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!