Week 7 of 12: Training for the Hell Creek 20 miler

Welcome to another week of hellish heat. If it isn't horrible outside, it's certainly horrible inside where I work in the shop.  I think sitting here all day in the heat is frying my brain and my will power to do anything.  This is the week where I am really going to deviate from what is planned since we are only doing 20 miles instead of a 50K. I am also going to start giving ranges on runs since we are having a heat wave again and I am just over it with the chaffing and the dripping of sweat just standing around.

Football buddies

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 6

Wednesday: 3 or 4 speed work

Thursday:  Rest

Friday:  Cross train

Saturday: 14 miles

Sunday: 4 miles  

First football jersey

Monday:  Rest day.  Ah glorious rest day.  Only 106 on Monday.  Dare I say coolish?

Bloody mess

Tuesday:  Rest day/Strength.  Yep, got up at 5 am and it was feels like 82. I said a big nope, apologized to my running partner, and went back to bed for another hour and a half. I am done with this summer. I am done pushing myself to do things I really don't want to do which is run in the heat.  Plus my chaffing was so painful that I couldn't even imagine being soaked in sweat and having any more issues with it.  I did try to lift with many many band aids on my chaffing.  It was still pretty painful.  I did dead lifts (25lbs), kettle bell swings (25/10 lbs), rear squats (20 lbs) and 30 second planks.  I did 4 sets of each of these exercises and was dripping in sweat by the end even with the fan blowing on me on high. 

 

Go ginger racer!

Wednesday:  Rest day.  This is my normal rest day due to meetings.  I did do a presentation in my business networking group and boy do I love talking in front of people.  

Pretty girl!

Thursday:  3 miles (no speed).  I was actually well rested and ready to get up.  Feels like 78?  Sure why not.  We chose the 3 miler since we were both swimming in the air and having trouble breathing.  I had a brief thought about doing some extra miles once I dropped Robin off, but the call of hot coffee (I know I am weird) and a cool house won out.  I had used over side band aids to try and cover the chaffing and while they did work to a degree, my body did not like the band aid portion and had mounted an angry red defense against them.  Now I have not only chaffing but the outline of three giant band aids.  Sigh.  

New haircut.  This kid has SO much hair!

Friday:  4 miles.  I was wide awake at 4 am so around 4:50 am, I finally just got up and got dressed.  Rockin Robin couldn't run, so I decided to just run laps in the hood.  I got 4 laps around our block before I had to make a potty stop (kind of convenient being so close to home for that).  Got back out and it was 82 degrees, which meant I was pouring sweat.  Normally i would battle through but my chaffing under my bra was on fire and hurting. I had tried putting light day maxi pads under my bra and in my bra to try and keep the rubbing from happening, plus I put lube on as well.  I know you aren't suppose to put over broken skin, but i had hoped I had enough scabbing there to protect it.  

Cheesing on my bike

Saturday:  10 miles on the bike.  Once again it was a scorcher and while my chafing was starting to heal, I just didn't want to chance re opening all of it and starting over again.  I grabbed my trusty bike and we did 10 miles on the gravel with 14 mph SSW winds for resistance.  The rest of the day was spent at the track working on Andrew's Jr Animal car.  We are moving him up to the senior classes for the rest of the year which means different restrictor plates in the animal car and no restrictor plate in the Honda car.  While he has driven his Honda car without a plate, he has not drive his animal car without a plate and that is a whole different, well, "animal".  We first took him on Friday night and he was scared, understandably so.  We assured him that going from a 6.6 as his fastest time to a 6.2 wasn't a huge jump.  He didn't believe us and drove pretty slow.  We finally got him down to a 6.8 and ended on a good note.  When we went back Sunday, we set a goal to get as close to a 6.2 as possible and he finally got it down to a 6.48!!!!!! We have one more weekend to practice and I am sure he will get it!  

Sunday:  10 miles on my bike.  Woke up to cloudy and rainy with storms headed our way. I figured I could get 10 miles before anything hit and again maybe avoid chaffing.  I needed some brain clearing time anyway and while running is nice for that, biking is the supreme way for me to clear my head.  

All THE THINGS

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Rest/Strength

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday:  3 miles

Friday: 4 miles

Saturday: 10 miles biking

Sunday: 10 miles biking

Have a great week y'all. I was hoping for cooler temps but the weather forecast keeps changing day to day as to what we might get.  I am hoping with some new anti chaffing strategies and a new bra that maybe we can get this under control and I won't miss anymore runs.  

Week 6 of 12: Training for the Hell Creek 20 miler

Welcome to back to school week and basically the week of ALL of the meetings.  I am trying not to stress between work, training, my kiddo's schedule, and our business networking group obligations but it's hard.  Some things may have to be let go this week and I just not going to stress over it.

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: 5 miles

Wednesday: 3-4 miles speed work

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Cross train

Saturday: 11 miles

Sunday: 3

Monday:  Rest day.  First day of pads in practice.  While getting ready he smiled the entire time.  Post practice he was pretty upset.  It was tough, they did lots of tackling, and lots of plays.  He was exhausted and not in the mood to talk and I had questions, so momma learned a new thing, shut up post practice and just let him be.  I did not get my Monday lifting done.  I was still pretty exhausted from the weekend and chose to try and get some rest versus pushing myself (plus I wanted to see my kid's first pads practice).  

Tuesday:  5 miles.  Boy did I NOT want to get up for this one.  I needed to be back home by 6:30 am to allow hubby to get to work early, which meant a 5 am wake up call.  I did see Orion in the sky and that was a welcome sight because that means fall and winter are coming.  .

 

Wednesday/Thursday:  Lumping these two together.  Lack of sleep, a board meeting and a club meeting, an exponential increase in stress, and life just got in the way.  I now know 100% I do NOT need to train for a fall race next year if we are going to race and play football.   First day of school on Wednesday meant I missed it thanks to my business networking group and a strict attendance policy.  Luckily I got pictures the night before at Back to school night and Tony snapped one quick one before they headed out early Wednesday morning.  He looks so grown up lately, sniff sniff.  

  

Friday:  3 miles speedwork?  I kind of laughed at speedwork on the schedule.  It needs to be done just like hill work, but with the heat and humidity still being very oppressive, just surviving the run is the most important thing to me at this point.  We headed out sans dogs to 73 degrees and 96 humidity and were swimming in the air immediately.  

Saturday:  3 miles before Need for Speed.  I had an all day fundraiser at the track, but needed to get a quick run in before being gone all day.  It was cooler, but the dang humidity was so high that it made comfortable temperatures uncomfortable.  I brought Boom because lower temps and lots of water on the road made it a little safer.  Post running I cleaned up and headed to the track.  We tried a new thing this year, an online sign up versus everyone showing up and signing up and waiting around.  I was worried we would still have a lot of people show up and want to sign up even though they didn't sign up.  I am SO happy to say we had 61 sets of kiddos drive around the track with a few being repeat trips.  I heard little to no complaining and saw lots of smiles and happy kiddos.  It filled my heart full and made me come back to this is the reason why I love this sport.

Sunday: Slept till almost 7 since temps were suppose to dip and be nice.  Humidity as always was super high which negated the nice temps.  As I have said a million times, I hate summer running.  I chaffed EVERYWHERE even though I had lube on, go figure.  We stopped a lot to let the dogs play in puddles.  Rockin Robin's dog Kitty laid in a puddle at one point and she has never done that on a run, so we decided to call her hubby and get him to come pick her up.  Robin ended up ending her run at 8 miles and I super struggled after I passed my house at 10.3 to keep going to get 11.  It's so hard for me some time because I think back and two years ago when I was prepping for my 50 miler, a 10 miler was a daily run and the weekend runs were anywhere from 22-30 miles.  Sigh.  In some ways I really miss that endurance and in other ways I really don't miss the time commitment at all.  Honestly right now, even thinking about planning and training for a spring race makes me slightly nauseous.  

The above picture was taken in Wamego as storms rolled in to town Friday night.  The photographer was a storm spotter and I seriously would love to print this and frame it.  It's so Kansas!

So me this week.  Here is what I actually got done.

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: 5 miles/Board Meeting

Wednesday: Rest/Club Meeting

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 3-4 miles speed work

Saturday: 3 miles

Sunday: 11 miles

After this week I am really going to start tweaking this plan.  Since our run is only 20 miles and this plan is for a 50K, I will be reducing the weekly long runs since the during the week runs stay pretty low.  Of course I just bought some pumpkin spiced coffee and we are suppose to have 100 degree pluus days.  Sigh.  Have a great week y'all!

Week 5 of 12: Training for the Hell Creek 20 miler

I didn't take many pictures this week since storms derailed most of my morning runs.  Get ready for some memes that I have found over the week that are very meaningful for the situation we are in right now.  My kiddo starts back to school next week with mask mandates, which I am totally fine with.  Others in our community are having absolute melt downs and claiming religious exemptions.  I hope they understand that those religious exemptions do not protect them from being quarantined every time their unmasked kiddos are exposed this fall.  Heck we are a week away from school and 4 out of the 6 4th grade teachers are already quarantined and will miss the beginning of school including my kiddo's teacher.  You know how I feel.  We are vaccinated, we will wear masks if told to, and we pray for others safety even when they don't want to do the things to keep them safe.  

What I was suppose to do:

Monday:  Rest

Tuesday: 3 miles

Wednesday: 3 miles plus speed

Thursday: Cross train

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 5 miles

Sunday: 3 miles

Monday:  Rest day/Strength. I am an idiot.  Usually I drive my Tahoe to the race track on race day.  Our trailer was at the track overnight,  so I rode with Tony and I took my keys for some odd reason and then left them in his truck.  Of course, he left super early to go meet a client Monday morning.  That meant I was without keys all day and didn't get to the office till late afternoon.  Of course I can work from home but needed to print a million things that day and make phone calls from the work phone.  Oh well, got everything done, and Tony took Andrew to football so I could change gears and lift.  Did dead lifts with 2x10lb plates, back squats with 2x10lb plates, planks, donkey kicks, fire hydrants, walking lunges with a 10lb plate overhead and some incline push ups.  Kept it simple, took around 35 minutes to complete, and was dripping with sweat after.  Little red had a great first practice and was drenched in sweat when he was done.  I have a feeling before this season is over he will be a few lbs lighter and a little bit more in love with the sport of football.  

Tuesday:  3 miles easy or not.  Well, was suppose to be up and running around 6 am and woke up to storms and a splitting headache.  Laid back down to try and get another hour of sleep and got some, but not enough.  Woke up again to try and go back out and still storming and headaching.  Seems to be a common theme lately, storms roll in in the middle of the night, I get a horrible sinus headache in the process.  Unfortunately, I was slammed at work and it was a million degrees out, so no running occurred.  I thought about sneaking out post Andrew's football practice but then I had not eaten so was starving.  

Wednesday:  3 miles easy take 2.  Decided since it was just three I could get up and squeeze it in pre business network meeting.  It was insanely hot, feels like 83 at 6 am, but I just took my time, enjoyed my walk breaks, and got it done.  I did have my first run in my new saucony endorphins.  They are a very aggressive lug, but they felt good on gravel.  The problem is my feet and lower legs are still dealing with the damage the other shoes did that it may take some time to really know if I like these shoes or not.  They do feel much more heavy than any of my previous shoes, so that will take some getting use to.  

Thursday:  Woke up to lightening yet again.  The storm itself was north of here, but we were getting strikes close enough I was not comfortable running.  Woke back up to lightening an hour later.  Finally got away right before work started to get a quick 3 with boom boom.

Friday: I  feel like a broken record.  Woke up to storms all around.  Went back to sleep hoping they would move through and nope, still storming when I got back up an hour later.  Sigh.  Ended up leaving work a little early since I can work 24/7 and from anywhere :) and ran my 3 under some cloudy and humid skies.   Since it was only 3 and there was a ton of water on the gravel thanks to the storms, I brought Boom.  

Saturday:  My long run day called for 5 miles which isn't really a long run in my book, but a cutback week is nice and I will take it :)  The weather had called for cooler temps, so I figured I could sleep in a little since we had a very long night ahead of us at the racetrack.  Woke up to 65 but 93% humidity.  URGH.  The weatherman said the humidity was going to break so I had some coffee and some breakfast and then took off running.  Took boom boom since I knew he would have tons of water to get in on the way.  The crop dusters were out and we had quite the show watching them work on the fields around us.  We took every chance to take a break to cool off in puddles as it wasn't horribly hot, but the humidity was still not great.  I also got a lift session in where i got my front squats in 15 lbs x 2, some deadlifts 25 lbs x 2, some 30 second planks, some single leg balance work, and some kettle bell swings.  

Sunday:  Rest day.  Let me back up.  We had a night race at the track Saturday night.  I have a lot to say but I will leave it at this.  Andrew started well, got wrecked by two of his good friends, completely lost all of his confidence that he had built up, and to top it off, had a horrible wreck while riding a rip rider post race and had to be seen by a medic.  Luckily it wasn't his head he hit, he hit his ribs on the end of a picnic table. I am sure from the wrecks and that he will be super sore for a few days and that football isn't going to be fun this week.  We have some decisions to make about racing and with 4 races left, and I am not sure what they will be.  We could move him up to the Sr classes as he is old enough, but all of those drivers that are currently wrecking him will be in those Sr classes next year.  He has practiced non restricted in his Honda car, but not his Animal car, so we need to get lots of practice in in our already very busy schedule.  Or we could just hang up our hats and be done for the season.  We have put a ton of effort and practice time in this season to only be dealt lots of bad hands.  I would still have to work the tower as it is my obligation, but we could just be done and walk away and maybe try again next year.  Right now what is going on at the track makes me super sad, to see friends at each other's throats every week for what.  Being in the tower allows us to see but not really hear what is going on and it's very appalling what we see.    To have so many friends, adult friends at that in tears last night was just a bit much for me.  I'm incredibly sad and incredibly tired.  This season has just worn me down and honestly I can't wait till it's over.  This use to be my happy place, now I don't even want to go and I can't wait till it's over to get home.  I did get a 10 mile bike ride in but I cried most of the way and talked to my mom on the phone so it was more of a therapy session than a work out.

Monday:  Rest/Strength

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 3 miles plus speed

Thursday: 3 miles

Friday: 3 miles

Saturday: 5 miles/Strength

Sunday: Rest/Bike ride

Have a great week y'all!  We will be busy with football, back to school EEEEK, and race practice.  

Week 4 of 12: Training for the Hell Creek 20 miler

This week was one big hot mess.  With Andrew racing the race cars both weekend days and football practice 3 nights a week, I had to completely blow my schedule out of the water.  

What I was suppose to do:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 5 miles easy

Wednesday: 3 miles easy

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Cross train

Saturday: 9 miles easy

Sunday: 4 miles easy

Monday: 3 easy miles.  I took Stella ella and even with the cooler temps she still struggled a bit and it was hard for me to watch.  Instead of being out front or right behind me, she tucked in fairly early and stayed behind me.  Don't get me wrong, she had a smile on her face every time I checked on her, but I can really tell she is out of shape and running in the slightest bit of humidity is bothering her.  My hope is when fall rolls around that she can run again on shorter runs more regularly, but I am just not sure.  She is really battling allergies right now too, which makes life a little hard.  I just hate seeing her age.  I want her to be my running dog for ever and ever.  

Tuesday: 5 miles.  This one was hard, not because of the temps or the humidity but because despite going to bed early, my brain turned on at 2 something and would not shut off.  I know i got some sort of sleep from 2ish till I finally got up at 5 am to get ready, but how much I did not know. I was very glad that my running partner was super talkative so I could just focus on her and not how tired I was.  I was tempted to bring Stella with the cooler temperatures but opted to just stick with Boom.  

Wednesday: Rest day.  I had thought about getting strength done, but between more days of appointments and the craziness of the phone ringing off the wall (great problem to have, just need more workers), I opted to get in bed early post dinner and get some sleep over heading back to the shop post football.  

Thursday:  4 miles.  I had a horrible night's sleep thanks to my body trying to start my period.  I really wanted a hysterectomy this year and I haven't been blessed with one yet, so I get to battle my body every 28 ish days with horrible cramps and heavy periods.  I am glad once again my running partner was chatty so I could just cruise along and listen to her talk.  It was feels like 72 but a nice breeze was blowing making it kind of feel fall like.  

Friday:  Long run day!  Since I had back to back race car races on the weekend, I wanted to get my long run day done.  I got up at 4 am and fueled and then headed out in the darkness with boom boom.  The moon was so cool, just a tiny red sliver of a moon.  The temps were not bad, there was a coolish wind blowing from the south.  My stomach did not want to cooperate, so I visited the ditch a few times and my uterus wanted in on the party so I had some pretty intense period cramps.  I stopped twice to make sure Boom boom had water and was hydrated.  I finished about 10 lbs lighter :)  

Saturday:  Football equipment check in and race day!  See Sunday's paragraph.

Sunday:  Race day!  Two days of racing.  I am exhausted and I am sure he is too.  I have a lot to say about the weekend, like lots, but I will keep it short and simple.  I am not happy with several of my fellow parents, but they aren't going to change and it is probably going to get way worse before it gets better.  I have never wanted to quit a volunteer job more than now.  It has never been this bad in the three years we have raced.  Andrew had some great starts, raced hard, and lead some laps this weekend and to that I am very proud.  He played hard both inside and outside, made some new friends, and learned some things. Again, I could probably write a whole post but I will just be like Elsa and try to "Let it go".  

What I did:

Monday: 3 easy miles

Tuesday: 5 miles easy

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 4 miles

Friday: 9 miles

Saturday: Rest/Race car racing

Sunday: Rest/Race car racing

We have a sort of cut back week this week which is nice since temps will be back in the 100s with horrible humidity.  We have speed work added in, probably will do some fartleks for that.  Have a great week y'all!

Week 3 of 12: Training for the Hell Creek 20 miler

 How about a week of 100 degree temperatures and oppressive humidity?  Yes please (NONONONO)!

What I was suppose to do:

Monday:  Rest 

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: 4 miles

Thursday: Cross Train

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 7 miles

Sunday: 3 miles

Monday:  Rest/Strength.  As always, kept it super simple but added another exercise to my list.  I did front squats and dead lifts with 15 lb plates, side planks for 30 seconds, on the wall push ups since I am starting from scratch with those, and walking lunges with a 10 lb plate overhead.  I was dripping with sweat post those simple exercises, 4 rounds of 10 each or 30 second holds.  

Tuesday:  4 mile run.  Even at 6 am it was horribly humid, around 96%. I had hoped the whole start right around sun rise would help us but it really didn't.  It was a tough call whether or not to take the dogs as it was right on the line as far as the dewpoint at 69.  I think all of our dogs have been driving us NUTS not getting to run so we went with the idea that we would call Robin's hubby or turn around and go home if needed.  

Wednesday:  Total rest day.

Thursday:  4 easy miles.  In the horrible heat and humidity.  Which is not easy ever.  Left at 6 am as it was suppose to be the coolest it was going to be all day and by coolest I mean 76 and 81% humidity that felt like 100% humidity.  My running partner and I both got sick to our stomachs and i had to visit a ditch and she had to stop and do some deep breathing to keep from throwing up.  We didn't take the dogs at all since it was so horrible out and I am so glad we made that decision.  

Friday:  Rest/Strength training.  I kept it simple again with front squats (10lbs plates), 30 second regular planks, deads (20 lb plates), incline push ups, and some kettle bell swings. I  do need heavier kettle bells and plan on ordering some soon as a reward for sticking with my lifting :)  

 

Saturday:  Rest day/Day trip.  I had 3 miles on tap and Robin and I had planned on getting up super early to head out and beat the sun.  The heat was unbearable, even at 5 something it was feels like 88.  I told Robin that we should just tack the 3 miles on the long run and do 10 and she agreed.  The heat was suppose to break Sunday and be a little more manageable.  We had bought tickets to the Cosmosphere in Hutch including the simulator, the planetarium, Dr. Goddard's lab, and  the IMAX dome theater.  We got on the road and headed that way for a fun filled and even ran into one of our track families.  My favorite part was the planetarium followed by the science lab because I am a science and star nerd.  Andrew loved building paper rockets and launching them to the moon, and Tony loved the flight simulator (which made my stomach do flips).  Andrew didn't spend much time reading exhibits which is also a favorite part for me, but did slow down and look at a few cool things.  

We had planned on stopping and having pizza on our way home and also some yummy beers at a local brewery.  We stopped at the brewery first and had a few tasty brews and marveled at the beauty of the old building they had re modeled.  Salt City Brewery was the name and it was in down town Hutch.  They even had a brewery dog!!!!!!  I think Stella missed her calling!

While the brewery was a big hit, both pizza places were a bust :(  One was in a tiny town and did not look like a nice place to eat and the other we waited for over an hour and finally got our pizzas as we were leaving.  I was so tired I was fighting sleep and told Tony just to pay our tab and tell them to donate our pizzas to someone who needed them.  I had one slice in the car and it was NOT good and NOT worth the over an hour wait.  Sigh.  I had indigestion the rest of the night from that one piece.

Sunday:  10 mile (7+3)  I was up all night with indigestion and also being slightly hungry since I didn't really eat dinner.  When my alarm went off at 5 am I knew I needed more sleep.  Robin and i were going to be splitting up runs as she had plans and needed to start super early.  I was going to try and get some with her, but without sleep I knew that was not going to make me very successful.  I told her to get what she wanted and I would go out later.  I knew I would be gambling, the temp was going to be manageable but I was hoping if I went out later I could battle the sun and NOT the humidity.  I was sort of right, the humidity had dropped when the sun came up BUT it was quickly getting hot.  I brought Boom but around mile 4 I went ahead and called Tony to come and pick him up just in case.  I did the rest solo other than a crop duster that kept coming back to the air port to refuel.  Post running we headed out to the track to get some practice in before next week's two day show.  We FINALLY saw the numbers we knew he was capable of on the micron for lap times AND we know he can go even faster as the track was a little cooler.  SO exciting to finally walk away from practice with big smiles instead of frustration.

What I got done this week:

Monday: Rest and strength

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday:  Rest day

Thursday: 4 miles

Friday: rest and strength

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 10 miles

Have a great week y'all!  Football starts this week (big gulp) and we have a saturday/sunday race.  Pray for me :)