The Real Week 4: Training for the Rockin K Trail Marathon

Oh cut back week, how I am going to enjoy thee!  My last coach for several years didn't do cut back weeks, and I am glad to have programmed myself one every 4 weeks of my training plan.  I am going to thoroughly enjoy every single easy run!  I did find some facts that said you don't want less than 20% of the week before, so I had to do some tweaking to get my mileage up a little bit.  Kind of nice to build, build, build and then ahhhh.

Not sure who to give credit for this but it is SO true. I HATE the assault bike!

Monday:  Cross Fit day!  We continued our back squat series.  I totally biffed it though and did not pay attention to the percentages we were doing on the app, so my spreadsheet was slightly off.  I improvised and totally found myself with a back squat PR!!!!  On my 95% I was at 78 lbs and it felt okay, so I went with it.  That meant we had to re-figure my whole back squat percentages for next time, GULP.  Our WOD was row for 30 seconds as hard as you could, rest 30, as many as possible burpee box jump overs in 30 seconds, and rest for 30 seconds.  I think we did 5 rounds for 10 minutes total.  It was hard but fun.  My knee was NOT super happy with the jump overs, so I had to make sure I was landing as much as possible on my left leg.  Kind of glad I grabbed my bondis that morning with all the extra cushion.  May not be great for lifting, but perfect for the concussion of jumping off of a box.

Tuesday:  Easy run and massage....ahhhhhh.  5 miles and it was oh so cold.  I was not dressed really well enough.  I needed my thicker gloves and i guess I needed my running skirt to help with the wind on my thighs and butt.  I also really needed a hat instead of just something on my ears, but luckily my buff took care of that.  I had frozen eye lashes for most of the run.  I also had to pee three times, so I was hoping i wasn't getting frost bite on my bum!  Took me a while to warm back up post run, and was very grateful that Trina's table was heated.  I could have just stayed there all day!  She worked on my feet that have been bothering me on and off and really worked on both quads to keep both knees a little happier. I think at one point i had cups all over my body!  I love those little cups, so much pain at the time, but so much less pain later!  I left feeling very tingly and happy.  Seriously, if you want a good all body massage, check out Trina at Rising Phoenix Wellness over by paramour coffee in Wamego.  She is amazing person and an even better massage artist!

this is our driving on ice faces, expect Tony is driving!

Wednesday:  Cross Fit.  As always, today is dead lift day.  The WOD looked a little cray cray on the app, so I decided to give it a chance and hope for some semblance of scaling when I got there.  Once I figured everything out, we were good, but the first round I was kind of a mess.  The WOD was E2M with hand stand walks for 10 meters  (i scaled to walking on the wall), Toes to bar x 12 (I scaled to knees up on the bar) + 30 seconds of ring rests (kind of like holding a plank, but on the rings), and then 8  bent over rows using the bar and as much weight as you could get through 8 with (i did 20 in plates + bar).  I kept getting confused and jumping the gun going to the next thing, but I got it done.  Then I had to drive home, on ice, freaking out the whole way.  They had predicted some freezing rain that day, but it wasn't doing anything when I got up to go to the gym. When I got done however, my windshield was covered in ice and i had to drive all the way back to Wamego (12 miles but it takes about 20 or so minutes) going about 35-45 mph.  Luckily, most of the traffic is going the other way in the morning, so I didn't have to worry about slowing down anyone else or getting hit since I was going so slow.  As soon as I got home, school was canceled.  I am SO over ICE!!!!  I still had to venture out later to get my yearly mammogram, so the whole fam got to come and little man got surprised with a flu shot.  He pretty much hated me afterwards, but then he admitted that it really wasn't that bad.

Thursday:  Easy run on the dreadmill.  I knew post the ice storm we had the night before (there was thunder, ice, sleet, snow, and lightening!) that there was NO way I was going to run outside.  Everything was coated in a very light sheet of ice and school was out yet again.  I am really glad our school system was proactive with this storm, but of course I can do my job for Coleman Electric at home thanks to me being so mobile now.    Five miles and 63 minutes and 31 seconds later, I stuffed my poor brain back in my head and got on with the day.  I really, really hope I don't have to do anymore runs this week on the mill, but I suspect it might happen.  We have more snow and ice predicted :(

Since this was snow day # 2, we spent the rest of the day building legos, practicing wrestling moves, and cleaning with a little bit of computer work thrown in. I generally avoid cleaning specifically toilets and dusting, and I did both.  I tackled a few projects I had been putting off, like cleaning out a lawman's book case that we are going to bring to the shop and taking everything off of our big book shelf and dusting every.single.thing.  Let's see how long it will last with 3 dogs and 1 kiddo!   

the view from my mill.  If you open the windows you look right at the side of my neighbor's house or our backyard

Friday:  REST DAY.  Okay since this is rest day a few things to share.  I am down 7 lbs since January 1st!  I can really tell it more by the way my clothes are fitting and how my body shape has changed.  Of course the first fat to go was my boobs, not funny body!!!!  I am just food logging on myfitness pal app, trying to stay under my calorie goal for the day, and trying ever so hard to hit my macros.  Calories are pretty easy, macros are not!!!  I get close every day, but always higher on fat and lower on protein than I need to be.  I have also started using CBD oil and am really happy thus far with the results.  I put it on the bottoms of my feet every night and I have noticed a HUGE difference with my PF.  Now, that could be from the cross fit i am doing or it could be from the oil, but I don't care, my feet feel one thousand times better now! I get my CBD oil locally, and it is third party tested for the correct amounts of CBD and it is THC free.

Saturday:  Wrestling tournament day!  I moved my longish run to sunday.  Overall we had three matches wrestled, and he won one by pin, one by forfeit and lost the other two.  The first was against a team mate that i have never met and he kind of gave up(boo).  The second was against a kid that usually pins him in the first 5 seconds of the match and he lasted 20 seconds, which is a win against this kid in my book.  Third was his FIRST pin and I was over the moon happy with how he ran a half, pushed the kid over and settled!  I always write a blog about the day so if you are interested, check it out!  After the tourny I headed out for a quick 5 with stella ella. Once again I miss judged the temp and was a little chilly.   Glad I had my buff on my neck, so I could at least cover my ears with it.  I swear it felt like the temp dropped during my run but i didn't check it before we went so can't say for sure. 

Sunday:  Longish run.  Yeah cutback week!  Only 8 miles on the books.  I had originally planned to hit up Clinton with Teri and saw all of the trail hawk's posts about how bad the trail was.  We tried to figure out an alternative, but if one trail is bad, they are all probably bad.  We woke up to a glazing of ice. I decided to wait till later in hopes that most if not all of the ice would be melted by afternoon.  Lucky for us the ice was only bad in a few spots on the gravel where it is shaded and the mud wasn't horrible.  I stuck to my 4:1 run walk ratios (WHICH I LOVE) and felt great.  That was probably the first run in a few weeks where nothing hurt and i could just run. 

As always I am linking up for the Weekly wrap with HoHo runs and Wendy at Taking the long Way home.  Check out the amazing bloggers that link up, I have found some new favorites for sure!