I'm melting..........

Sentence or two per picture again because not a lot to really talk about since I am not training.  We have another race weekend, so of course there will be more on that picture than anything :)

Kansas, you are slowly trying to kill me.  Stop it.  

Ice bandannas are the bomb.com.  Rain in the AM, so running in the PM.  Feels like 94?  Sure.  

#truth

94% humidity at 5 am.  We ran in humidity fog that made it super hard to breath, but were treated to beautiful colors at dawn.  

Another practice.  Seeing really good things again.  Lap times are coming down to what he ran last year.  Lines looks super good.  We will put it all together at some point.  

Took boom for a play date with my running partner's new pup Cersei.  He was a big asshole and I am not sure why.  We have some work to do apparently.  

The ONLY good thing about getting up at 5 am to run.  5 miles with Rockin Robin and talk therapy.  

Our running store had it's 12 year anniversary sale and to celebrate they had a crepe truck come and serve crepes.  I had a savory crepe with ham and cheese and then a smore for my dessert crepe.  AMAZING!

Our AC unit went kaput right in the middle of several 100 degree days.  It's only a couple of years old and my hubby thinks he can fix it, but it's finding the time for him to actually do that, that is the problem.  Anyway, to cool off later I had a beer with some beer salt.  I had a shiner lime and sea salt earlier this year and LOVED it, but now I can't find it, so I am making my own version.  YUMMY!

We have decided to let the weather dictate our long runs.  It was feels like 76 with 89% humidity, so 10 miles was it for us.  I was POURING sweat and was miserable the whole run. I think my body isn't getting that cooling off that it needs at night, so I am starting the run off hot and that isn't good for me, miss i can't handle the heat runner.  I tried using an ice bandanna, but as the ice melted, water went down my front and caused horrible chaffing to my bra area even though I had lube on.  Then everything felt like a hot wet blanket because the moisture wasn't evaporating.  

Post run coffee and doughnuts at the town we use to live in when we first moved to KS.  Super spacious cool coffee shop with good doughnuts, amazing coffees, and biscuits and gravy.  

Race day.  We were down a handler, so I had to help with the car.  Thank goodness a volunteer stepped up and took my job in the tower.  We only had one practice this week, but his confidence was much higher.  No panic attacks thank goodness, but maybe because I was down there in the hot chute with him pre-race.  Our goals were to have fun, try and pass, and TRY HARD meaning no giving up.  He was sitting in fourth place in the heat race when a friend tried to pass and gave him a little love tap that got his momentum stopped and then all the cars passed him with like 2 laps to go.  Two cars wrecked right in front of him on the checkered flag, but because he was a lap down and they passed the start/finish, he ended up next to last place (one car had had 3 cautions called on him so he was already off of the track).  I don't care, he tried SO HARD, held his position and made people work to pass him instead of just moving over to let them pass.  

In the feature, we did not invert the field so unfortunately, he was in the very back.  Hubby had changed gears in the car and instead of not telling him, he told him and we all know how sensitive he is to changes.  He started out very tentative and then kicked it into high gear as a few cars had to behind him due to wrecking.  He ran a super awesome race and ended up 5th out of 7th giving him an overall 5th on the day.  

Jr animal was a small field again with only 4 races.  Our goals were the same, don't give up your position easily, run good lines, push the car.  He kept second place till the very end when his friend passed him to knock him back to 2nd place.  Again, don't care, he was driving the car SO well.  We are still figuring out the cars so we will have him the fastest car possible once we get our poop together :)  Again, no inversion of the field so he started inside behind the 1st place winner.  He was instructed to hook onto her and GO with her and boy did he!  Maverick finally passed him in the later part of the race, BUT he held position for as long as he could and I am over the moon proud of his third place finish.  Can't wait to see how he does this next weekend in Tulsa!

Have a great week and try not to melt!

Summer Running Fun?

I still have no clue exactly what we want to do. I don't think I want to enter any race at this point since races are still canceling left and right.  I am going to keep my eye on the November 6/12/24 but not specifically train for anything per se.  Since we are just running 4 days a week and making the mileage up as we go, here is a sentence or two per picture.  

I think I have a problem when my 8 year old is complaining to his friends about my Hamilton addiction.

Andrew was driver of the week and it came at a perfect time to get his spirits up post the last race where he got knocked out by his good friend.  

Woke up to another storm that was parked and making lighting.  Decided not to go and it just sat there so could have gotten at least 4 in.  Sigh.  

Love working for my hubby.  Got out to do 4 miles post dropping my kiddo at Camp Invention.  

Somewhere in the middle of that red is us.  No run + no sleep thanks to three terrified dogs and a kid on top of you = long day.  

A little practice to make sure the cars are dialed in and a reminder of lines and how important they are.  

Humid AF but beautiful sunrise complete with humidity fog.  I am so over summer.  The only reason I run right now is because I need the talk therapy with all that is going on with the world.  

Two very bored running dogs that think KS humidity is stupid and should cease and desist immediately.  

Camp Invention looked very different this year.  Only 25 students, hula hoops to help kiddos understand social distancing, masks, and lots and lots of outside time to have mask breaks.  God bless and guide the administrators and decisions makers on kiddos going back to school.  I would NOT want their job right now.  

My running partner teaching my kiddo about flight.  I love the fact that she pushes him out of his comfort zone and doesn't let him give up or quit.  She has helped him SO much with his fixed mindset.

  

That's pretty much every day thus far this summer.  I really wish I could love summer running but I pretty much can't and the older I get, the worse it gets.

Humidity fog.  YOu know you are in trouble when you are drinking your air.

At least the sunrises are pretty?

Instead of some miles on the feet, some miles on the bike.  Thanks lightening!

Another practice.  Getting better and more confident in both cars and getting much better lines.  

Won't be long till he is taller than me!

Race day.  More than one sentence here :)  We went into the weekend with three nights of practice, a good night's sleep, and a good attitude.  Unfortunately Cautious Coleman was in the house and he wouldn't pass or really race in Jr Honda.  We thought we had the car dialed in and we still think we did, but his bravery just wasn't there.  In Jr Animal (the car above) there were only 3 cars and he started 2nd both times and held on to 2nd.   We were happy that he was brave and didn't let the 3rd place car pass him.  His Jr Animal car is the more powerful of the two and we are so proud of him that he is handling driving a more powerful car so well.  Not sure what is going on with his passing abilities coming and going, but we will continue to practice and work hard and hope to see bravery return. Robin and I also ran 10 miles before the race in feels like 78 with 96% humidity.  We were both dripping in sweat but got it done.  Hoping this heat wave is over, but I am sure it isn't.  

  It's suppose to rain all next week so it literally may be a wash next week and we have yet another race weekend.  Have a great week!!!!

Week 10: Training for the Hawk 50

And just like that, we are done training.  Sigh.  Read on.

Monday:  Rest day.  Say bye to my mommy day :(  Mom and Tommy headed back to TN and I already miss them terribly.  

I did this to cheer myself up.   I have a ton of sun damage to my hair as I wear my hair in a pony tail with a hat on.  I wanted any and all damage cut out and then my hair lightened to match the color :)  I didn't want big stripes of color  but I trusted my hairdresser who I dearly love and she did an amazing job.  She even curled it and gave it a new part and volume, something that i can't do but she does wonderfully.  I wish I could do this to my hair every day, but I have neither the skill nor the patience.  Andrew said he loved it because we matched.  Andrew also had football practice again with masks pre practice and lots of social distancing at stations.  I am so glad they are back to some sort of routine and am hoping the Covid spikes from the students coming back to KSU and partying is over with.  

Tuesday:  4 miles on the mill.  My running partner was out of town meaning I needed to run solo.  When I awoke at 5:45 the temp was 77 and the humidity was 96% and the desire to run by myself in the darkish was 0.  I decided the mill would work and I could get a little extra sleep as well.    Since i can work from home, I put my laptop and work phone by the mill and got started.  My body was not cooperating and i probably got off 4 or 5 times to visit the bathroom.  Geez body!  I finally got 4 miles done but boy it took way longer than on the road and i felt like I worked way harder than normal just to get done.  

Wednesday:  10 miles.  Another late night the night before meant waking up early SUCKED.  My hubby has been on a steak kick and it takes time to get the potatoes going and the grill going but it is OH so good when we finally eat....at 9:00 pm.  My running partner was back, which totally helps with motivation to go otu when it is super icky out.  The humidity was low enough that I decided to take Stella with my hubby on alert if I needed to call him to come and get her.  I am happy to say we all made it through :)

Later on in the day I saw an announcement of a race that had previously been postponed out at the trails I train at being flat out canceled.  I wasn't shocked, the race was suppose to be in July and had been pushed back till August already.  What I was shocked about was that no virtual option was offered and no swag was even ordered.  I get it, but I figured at least the swag would have been ordered as they have amazing swag that I have bought previously even though I didn't' even do the race.  Interesting.  I started thinking please don't let this happen to my race.  My 50 is put on by the same crew, but different RDs and a month later starting date.  I was kind of shocked that later on in the day we got the same news for our race as well.  As I said on FB, I don't envy ANY RDs out there making these tough decisions. I had hoped that with the cap on runners entered (normally 100 per race distance x 3, this year 50 x 3) would help and that we could do a wave start and be okay, but I guess not and it is what it is.  I am not mad at all at the Trail Hawks or the amazing RDs, just more sad about all the time and training I put into getting rehabbed and back so I could do this kick ass race.  I had also held out a glimmer of hope that if the race was canceled, that the handmade mugs and medals would already be done, so that I could do the event virtually and earn that mug with the help of my parents and hubby as my aid stations.  Nope.  No swag, no virtual options I guess to discourage large groups from doing this race at the same time?  Not sure but I am super sad.  I immediately video called my running partner and got my other running partner on messenger and we laid out our options.

1.  We could find a race the same weekend and pray they will stay on schedule and we won't loose our money again.  Yes, we were offered deferrals for the Hawk, which is super duper awesome, but I have vowed this is my last summer training for anything over the 50 K distance.  The thought of training another summer next year makes me ill, seriously.  There is a race in IL that weekend but the shortest distance to get anything is the 50K and you get a coin.  Sigh.  There is another race in MO that same weekend, but MO is a hotspot for the virus right now, so not sure I want to go there. Heck we are a hotspot here thanks to the college, so maybe I don't want to go there to take anything with me.  

2.  We could find a race in October or November and again pray that it doesn't cancel.  Some races are going to wait listed entry, so your money is not spent unless the race is on.  Unfortunately, the two I am looking at are not like that, so I am a little gun shy at this point.  The other problem with finding a later in the year race is that I will need to start training for my spring 50 in December.  As I have experienced before, I need a month or more of down time, easy running or no running for that matter, to let my body heal or it rebels.  Plus, I am already 10 weeks in so starting over is kind of mentally defeating right now.  

3.  We could run for fun, keep our weekly runs at 4 or 5 runs with 4-6 miles each and a long run of 10-15 miles and just have fun.   I could enjoy Andrew's race season and not have to worry about back to back long runs or having 5 runs in a row and wearing myself out.  Yes, we would still have to get up at 4 am to get runs done to avoid this brutal heat, but the volume would be MUCH lower. 

Stay tuned. I need to make a decision this week one way or the other.  I am leaning towards screw it, run for fun, if you can ever say summer running is fun BUT my running partner Robin had JUST committed to the marathon distance and I want her to take that momentum and use it.   

Thursday:  Got up to do our new normal for now which is run as much as we wanted to.  Unfortunately KS has other ideas as it sent severe storms our way.  Decided to wait to run.  Felt like crap later.  Thanks monthly friend.  Friday looked better and we aren't officially training right now so why not take the day off?

Friday:  Totally slept through my alarm.  Woke up at 6 am (When I was planning on meeting robin) in a panic.  Told her give me 15 minutes.  Threw on some clothes as quickly as possible and got out the door.  It was hot and humid, but not too bad, so the dogs got to come and Stella politely declined but boom boom stepped up and took her place.  He still won't drink water while we are running and gets way to overly hyped when other dogs bark at him, but he is doing really well with not pulling the entire run and listening to commands.  

Saturday:  Long run day!    While we are totally off of any plan, we decided to keep our long runs between 10-15 miles at a time.  That still means getting up at 4 am to beat the sun:(  They had forecasted storms, which I didn't mind as we had nothing concrete to get done Saturday. When we woke up, it was just hot and humid, too humid for even the dogs.  I had hoped the storms would blow thorugh and cool things down but nope, not a chance.  We had 13 on our brain and as we were headed back from out 10 out and back, I told Robin if we got near the house I would probably want to give up.  We decided to stay out, get as much on the gravel as we could, and then head home.  We ended up getting our 13 but boy was it a suckfest.  The only thing positive about this run was we both had some talk therapy and we found a new big patch of milkweed that had a monarch caterpillar munching on it.  Post running I hit up a few garage sales from a few of my favorite thrift/antique stores.  I have been wanting an antique buffet and had found one but it was a bit pricey.  I decided after 2 weeks of seeing it still there that if I got to the store and it was not sold, I would buy it.  Well lucky me, it was still there so this piece went home with me!

I will do an after post when we future out where it is actually going to go.  We are getting rid of some antiques in our dining room and may have to find a new place for our treadmill but it's beautiful and worth the hassle.  

We also hit up a new to us restaurant in a town over that had very yummy food and beer.  Had some chicken and waffles and some vanilla porter.  YUM!

Sunday:  Race day!!!!  Y'all, not going to lie.  Really liked NOT having to wake up at 4 am and run pre race.  I actually had my wits about me all day and didn't have to binge on caffeine all day.  Plus, as I type this,  I am still wide awake and don't feel the need to go to bed at 7 pm.  

A couple of things first:   we didn't do any practicing this week and we needed a bunch of parts to fix things that we didn't get in the mail even though we paid extra for overnight shipping.  We knew today would be a crap shoot.  I am SUPER happy to report that Andrew was on fire and while his placements did not reflect it 4/5 in Jr. Animal and 8 out of 9 in Jr honda, he did some amazing things today.  He passed at least 6 cars and didn't get hung up behind lap traffic.  He drove hard even when his car was lifting (up on the outside tires with the inside tires off the ground.  He had his first spin out and didn't freak out about it.  He had a big wreck into the wall thanks to one of his friends but he didn't cry and he is excited to race again.  He had 0 big panic attacks, just a few small ones that tony was able to talk him through.  

He also learned the power of the freight train.  If you have seen NASCAR, you know what I am talking about.  One line will go and leave the rest behind.  It's happened to him too many times now and I think he finally got it.  Hook on to a fast car or line and GO!

I am SO proud!!!!!  We are a work in progress but I am excited to see where we are going!  I know that every week will be different but I hope we can keep this momentum up and get our cars dialed in.  We have a ton of season left and I can't wait to see what happens!

It's been a long week with disappointment, but I will live, life goes on, I can still run and that is what is the most important.  I am glad I was only 10 weeks in to training, I have another 50 in the spring anyway.  Oh well, another week of running and another weekend of racing:)

Week 9: Training for the Hawk 50

I love doing the sentence per picture posts but I have so much to say this week for my mental health that I need to do more of a traditional post.

Monday:  Rest day.  Backstory time.  I had boarded the dogs at our local vet clinic.  Apparently Stella and Deuce who were in a pen together got out.  Stella looked like she had eaten an entire bag of cat food when I picked her up, but they assured me she had not.  I am not kidding, she waddled when she walked.  They were nervously laughing about it and it is SO Stella to escape.  Between my kid's separation anxiety and her separation anxiety I have much anxiety.  They all came home and put themselves in the bed.  I am not joking at all.  I came home to check on them at one point and they were all so dead asleep that i got in the house and back out before they realized I had been there.  Boarding must really, really stress my poor dogs out!  

Tuesday:  8 miles.  This is where the going gets tough.  Yes, I have a treadmill in my house and a gym membership  that also has treadmills, but I want to be outside.  My race is outside so I need to train outside as much as possible.  The good news was I hadn't seen my running partner since last Friday (although like all of my running partners we talk a million times a day via messenger), so we talked incessantly the entire run.  I didn't take any pictures but got the above when I got home.  It's already WAY too hot to take the dogs, even at 4 am :(

Wednesday:  8 miles.  Again, feels like 87 at 4 am.  Sigh.  Storms to the north of us that didn't look like they would be through till 7:30.  Met Robin at 5:00 am to get started and was greeted with high winds and sprinkles.  We decided to stay close just in case and check our radar for lightning constantly.  We also decided to split our mileage up a little and do 6  on Wednesday and add 2 miles to our 4 the next day.  It's just too ridiculously hot to push it, even at 4 and 5 am.   We got our 6 and only had a little bit of rain to deal with.  

I want to pause a minute to say a HUGE happy birthday to my running partner Robin!  Robin started out my running journey with me post Andrew and trained for my first half with me (she was training for her first trail 25K).  We have run several races together and we are both running the Hawk with her running the full and me running the 50.  She is also always there for me when I need a sympathetic/empathetic ear and is my coaching buddy for Girls on the Run.  I love her and I am glad we celebrated with a nice long run :)

Thursday:  8 miles.  The name of the game is watch the radar.  Got up to a storm south of us producing some good lightning.  Decided to go back to bed and wait an hour to see if it would move on.  Woke up the exact same radar picture.  Huh?  It was like the storm had just parked itself on top of poor Alma and wasn't moving at all. It had a ton of lightning so again, went back to bed to wait an hour.  Rinse and repeat x 2.  Finally got up around 7 ish and had breakfast.  Since my parents are here for the 4th and my boss is my hubby :) decided to be late for work and see what we could get.  It was still hot and humid, but it was overcast with a breeze, which meant we could get at least 6.

Much post running, Tony and I headed into Manhattan for some yummy fine dining.  We have this place called Harry's in this old historic building that has been our go to for years for celebrations.  They announced after many many years they were closing their doors due to the financial burden the virus had put on them.  We had over 200 bucks in gift cards, so I quickly made reservations when I heard they were closing.  I am so sad to see it go, as it truly was an icon in Manhattan but not a place we could afford on a regular basis.  Above is a picture of Bulldog Oatmeal Stout they had on tap, and is one of the best stouts I have ever had!!!

Their appetizers are legendary. Our favorite is the goat's cheese and bruschetta plate.  It's a meal in itself.

We normally get prime rib, but they weren't severing it that night, so we had filet mignon instead.  It was like cutting butter.  SO flavorful and tender!

And of course we had to have dessert.  I had some sort of chocolate and vanilla cake while Tony had some coconut cheesecake.  Both were heavenly.  

I so hope someone buys the place and keeps it around.  It truly is an icon and a legend in our community.

Friday: 10 miles.  I was hoping we wouldn't have storms again.  I woke up to storms on the radar, but no lightning.  We decided to try and get what we could before the storms hit and watched storm after storm go around us.  The temps stayed manageable and the humidity wasn't horrible, so Stella got to go and stay with me.  We did stop a few times to water her, but she handled it well.  Normally Friday would be a rest day, but I wanted to enjoy the 4th and stay up for fireworks, so switched my days around.  

Saturday:  22 miles.  We had played around with getting up at 3:30 am to get on the road by 4:30 am so we would have at least 30 more minutes of sun free fun.  It appeared according to the free weather app that I had on my phone that the temps would actually be lower the later we waited and it was suppose to be cloudy.  Well, it lied big time.  The humidity was at 97%, so oppressive is a great word.  We did 10 miles as an out and back and got back to the house to refill bottles with some ice cold water, drink some coke for me, and to get more fuel.  We went back out for another 10 mile out and back, but on the way back there was an airplane on the run way so we couldn't do our little loop, and then we both ran out of water so we had to head back to the house no matter what. When we got back to the house, both of us were super done but we didn't want to give up. 

 

More coke, more ice cold water, some Popsicles and boob ice got us back going to try and finish up.  I don't love running up and down our streets, but they are tree lined and are quite shaded during the day for the most part.  We ended up visiting our favorite BBQ place for some more boob ice and finally finished.  My knee started hurting about 7 miles out and continued on and off till we finished.  It felt like that bone needed to be popped on the outside of my leg.  I have a chiro appointment for the upcoming week, thank goodness. I am hoping that 5 days straight of running is the only culprit and I can take a couple of days off and it will get better.  

Post running and clean up we hung out, ate food, and shot off fireworks.  Here are some of my favorite. I am a huge lover of pretty fireworks not loud fireworks.  I loved the train, the tank, and the fire hydrant.

Sunday:  OFF.  Slept till 9 am.  LOVED IT!  Last day with my parents.  Clean up day from all of the fireworks.  We may not have had our normal huge community fireworks show that we all love, but we ate BBQ from our local BBQ joint, lit fireworks all night, and just hung out as a family.  That I love more than anything.  

Have a great week!  Another big mileage week for me so pray my body holds together.