, dues due, new rules, and new people.  We had several families come down from Tulsa as well to join us so it was extra fun!  

I could write a whole post just on this race but I will try and just summarize.  We voted to eliminate one of the heat races, so now we just do one longer heat race and one longer main.  Other than the first day, it will make things move along so much better.  Anyway, Andrew's race was third up and he had 9 cars in his field, one of the biggest fields.  Right before Andrew was suppose to go out, he had a HUGE panic attack in the car.  

Of course I was in the tower, so I was of no help and couldn't tell what was going on in the hot chute.  Apparently several parents tried to calm him down and it ended with him being pushed on the track.  He went out and raced his HEART out and got a third place.  He lead several laps and passed several cars and I couldn't be prouder.  This was his nemesis last year, as he would get behind a slower car and get stuck.  Main did not go as well, he started 3rd again and they had lots of cautions due to new rules about passing on the beginning and staying above the passing line.  

He had gotten stuck behind a slow car and several cars passed him, but he was coming back when a kid hit him and his chain came off.  The dads tried valiantly to get the chain back on in the 5 courtesy laps but they couldn't get it back on in time, so we didn't get to finish the race.  

He ended up 8th out of 9 in the points for the day, but we ended with a smile on our face and I will take it.  I think his hard work in practice is paying off and his confidence is slowly getting there.  As for the panic attack, my mom heart hurts, but we are seeing anxiety in all areas of his life and are not sure what is going on.  We are working with my BRF who is a school counselor to develop techniques to help him get through this.  I will of course keep you posted.

SO excited to have a big mileage week and be on the back side of it!  Have a great week y'all!

Week Six: Training for the Hawk 50

Two more build weeks and then a cut back week!  I can't wait!

Monday:  Walk around like a zombie day. I was SO happy we didn't have a run planned because I got yet another late night from driving back from racing in Tulsa which gave me only about 5 hours of sleep.  Many can live on this kind of plan, however I am not one of those people.  I am a big sleep hog and need to be in bed by 8:30-9:00 pm, and that had not been happening the past few nights thanks to running and racing.  I did get to the chiro and got an adjustment and some scrapping on my lower leg.  My calves felt good and we introduced some new exercises into my list.  I wish I could nap like my hubby can anywhere at any time!!!  

Tuesday:  4.  I am SO glad that every week only starts out with 4.  Mentally I need that easy mileage to ease into the week.  We still had hot and humid weather, but it was just cool enough that the dogs could come with and be safe.  We took our handhelds anyway to make sure the dogs had water just in case, and we stopped and watered them once.  My right calf muscle was a little sore and complained a little bit towards the end of the run, which means I may need more padding in my right shoe than my left.  Go figure.

Wednesday:  Woke up to gusty winds and storms.  Went back to bed to try and catch up on much needed sleep.  It's amazing how just one more hour can help SO much.  When it was time to run, it felt like the temperatures were nice, however the wind was super gusty from the North and West making running feel like you were standing still at times.  We stopped a few times to water the dogs, since we were in full sun, but they handled everything quite well.  I had some pain in my right calf again, but it went away around 3 miles.  

Thursday: 6 miles in glorious 50 degree weather!  This was an amazing run and I wish we could have more mornings like this.  I took Boom since it's his second birthday.  He did really great till we ran past a yard full of pugs coming back into town, and he lost his ever loving mind. Still won't drink while we are running, but will get into water to cool off and I feel like he would even lay down in water to cool off, unlike miss Stella.  

Friday:  REST DAY.  Andrew's 8th birthday.  I was really worried that he would be sad without a birthday party, but boy was i wrong.  We had gotten him several small things, and I had wrapped everything (in Christmas paper, don't judge), so he had lots of things to open.  Several of my friends also got him fun things and hand delivered, which made him SO happy!  We had spaghetti at his request for dinner, and then cake, and then presents.  

His big present was an electric scooter and once again, he scares me half to death on this thing.  One of his good track friends had one at the track last time we were there, but the batteries were almost dead so it went pretty slow.  As you can see, the batteries were fully charged in his new one, and he was zooming all over the place and giving me a million heart attacks.  

Saturday:  18 miles at Clinton Lake.  We made a hard decision to leave the pups at home to get some trail time in the heat.  With an hour drive time and temps already in the high 60s/low 70s when we got up, it just wasn't safe to take them with us and hope they would be okay for 6ish hours on on the trail. 

 

I am not going to lie, this was a tough run, as it should be.  It took me about 6 hours plus some pit stops as we used the car as an aid station.  We did a 5.5-6 ish mile loop that took us about 2 hours to complete.  The heat wasn't great, but it didn't nail us like it did last long run thanks to the tree cover.  Robin almost stepped on a copperhead (no pictures too freaked out), and we both almost stepped on a HUGE black snake (maybe rat snake or King snake?).  

I am glad for my trail time, but wish I could run a little bit faster than 3 mph. It makes for a long day, but I am just not a gazelle and respect the rocks/roots/ruts.  My hydration was on point, my snake spotting skills were on point, and while I super missed stella ella, there is no way the heat and lack of water for her to get in was safe.  This was Rockin Robin's longest run to date and we celebrated with giant tea/diet dr. pepper from Quick Trip.

I should add that post run I got huge welts all over my body.  They don't itch and they look horrible but honestly don't bother me at all.  Not sure what they are, nothing has changed in my diet or with soap or laundry detergent so will chalk this up to maybe heat rash?

Sunday:  10 miles.  Again, did not get in bed as early has i had hoped.  It's so hard to go to bed at 8 pm when it's still full sunlight out and you have a million things to do.  Let's just say 4 am hurt and 10 miles hurt, but we got it done.  It was hot but low humidity so the doggos all got to go and they were SUPER happy.  She always smiles when she runs, even when she is a little hot!  Plus I was smiling in my new gypsy runner pink flower shorts.  I needed some pretty color in my life.  

Have a great week!  We are having a BIG mileage week and then a cut back week so pray for us :)

  

Week 5: Training for the Hawk 50

Monday:  Rest day + rehab exercises.  Let me back up a day and tell you a little bit about our sunday afternoon.  We headed to the track to practice.  We have been a few times now, always careful to go late in the day when hopefully no one will be there.  We went last friday night and there was another family there and we just couldn't resist visiting while social distanced of course.  Andrew had been running some good laps when we where given the green light to start practicing, but lately the car hadn't been handling well due to some changes Tony had made.  Instead of using his words, words he may not even have in his vocabulary, Andrew had been having meltdowns at the track due to the fact that his car is not handling the way he wants. I had not been going to practices as I felt that he does better when I am not there.  Well, I was wrong, so no more missing practices for me as I was able to talk him down from a meltdown Friday night.  Anyway, we decided to head out Sunday afternoon to get some laps after changing the car back to where it was previously.  About 10 laps in and running some good lap times i should add, Andrew smacked the wall and flipped over.  He was fine, but I can't get the sound out of my head.  I was talking to someone when it happened, so I am not sure why he even hit the wall where he did, but as soon as I heard the sound I went sprinting.  

They quickly got him turned over and he was fine thanks to all of the safety gear he wears.  The video above was taken by my mother in law.   Luckily after a break and fixing the car, he went back out several more times and got some good laps in.   The safety director was also there so he talked with him about good patterns and gave him some really good visuals to sight with.  I love the racing community!!!!

Tuesday:  4 miles.  Summer running is here to stay and I am SO not ready.  We decided since it was just 4 miles we could stick to the 5:45 am routine for now, but know that the time will have to be bumped earlier, possibly even later this week.  It seems the sun is coming up super early lately (or maybe it is just my imagination).  We don't even need headlamps when we head out anymore and that does not bode well for the dogs.  We want to go to all of the trails, but with most if not all of them being at least an hour away and us not wanting to get up at 3:30 am and then possible have to leave the trail early if the dogs get too hot leaves us wanting to stay closer to home.  Anyway, my calf muscles as usual ached and were sore for the first 3 miles and then finally shut up. I have been massaging, putting on CBD cream, and wearing my compression socks, and nothing is helping.  Yes,  the pain goes away, but it makes the first 3 miles not fun at all.   I love the way my altra shoes feel, but maybe they just aren't the shoes for my body :(  I also had to make 2 ditch dives in just 4 miles.  Not sure what is going on with my tummy other than my mother in laws awesome cooking?

Wednesday:  4 miles.  I like that this week had some easy low mileage to start the week.  My body needed it.  I had another ditch dive again thanks to my tummy.  I need to start getting up an hour before no matter what to get my digestive system started and cleaned out.  I also had pretty severe calf pain for almost 2 miles yet again.  I was super glad to see my chiro and talk over what we could do.  I don't want to give up on my altras, plus I have a brand new pair that I haven't even tried to run in yet.  After talking to my local running store shoe guru and my chiro, we are going to try to make my zero drop shoes  4mm drop shoes by adding my heel cups that I used for my PF pain last year.  Basically, I am stretching the hell out of my calf muscles and I have to stop this before I damage them.  I had some pretty intense cupping and fascia blasting that hurt so bad, but I know will help me so much.  

Thursday:  6 miles.  The big test.  I had had MIL cooking again and one beer, plus I was armed and ready with my heel cups in my shoes.  Y'all, I am SO happy to report that the heel cups plus the work I had done magically worked.  I had 0 pain the entire 6 miles!!!!  I am so glad it was that simple of a fix, but I am going to try and find a good trail shoe that has a 4-6 mm heel drop AND a wide toe box. I feel like the journey for the perfect shoe will never end for me.

 

Friday:  Rest day.  We had flirted with the idea of running our 10 miler on this day since I was contemplating being gone Sunday to head down to Tulsa for a quarter midget race.  Then all of my calf muscle issues really got bad and we decided not such a great idea.  If i miss a run, it won't be the end of the world (who am I????),  but we are still hoping to get to run Sunday morning super duper early.  

Saturday:  Long run day!  We knew it would be hot + humid, so we had planned on heading out at 5 am.  Now call me crazy, but I remember last year getting at least an hour or more of dark running before the sun came up.  Y'all, the sun was rising at 5:10 am.  NOT FAIR.  What the heck is going on these days?  I am loosing my mind????  Anyway, we used our headlamps for about 5 minutes and then didn't need them anymore.  It was SO hot and humid.  We did NOT take the dogs because even though the dew point was 69 and there was lots of water on the roads, we did not feel like it was safe for them, even for a couple of miles.  We quickly got our 10 and headed back to the house to refill our water bottles and wet down our buffs.  I had put a cooler on the porch with an ice pack and a giant jug of cold water, and it was like heaven.  We headed back out for a final 6 with 0 shade.  We decided on the way back to try walk 2 minutes run 3 minutes, as we were both feeling pretty crummy.  I should say we both were hydrating and we both had cooling towels/buffs we were wetting down, but we just couldn't beat the heat.  With about a mile to go and feeling super horrible, I told Robin I was going to have to just power walk it in.  She was fine with that and we proceeded to walk as quickly as we could without passing out.  Thank GOD for understanding running partners.

Y'all, when we got back to Robin's house, I sat on her porch for like 2 hours trying to recover.  Her hubby took a picture of us post run. I was drenched with sweat.  At one point the sweat that was coming off of my head was dripping off the brim of my hat into my face.  I finally turned it around backwards but that meant my face then got full sun.  I also took my VERY hot pack off as we were walking to try and cool off a tiny bit.  I did not run with my bladder today since we did not take the dogs, but even with it not in the back, it was HOT.  I love my pack so much with ALL.THE.POCKETS though, so I guess I will suffer.  Even after 2 hours of just sitting with my feet up and not moving I had a horrible headache.  I drank a full sugar soda when I finally waddled home.  As I sit and write this, I still have a headache even with advil on board, but my pee looks amazing and I don't feel dehydrated.  

Sunday:  10 miles and RACE DAY.  Woke up to high 70s and humidity in the 80s.  I guess we skipped straight to horrible summer without a transition as always.  No dogs again :(  Up at 4 am to fuel.  Run went much better thanks to a slight breeze.  Quick shower and packing before hitting the road to Tulsa.  It's a long winding drive to Tulsa however the memories of hitting that road to dog shows was so much fun.  

This track is tiny and not as banked as compared to ours but we had fun nonetheless.  They don't qualify and they do one heat race and one main unlike our track which does two heat races and a main.  

They also have blue plate and red plate rookie which is the color of the restrictor plates that keep gas flow lower to go slower and those classes were much bigger, so there were several. I kind of liked some the ways they did stuff, but I am not sure those ways would work at our big track with our big classes. I do like the division of rookie classes, but I am SUPER glad that we had enough for Jr Honda.

Andrew started 1st in the 1st heat race and got passed by our kick ass girl driver, but then held off Brody to hang on to 2nd place.  He started 2nd again in the main and was a little confused by the rules.  In USAC, you can't accelerate and pass till you pass the flag stand.  Well Makayla was in 1st and on the inside and she wanted to GO on start and she kept leaving him because he wouldn't stay with her.  Finally the flag man stopped Andrew and explained why he wasn't letting them go and he stayed with her long enough to get the green flag dropped.  He settled in to 2nd place and stayed there the rest of the race.  It was a HOT day and we all had to stay cool as possible, but we had fun and got ice cream at Braums (a Midwest specialty) post race.  I guess they also had a medal ceremony, but we didn't stay as it was called a "fun run" so we figured no medals.  Luckily some of our track family stayed and picked Andrew's medal up for him.  I am just SO dang proud of him for trying a new thing (not his strong point) and racing hard.  That is our only criteria.  The drive back was horrible as it is a long windy 2 lane high way.  Two nights of 5-6 hours of sleep, plus 26 miles in two days had me super exhausted.  I pounded caffeine so of course when we got home I was wide awake.  Would I do it again?  You bet ya!

I am looking forward to temps in the 80s, which is a sad thing to say.  Hopefully the dogs can also get out and get some much needed miles.