Week 14 of 24: Training for the Running Amok 50 miler

Just 10 more weeks now before show time!  We have our hotel booked, now just need to finalize my traveling plans to Tennessee and make some gear decisions.  Mom also wants me to write something up for my "crew" so I need to put pen to paper and do that. I am a bit wordy this week so bare with me.  Lots to process and think about.

Monday:   Rest day.   I should give an Elvis update.  Elvis is still sleeping in the crate at night and any time he can't be supervised, but we are slowly letting him be out more and more.  The biggest issue right now is litter box access for him and not for the dogs to get kitty crunchies.  With our last cat, we put the litter box in the basement because the dogs refuse to go down the steps to the basement and the cat had no issues.  I feel like Elvis is still too little to be going up and down those crazy steep stairs.  Plus, there are crawl spaces under the house accessible in the basement and while sparky i am sure went in there exploring, if he got under there and got stuck or scared, we would not be able to go in and get him.  For now he is just going to have to have some crate time till we can figure out a solution.

Tuesday:  12 miles.  Okay this one was tough just because I had to plan around getting Andrew to school.  At my pace with the run walk intervals, I can typically get 10 miles in before school drop off with the help of my hubby to get him up and dressed.  Had time to make his lunch and fill up his water bottle and then we walked to school.  I took stella for my 10 and then traded out and Boom boom did 2.  Well, we did more than 2 because I didn't take into account that we left from the school to get our first mile and didn't turn around quick enough.  OH well, he was running like a champ and honestly I didn't want to stop him!  He needs to expend energy some way and running is going to be perfect for him! I am so excited to get him trained up. He is a bit sniffy/marky but when we go out on the gravel, this seems to get better and he focuses in on the job.

We also had our house appraised finally.  We are trying to refinance and i was pretty worried about this step.  Our house has always had major issues and we are slowly but surely addressing them and honestly have been since we moved in.  Our banker needed the house to be at a certain level for the best rates.  We cleaned, we rearranged, we fretted, and in the end she barely looked at anything.  She made a list of updates and there were lots.  I think this will help us FINALLY  get the flooring done in the bedroom and we are going to go look at options this weekend.  One of our electricians also does contracting so he is going to lay the floor for us and then help us with the water damage issues we have.  Then it's on to refinishing our hardwood (AGAIN) and trim!  Maybe we can finally just enjoy the house we live in, especially if our loan is shorter and cheaper!

We also had back to school night/meet the teacher.  While we didn't get to do a long talk with his teacher, she already brought up his focus and his inability to get work done during the allotted time at school.  She said she was not a fan of home work, but that he always needed extra time so he would probably be bringing a lot home.  I can't remember if I talked about it before but the networking group that we are a part of with our business has a functional medicine dr in it that takes patients that are ADD or ADHD and helps them retrain their brain without meds.  I think this will be our next step and am going to call and get a consultation asap.  I can't take yet another year of bad reports and i don't want him to get behind.  He will be working with a reading tutor already and I imagine will be in the special reading program again, which I am all for.

Wednesday:  6 miles of hills or speed.  Since i haven't done hill work in a while, decided to just run on the hilly paved streets west of town.  I woke up not feeling 100%.  All day the day before I had a tickle in my throat and kind of wanted to cough.  When I woke up it was all intensified x 1000.  No fever though.  I had hoped running would maybe clear things out.  I headed out on 6th street to get the most hills I could.  Y'all, I thought my gravel was dark but boy that road is SUPER dark.  I had to use my cell phone again and all of my reflective gear to make sure no one ran over us.  I tried to run up every single hill and felt really strong despite the crud.  I really really need to look into a new more powerful headlamp and also possibly one of those that goes around your waist.  IF you have any suggestions let me know!

this kid cracks me up

Thursday:  10 miles.  Had a rough night sleeping, not sure why.  It was a combo of my monthly friend, too much on my mind, and everyone laying literally on top of me in our bed.  I got up around 10 to take some melatonin but it felt like it did nothing.  I know I got some sleep, but I felt like I drifted in and out all night.  I decided to reset my clock and not get up and run at 4 am.  Then I heard the weather report, triple digits and possibly storms later.  Sigh. I could either be late for work and run or move my run till Friday and do three in a row.  I decided to wait.  I was hoping one day of rest would make me feel better.

our poor city park windmill got demolished thanks to the storm

Friday:  After a long night of storms and little sleep due to coughing, I decided getting up at 4 am and make a decision about running.  Not being able to see the full extent of the damage of the storms and 90 mph winds, I decided to sleep more and possibly run later post work.  My great running friend Cindy reminded me that making up miles was probably not the best idea and after coughing my guts up most of the day even after taking musinex, I decided she was right.  It makes me sad, I was pumped for a super high mileage week and my body was betraying me. I tried to get an early bed time at the boys went to the track to practice racing, but every time i tried laying down, my body would instantly send me into a coughing fit.  I tried ice packs, heating pads, cough drops, cough medicine, advil, 5 pillows, sleeping sitting up, and NOTHING was working.  I finally drifted off around 2 am but was up at 6:30 am coughing again.

practicing with friends

Saturday:  Long run day?  See Friday night above.  After little to no sleep and coughing most of the night, I decided a long run was not a great idea.  I needed to do science anyway at KSU, so got ready and headed into town. I  had about 5 hours worth of work to do and campus was quiet since it was a holiday and most of the students had gone home for the weekend.  I went to Target post working and tried buying a few different cough medicines including some NyQuil hoping something would work.  Spoiler alert, it did not. 

Sunday:  Repeat of Saturday and Friday.  Tried to lay down or should i say recline on 5 pillows.  Coughing started in earnest as soon as my body went great than 90 degrees.  I hacked and coughed despite a hit of NyQuil till around 2 am when I finally just collapsed in exhaustion. If I don't get sleep soon, I am never going to get well. 

Not the week I had planned on but oh well, life.  Let's just hope i can kick this mess to the curb so I can get some running done this coming week pre marathon. I  am sure a few missed runs won't hurt at all, I just wanted some time on my feet before the big day.  Have a great week!