Prairie Spirit 50K: The Good, the Bad, and the downright UGLY

 I always have to give credit to Dr. Mel Newton for coming up with this blog format. I love using it becuase it really helps me to figure out what I need to do differently for my next races. Plus, it gives me a place to drop all of my Mile 90 photos.  Seriously, if you are looking at races and you are trying to figure out which one to do, if Mile 90 is at one and not the other, PICK the one that they will be at.  Even though I am technically still training for my 50 miler this week, my body wants rest and recovery so a week off is where it is at (and boring to write about LOL).

 Let's start with the GOOD:

For me the weather was the BEST and yes I can't control this, but dang it, shout out to the weather gods for blessing us with perfect weather.   I am not sure what the temp got up to, but maybe high 50s at the most with a nice wind that was in our face on the run back.  Normally I am not a fan of a headwind, but this kept us cool and refreshed.  Also the storm the night before had dropped lots of moisture on the trail and the ditches which made nice fresh puddles for the doggos.  Remember, stagnant not fresh water can be dangerous to a dog as it could contain lepto and or algae that can have dangerous toxins.  

Also good, my fueling.  While the brief appearance of the sun a few times made me a little queasy and the amount of sweet at times was a little hard to get down, I never got the point of feeling like I was going to puke and or my teeth never hurt from the Tailwind.  The uncrustable that I had at the turn around aid station hit the spot so much.  I will have to include those if and when I attempt another 50 miler (maybe in 2 weeks, EEEK).  

Also good, my training or lack of.  I was able to maintain a very steady pace for the majority of my run intervals.  I consistently (once we settled down) saw 11:15-11:30 on our run portion, even towards the end when most people were walking.  YES! I totally attribute that to lots of rest, a different training plan that allowed me to heal and rest while still running and lifting and regular chiro care (HUGE shout out to Dr. Kelli at Live Well chiropractic).  

Now the BAD:

Honestly, not much to report here.  As mentioned above, stomach stayed happy.  Did take a trip to the porta potty pre race, but that is expected.  Did also poop in a bush but hey, it happens.  Other than that, tummy was happy and receptive to any food I put in.  

And last the UGLY:

I once again am going to more than likely loose my big toe nail on my right foot.  While it didn't come off and cause lots of pain during the race, post race, I knew it was yet again not happy and I have since popped a blister under the nail that was full of yuck.  This means it wasn't the trail that probably caused this last time but my beloved Altra shoes.  Sigh.  Yet again, I may be on the hunt for new shoes. I was properly fitted for these, so I know they are the correct size.  URGH.  

I chaffed like a mofo.  I have been using dove deodorant under my bra in the front under the band, but really haven't had issues on the back, so totally forgot to lube the back.  I think the combo of my pack creating friction and my bra strap is what did me in and boy was my back a huge raw mess.  Oddly enough, no issues while I was showering even though I have horrible scabs now.  It's going to be so much fun putting a running bra on soon.  

I am so excited that this race was mostly good, dare I even say great.  Yes, when everyone else was walking I wanted to walk, but having Robin in front of me pushing forward and not wavering helped.  The run walk intervals helped me so much mentally because I can do ANYTHING for 4 minutes.  

There is one sadness I have and that is that this will be Stella's last ultra.  It was the perfect race to go out on top and while it wasn't the 50 miler I had hoped we would do, it still was a great race.  My doggy chiro asked why now and I said why not now.  She is still very sound, she still loves running and can still train with me and boom is ready to do the longer distances anyway.  I am going to miss her on super long runs and during races, but she will still run with me as long as she can/wants.  I always ask if she wants to go and here lately she has said "No Thanks" a few times and I will always honor that.  While I am a crying mess while I type this, I know it's the best thing for her as she turns 10 on May 4th of this year.  I love you Stella Ella so much and I love what you have given me all these years in ultras.  There are so many great trail runs that she can still do with me and we shall.  Till the next run baby girl.   

Prairie Spirit 50K race report

 A live race? YES!!!!!  I am so very happy to be writing a real life in person race report after a year of cancelations!  

Back up a bit. I have done this race and this trail as a fall race but never with stella.  The year I did it, we were  not allowed dogs, so she trained with me but had to stay home.  This race didn't exactly fit where it needed to in my schedule for training for my 50 miler, but post injury and everything being kind of thrown into the air, I had no clue if a 50 miler would even happen and my running partner was on board to try this race, so why not.  We officially had 36 miles for that weekend anyway so why not run 31 on one day and try and get the 5 the next?

Robin and I had hopped onto another plan that was slightly different than what we had been doing (4 days a week and doable mileage versus 5 days a week and high mileage).  Honestly post this training cycle, this will be our go to plan.  It seems to fit both of our lives (built in cross training days) and the mileage isn't horrible.  There are only a few weeks of 5 days a running, which my brain craves, but my body does not.  Fast forward to the night before the race.  We had both packed up and were ready to head out in the early morning.  We had horrible thunderstorms all night which I had hoped would mean lots of puddles for the dogs and cooler weather.  We had decided to not get a hotel room since there would be no packet pick up/pasta dinner the night before, but simply sleep in our own beds and get up early to head down.  Plus, this year they had decided to do a wave start based on what I am not sure, but since we were not elites, our wave did not start till 8.  Usually I would not be happy about such a late start, but I didn't mind as it meant we didn't have to drive down so freaking early.  We had about an hour and a half drive so we headed out around 5:30 am.  I drove the Tahoe so the girls could each have their own seat in the back.  Stella kind of gets ridiculous when she has to share space in cars.  She will always want to ride in my lap to stay away from others, which isn't very comfortable in Robin's car due to space.  I kind of drive like a grandma and our GPS sent us on a wild goose chase, but we made it there a little after 7 with plenty of time to pick up packets and get ready. 

You can see in the background all of the huge puddles around the start area.  It was like a small pond had formed overnight.  I had gone with shorts and a tech T and robin, who runs a little colder than I went with capris and tech T.  We layered on top with our running jackets, which came off about 2  or so miles in.  We both had our packs full of fuel and snacks, as we did not get there in time for our drop box to head to the correct place.  Oh well, it worked out fine.  We were able to take our vests off at the the manned stations and move things around and work together to get what we needed.  

As always stella got lots of love pre race and we both got lots of comments about our dogs running the entire race.  Yes, our dogs train with us so yes, they will be doing the entire race.  Sigh.  

Since we were the last wave, there weren't too many people heading out with us.  We socially distanced at the start and had our buffs up while we waited to start.  We also had to use our masks/buffs to grab our packets.  I got a really cute sweatshirt and also a T shirt that probably won't fit as it's woman cut and I am not in woman cut shape right now LOL.

After a brief jaunt into Ottawa and a little scary part on the side of the highway, we dumped onto the trail.  Before we knew it, 6 ish miles were down and we were getting a bit hot as you can see in my red faced photo.  The sun had come out and the breeze was there, but not cool enough yet.  The dogs had gotten pretty worked up from the excitement of the start and the excitement  of  all of the dogs/birds/squirrels in town.  Once we got on the actual trail they calmed down a bit, but were also getting a little hot.  The first unmanned aid stations was nice to see and we filled their water bowls with some fresh clean water.  We also were stopping many times in the puddles to cool them down.  Once they settled in they and we were fine.  

We train with 4 minutes of running and one minute of walking.  I feel like our training really helped us run strong.  We were a little fast at the beginning running around 10:30s on our run portion, but we quickly settled into a more manageable run walk of 11-11:30 on our run portions.  We stayed strong the entire race except the very end, which was on concrete and also uphill.  We decided power walking at that point was A-okay.  

I stuck to my one waffle an hour and supplemented it with Colorado cola Tailwind in one bottle and regular water in the other.  I was sweating pretty salty pretty quickly into the race as was Robin.  At the first manned aid station I took some coke and topped off my water bottles.  I don't remember eating anything else at that aid station.  

At the turn around aid station, I got an uncrustable PB and J and it was AMAZING.  I needed some real food and I also needed more Tailwind, so Robin helped me get my Tailwind into my bottle mostly.  She also got a Tailwind powder shower LOL!  We were chunking the race into fractions, so to be over half done (since the beginning goes into town) was a huge mental win.   Any time we felt down or bad we ate something and that plan worked pretty well.  A few times my tummy turned, but I was always able to get it back.  

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Robin liked running in front of me and I liked following, so that is what we did.  Several times I wanted to walk, but her steady plod ahead of me kept me from walking more.  We did cheat a few times on our walk run intervals if we had a mouth full of fuel, but other than that we stayed strong with our 4 minute run.  Honestly, we passed so many people that were in the wave before us that I will forevermore do this strategy in long races where I can accomplish this.  My first 50 had much more technical trail so it didn't make sense to do a 4:1 as I was walking up the hills several times.   My next 50 miler will also be on gravel roads so much more conducive to the run:walk.   

Since Robin had not previously done a marathon, we celebrated when we hit 26.2!!!!  Nothing like skipping over the distance to go the next one right?  I am so glad I convinced her to do this crazy thing with me.  

We honestly could not have ordered more perfect weather for our dogs to race in.  The cool wind especially  coming back was SO nice.  The sun stayed behind the clouds and the fresh puddles made it perfect.  This trail is FLAT as a pancake, but still fun to run.  The rain even made the trail soft.  

The two manned aid stations were amazing at taking care of us.  We had food (i had an uncrustable and some salted boiled potatoes and COKE) and we had conversation. Thanks to both groups for volunteering your time and help.  It is truly greatly appreciated and Stella loved the love.  At one point I told Robin we had 2 more miles and I had her put up two fingers  and then we realized it was actually 3 LOL!  This were her telling me off for getting her excited.  Trail math is always fuzzy.  At that point most people were walking so we passed at ton of people with our run:walk intervals.  I was SO proud of us for staying strong mentally and physically!  This was the STRONGEST ultra I have ever done.  I walked most of the ending of this race a few years ago and while it had to be done because of the heat, I had always regretted walking so much.   

The last half mile or so was straight up hill and on pavement and both Robin and I decided it wasn't worth trying to run.  Yes, it wasn't a monster hill but we were done mentally and physically and I think both of our stomachs were done, so powerwalking was just fine.  We crossed the line hold hands, crying a little, and so happy to be done.  Post finishing we sat and had some caffeinated Ice drinks and some snacks.  As always my body was not super ready to eat yet, so we got salty Wendy's fries on the way home and some sweet tea from Quick Trip.  All in all we had a great time and Robin finished her first ultra!!!!   I will write another post with the Good, the bad, and the ugly (honestly I at this time can't think of any ugly) when the Mile 90 photos come out.  

Race week! Prairie Spirit 50K (4 weeks till Flint Hill's 50)

 Y'all, I am not going to lie, I have so much stress in other areas of my life that running just hasn't been a priority this week.  I had a 6 and a 4 to do and then lots of rest leading up to the big day.  Between life and work and more life, I just didn't get those runs done like I would have liked and there is nothing I can do about it.  I just kept telling myself that not running was just letting my legs get fresher and any lingering issues to heal up.  I did run with my Girls on the Run girls both Monday and Thursday and I 6 miler on Wednesday.  I also decided not to lift all week and just rest.  

Most of the week was spent on race prep.  I don't get nervous about the 50K anymore but I do want everything ready to go so everything goes smooth.  The weather had been perfect all week.  Predicted highs had been in the 50s and due to cloud cover and a cool wind, we had not gotten out of the high 40s.  I wanted so badly for this to be the case for our race (spoiler alert, we got SO lucky).  

The plan was to stick to my waffles and also aid station food, with a bottle or two of tailwind thrown in as a supplement.  I decided to be brave and go with shorts and a tech T, with my jacket on top for layering, and shorts.  I don't mind my legs being cold, but something about the top of me being cold is a no go.  The night before the race we had tons of powerful thunderstorms and rain dumped on us.  This was a really good thing as the trail was not affected, but there were tons of puddles to the sides and lots of standing fresh water for the dogs to get wet and cool down in.  Anyway, going to leave the rest for my race report so check back to hear how it went!

Have a great week y'all!!!!

Countdown to Flint Hill's 50 miler (5 weeks) and Prairie Spirit 50K (2 weeks)

 

I saw this above meme on one of my friend's timelines first thing Monday morning and had to steal it.  I seriously need to say these things over and over and over.   Since we didn't have girls on the run this week thanks to spring break, I didn't have to run Monday.  If you read my blog last week, my right leg has what I think is a compensation owie.  It feels like the worst case of shin splints, but it's on the inside of my shin.  I cut a run out last week and took 3 rest days to see if I could make it a little less ouchy and thus far, it's working.  This week on our new plan is technically taper time, so back to 4 much less mileage runs.  

We had one last dinner with mom before she headed back.  It hasn't been the best of trips thanks to the weather and rain keeping us inside an unable to do anything.  Also, mom fell in our dining room and really banged herself up.  Our cat was the culprit and mom was bloody and black and blue.  She not only took a huge hunk out of her arm, but also twisted her knee to the point that she could barely limp around.  I was at work at the time and Andrew was home with mom, but I guess the cat made a god awful noise and scared Andrew really badly, and he was more worried about the cat than mom.  Sigh.  Our dinner was not good at all and was one of the weirdest experiences we have ever had.  This restaurant is a new to us and fairly new to Manhattan restaurants.  I had heard amazing things about the food and the pictures look scrumptious.  We headed out to have a nice meal for the last meal before mom headed back, and was met with some weird things.  Long story short, we didn't get half of our food,  they kept bringing my hubby the wrong stuff when they brought anything at all, and Andrew hated the food, so didn't eat.  Sigh.  Fun family times right?  We ended up getting 75% of our bill comped, and won't make the mistake of eating there again.  I seriously felt like I was in an episode of the twilight zone.    I don't like to say things like this, but our poor waitress seemed to have some serious memory issues like the fact that my hubby was the first to order, talked with her at length about his order, and then she said he never ordered when they didn't bring his food out.   What was even odder was no other table she was waiting on was having the same issue.  

Mom left Tuesday morning and I also had a nice run on Tuesday.  She had no issues driving back other than when she needed to stop and get out to pump gas or pee.   Her knee is now swollen and full of fluid, so a doctor's visit will probably happen:(  We finally got to go out on the gravel again and got 4 easy peasy miles in.  I took Stella since it was pretty dry and she was pretty happy to be back running.

  

I know this isn't running, but I have to share, proud mom moment here.  My kiddo's entire school does what is called a mini society where they make a society and currency, interview for jobs, start up businesses, and make products to sell.  He gets a 7 dollar budget to buy supplies for something he can make and sell at their mini maker market.  While walking through Walmart, he found some mini canvases and got 2 packs of 6 for just under 7 bucks.  He has been hard at work drawing and painting.  He blows me away.  At his age all I could or would draw was horses.  These drawings are free hand, him not looking at a picture or anything, and even with the mistakes, I just love them.  I hope he keeps at his drawings for a long long time!  These are just 2 of the twelve he made to sell.

Since I had scooched the schedule around thanks to mother nature, my three miles with speed happened on Thursday.  Chose to have both dogs pulling me for speed and it worked LOL.  While it may not look fast on the outside, if you look at my run portions of my run walk, several of my runs portions were down in the high 10s.  I am calling this a win for speed! My right leg is still bothering me and it's worse when I put on my running shoes.  For reference, I wear my old running shoes as everyday shoes, so I have several pairs of the same looking shoes floating around my house.  When I put on my current running pair, my shin feels like it is on fire on my right leg almost immediately.  They are the same damn shoe, just a little more padding as my running version is newer but WTH???  I almost feel like I am wearing high heels.  I said it before if felt like one shoe was different than the other.  Now they feel equal, but both feel odd so what to do?  I can't change shoes 2 weeks out from our 50K and risk injuring myself due to a new shoe model.  Sigh.  I guess I can always pack a pair of my older running shoes and have them at the turn around in my drop box just in case.  They will have 400+ miles of running and then just everyday wear, but it's worth having them just in case.  I guess post races I will have to either try the newer model for my Altras or go back into the shoe hunt yet again.  URGH!

Saturday was 9 miles and all I wanted to do was sleep.  My body is still not adjusting well to the time change, staying up later, and then not wanting to get up.  My very understanding running partner waited till I got up and fueled and then we headed out together.  If we are lucky enough to have this weather next weekend, we will have a great race.  Right now the weather gods are smiling and the rain chances have gone out of the forecast, but it will be cloudy and high of 65.  PLEASE stay this way.  We have not heat acclimated at all.  I still am really undecided about who to take.  I want to take Stella, she is running great, but we haven't done the long runs we normally do for this race (only one 20 miler).  Boom has only done one 20 miler ever, so he is kind of a wild card too.  To be decided I guess, stay tuned.  We started out in full cold layers and then quickly stripped layers as we got hot.  I can totally deal with this kind of weather!

Sunday meant 4 miles, and Robin and I's schedule did not mesh, so I took both dogs out for the easy run.  Except they were not interested in easy and my pace was actually down in the high 11s overall LOL!  I have to say knock on a huge piece of wood, all of the aches and pains I have been feeling have eased up, and I am feeling so ready for my race.  Thanks body for giving me hope and healing right before this race, so I can have fun with my running partner and get her to her first ultra finish line.  

Sunday also meant we finally got the to the track with our new car!  Tony hasn't had a ton of time to work on it thanks to running our very busy business, but devoted his whole weekend to get it put together so Andrew could turn some laps.  We have less than 40 days till our first race and I was so excited to finally see him in it.  I am SO excited for this season as everyone had told us that having cars alike chassis wise would make a huge difference in his driving and they weren't wrong!!!!!  He turned some of the fastest laps he has EVER turned in a 120 car.  We are still a work in progress on his lines, which means he could be turning even faster laps as he gets confidence and better lines.  Now to also work on confidence for passing!!

Have a great week y'all!  

Countdown to the Flint Hill's 50 (6 weeks) and Prairie Spirit 50K (3 weeks)

Three weeks till our 50K and then 3 more weeks after that till my first 50 of 2021 (and possibly my last ever).  Since i am totally off of any logical plans, just going to count down the weeks till each and hope I can be at the start line for both!

 Monday was girls on the run and they had to run 25 minutes!!!  Quite a jump from the 10 or so minutes they had run previously.  Our motto is move forward, no matter how you want to as long as it is forward progress.  Most of our girls power walked, ran, skipped, or walked with purpose the entire 25 minutes!!!  We even had some girls drop back to different groups to encourage others to keep going.  This group is blowing me away.  My group which was about a 12:30-13:00 mile with my favorite 4 minute run, one minute walk interval got in 2 miles!!!!!  Again, I know I am dropping lots of exclamations but dang it, I am SO proud!  Afterwards I finished up my 5 total miles with a 3 miler with rockin Robin.  I am now sore in a totally different place, but it is a spot I can work out with some stretches I hope.  Again, nothing acute, just general muscle soreness that is controlled by Advil.  

Tuesday was rest from running but lifting day!  I love lifting day!  I did 4 sets of 10 x deadlifts, back squats, 30 sec planks, adductor strengthening exercise, and some hammy specific work with my kettle bells.  I had to have my hubby help with racking, but I felt SO good during and after.  While I am not in a strength series, it feels so good to lift the plates I have.  I did go ahead and buy a squat rack so my hubby doesn't always have to be there.  Slowly but surely I am building up my home gym, which will probably move to the shop at some point, but still it will save me a gym membership. 

Wednesday was also a rest day thinks to all day meetings.  I started at 7:15 am and went till almost 9:30 pm that night.  I had hopes I would run post board meeting, but that didn't happen and that is okay.  Stella got a spa day with the wonderful Barb and I love how soft and beautiful she is!  I wish I could do this at home, but she has some sort of voodoo magic that groomers posses.  

She also fixed her horrible pants.  I try and try to maintain control of her pants, but I have no luck.  She looks like she has a corgi butt and I just love it!  My mom also came to town to hang out with us for spring break.  I usually go home this week and split half the time with my mom and half the time with Andrew's other grandma Donna in Martin TN.  This year with Covid still a thing, we decided to hang out here in Kansas and since mom has had both of her vaccines and is fully covered she came to us!  Stay tuned for our adventures as of course it's suppose to rain the entire time she is here.

I decided to try and get either my 7 miler or my full 16 in on Thursday.  The weather was perfect, warm but not too warm, and little to no wind.  I took my pack and loaded it with fuel and water just in case I decided to go long.  I did my normal 5 out and back to get 10, but instead of heading to the house I hit another gravel road for another out and back.  The only problem you ask? Math gets fuzzy when I am running and I realized I would be super short if I headed back at that time. I took another loop and said another hi and bye to the feedlot cattle that actually ran a short distance with me.  I was still going to be about a mile short but dang it, I was super tired and ready to be done.  While nothing hurt during my run, I figured I would be sore when I got done for sure.  I also had started in shorts and a tech T since it was in the 60s but the temps dropped as soon as the sun went down.  While my little voice inside my head and my mom had said, why don't you pack a jacket in your pack, my stubborn self did not.  I was fine as long as I wasn't running into the small breeze that was blowing.  When I hit the house I was at 15.3 miles and I decided to call it good.  I was tired, cold, and hungry even though I had fueled.  I wrapped my sweaty self in a big fuzzy blanket and parked my butt in the recliner.  It took me FOREVER to get warm again.  

Friday night I got 4 in post work.  I was tempted to do 7 because I felt SO amazingly great and this was after a 15 miler the day before, go figure.  I haven't had a run like that in a very, very long time and it was so fun seeing my normal easy running times come up on my watch. I am already super slow, so to get even slower is a huge blow to my already blown ego.   

Saturday I woke up to rain and a very sore right leg.  I had noticed it was not happy, probably due to compensation.  Between the rain and our planned full day, I didn't think one more rest day would hurt and it would break up me running 4 days in a row.  We had plans to check out our not new to Manhattan but new to us game store that is now selling legos and to introduce grammy to quiche at our favorite coffee shop.  First I did some lifting with some hang cleans, some squats, and planks and adductor exercises.  Then we showered and headed out to conquer the day.   

We had quiche, visited Wally world (I don't go in that store ever), checked out goblin games and found a Lego set he had been searching for, and went to a sip and shop at our local winery in Wamego for some tasty cider and some cookies/macrons from my friend Amanda who has a cookie/baked goods business.  We also enjoyed a flat bread pizza and chacuterie box from Dough Bros who were set up outside.  It won't be long till 456 Winery is back to doing outdoor concerts and food trucks and I CAN'T WAIT! 

By the end of the day, I decided a rest day was truly in store and we ended the night watching one of our quarter midget kids race in a Nascar development series up in North Carolina and welcoming our first big thunderstorm.  My right leg, the tendon on the inside of the shin bone that feeds down into my right ankle is pretty pissed off right now, probably due to compensation.  I figure the more rest, heat, and stretching I can do to make it happier the better.

I honestly debated on taking another rest day.  My right leg felt a little better, but it was raining and horrible out and I would have to run on the pavement to avoid mud.  40 mph winds were howling outside and I waited all day to make the decision to just do my 4 miler and forget about the 7 miler.  Since Stella just got done at the groomers, Boom got to go and run in the rain again.  He had so much fun jumping in puddles and chasing me into the wind so don't let the sad face fool you.  He even got a personal wipe down post run by his daddy.

And now starts the major confusion by my body as to what time it is.  Sigh.  We slept till almost 9 and will probably be wide awake till late.  Glad little man is on spring break this week so we can try and figure it out together.  Sad we didn't go home to Tennessee, but enjoying having my mom here to help out and go do fun things with me like haul all the laundry to the laundry mat since we still haven't heard from the appliance repair people.  

Have a great week y'all!  Only 4 runs this week as we taper for our 50k!  Hoping for better weather!

Week 12 of 18: Training for the Flint Hills 50

Monday meant the beginning of another wonderful season of Girls on the Run!!!!  I was SO excited to see all of my returning girls and so many new faces!!!  The weather was perfect, we did close to a mile in our 10 minute run period, and we played some fun getting to know you games.  Afterwards Robin and I headed out to finish our run.  We have hopped over to a couch to 50K plan I found that is mostly only 4 days a week running, since my more than likely goal race this training period is the 50 K we have in a few weeks.  If I can drag my sorry injured butt 50 miles post this 50K, I will attempt it as I have all spring/summer and most of fall to recover from my stupidity.  Solid plan right?  I do feel much more "normal" but still a bit sore and places I don't feel like I should be sore in.  

I am alternating dogs on my runs now instead of trying to do both at the same time.  Monday's run was Stella's run and Wednesday's run was Boom's run.  I did weights on Tuesday since that is my new day off from running.  I tried a set of front squats, dead lifts, ab work, adductor work, and glute work.  I like alternating all kinds of exercises in including planks, glute bridges, single leg glute bridges, dead bug, and other so I don't get bored.  

Thursday's run began with the girls and ended with my girl.  We are both still huffing and puffing thanks to this sudden heat wave.  To go from -35 to 70 has been quite an adjustment.  I just hope we heat acclimate quickly so we don't huff and puff our entire 50K!!!!!  Let me just say, I have missed the girls SOOOOO much and I just love this group so much already.   We are going to have SO much fun with this year's group.  Thank you so much West for allowing me to coach this session and for letting us have a team!  I will say after having a couple of pain free runs, I did have some soreness, BUT I had been to the chiro earlier and she had worked quite a bit on my adductor including some painful massage gun time and fascia blasting with that medieval torture device that chiros use now.  

This is not me but I hope that it could be me some day. I wish I could be a strong person and not be so emotional about crap I can't control, like others and their actions/emotions.  This whole week has been tough for me dealing with others and I wish I could just let it roll off my back like others can.  I take everything so personally and I would love to not care so much that it affects my sleeping/eating.  Twice this week I was so upset I couldn't even eat.  I also come home on those days and drink a beer which then increases the inflammation I battle in my body.  Friday a lot came to a head and I just had to come home, have a beer, and a good old cry sesh.  I am really trying to not second guess what everyone is thinking and or feeling and to not take things so freaking personal, but it's hard.  

I was trying to figure out a compromise on my long run. I needed to get out and get something done but not too much that I set myself back.  I talked to my chiro and we decided 10-12 miles would be okay.  I technically was suppose to do 21 miles, so I settled on 11 for the day.  It was beautiful out, no wind, and it warmed up quickly. I totally regretted my choice of a vest, but since it's a vest, had no way to take it off and travel with it.  Lesson learned.  I just love my vest so much, not ready to hang it up yet, but the time has come.  I took both dogs, big mistake, I know, but as soon as I got to the gravel I let Stella go and boom stopped pulling quite so bad.  I had a ditch dive thanks to the wonky tummy, something I have not had in a long time, but I am sure the 2 beers Friday night had something to do with it.  

After running we headed over to Topeka to the track to have some fun with our track family.  We only have one car ready to go, so that is all we brought and practiced.  We need more hours in the day to get the 120 ready to go, but hoping with nicer weather, we will have the motivation to get it done no matter how long it takes.  Everyone was making plans for traveling and I am excited to maybe hit an out of town race this year if Covid settles down.  

I was pretty nervous to run Sunday after my long run, but my plan called for 4 so I wanted to get it done. I know, I know, too much type A, rest if you need to, but I wanted to try it.  I was okay during the run, maybe a little sore, but nothing horrible.  I did decide to wait till later to get my lifting done which was a big fat mistake because surprise, I didn't get it done.  I have found a program for lifting for runners and I am intrigued to start using some of what I have learned.  I didn't pay the full 300 bucks for the whole shebang, but may at some point as I like what I am seeing. Probably going to be the same price as hiring a private instructor anyway, and I could do it from the comfort of my new home.

 

We spent most of Sunday working on the new car, organizing car parts, jamming out to 90s alt rock, and doing homework.  Kansas blessed us with 40 mph wind gusts later in the day, so 70s and windy made for a perfect day to open the shop up, clean up, and work hard inside.  Tony worked till almost 7:30, so post eating we were all spent and went to bed, thus the no lifting.  

This is the extent of my help when it comes to car builds!  I can organize like things like no one else.

Have a great week y'all!  5 runs in this week, not the mileage I needed to do but I will take what I can get.