Recovery week # 2

Another week of recovery.  Wrestling starts this week and I can't wait to see all of my favorite wrestling parents!  Enjoy some random photos from the week.

I forgot to mention in all of my recaps that I did do something new to me, during a race, which is a big no no.  I have never had painkillers during a race, but I know many who do take advil or Tylenol during races.  I try to stay away from anything in pill form, but sometimes, you just have to try. I had read a race recap of a blogger I follow and she pretty religiously on race day pops pills.  My mom had advil just in case, but I had not planned on using it.  Suddenly in loop 2, I got some weird aches and pains.  My groin started hurting and my lower back started aching.  I decided to go against the nothing new rule and try a round and see what could happen.  I am happy to say that it totally helped me and my aches and pains went away, and that even though I continued to use them throughout the day every 4 hours, I had no ill effects from them at all.  Whether the help was a placebo effect or real, I am not sure and I totally advise you to try any type of painkillers in practice versus a race for the first time to make sure you suffer no ill effects.  I also in no way recommend taking pain killers during a race of any kind because you need to do what is best and right for you, and in this case i was lucky that it worked.  Will I try it again during a race?  Maybe.

I did try and power walk with the girls Monday during practice.  This was their last big work out pre 5K and I wanted to be there more than just a cheerleader.  I tried power walking and my body said "uh, nope!".  I settled for an almost power walk and had several girls hang with me throughout the run.  I have scheduled a massage and I am hoping that helps with the tightness I am still feeling.  My energy levels are much better, but still not where i want them to be.  Probably does not help I started my period a few days into recovery either.

As the week went on, the desire to run got greater and greater. I decided to try on Saturday with a super duper easy 4 miler.  I warned Robin I had no clue how fast or far I could go, and that would entirely depend on my body.  I was winded, a little sore, and super slow, but I felt like going 4 miles and I did.  Stella was SUPER happy to be back out, sprinting back and forth from me to robin and ebby, and barking and biting me when my watch beeped.  She was even super sassy when I tried to sit down and get a selfie of us.

I was SO glad to be out, even if it was for a little bit.  You don't realize how much running is a stress relief until you don't do it for two weeks.  

I went again on Sunday for a very short distance.  I decided to be brave and take both Boom and Stella.  While they both pulled like sled dogs and went way faster than I wanted, I was able to let Stella off for a while to relieve the pulling power.  Not brave enough to let them both off yet.  I wanted to do another 4 miler, but I listened to my body which quickly told me 1.5 turn around 1.5 back was the best plan.  I wanted to be able to run with the girls on Monday for Girls on the Run anyway, so short run was perfect.  

Last week of official recovery in the books.  Training doesn't start till mid December, so going to continue to keep it light, slow, and cautious.  I have a massage coming up and I have several issues to address that I hope she can make a little better.  My lower back has started bothering me again and I don't like that.  I also have several options when it comes to working out/lifting and I need to get back to that.  I know Crossfit/lifting is what gave me a phenomenal year in training so I need to get back to it!  Have a great week!

Recovery week #1

I am honestly enjoying recovering and not missing running....yet.  I am sure I will start itching to run next week, but my body has made it very clear that running is not in the cards right now.  I am happy to oblige it and be a little lazy.  I really enjoyed being pampered and resting at my parent's house, but was also ready to get back into the swing of family life and see my kiddo and hubby and other red pups.  I drove back on Wednesday thinking my body was recovered enough and boy was I wrong. I tried to make good time, stopping twice for gas only and getting right back in and going as soon as i could, and that really made me tighten up and be sore for a few days.  Of course little man loves our walks to school, so even though I really didn't want to walk, we did Thursday and Friday and I am sure that helped loosen some stuff up.

My toe has been a saga I was posting on FB till I got some comments that made me stop. I  wasn't posting the pics in the post, more in the comments, but you know people still don't like seeing that come up.  Anyway, I initially thought that I had broken my toe due to the bruising around the nail bed, but there ended up being a blister under the nail.  I was not brave enough to poke a hole through the nail, but I was brave enough to puncture the blister once it poked up the edge of my nail.  I have now punctured and drained it three separate times.  It doesn't really hurt as bad, just the dogs have a knack for stomping on it any chance they get.  The nail bed and surrounding skin around my nail is still pretty bruised, but the swelling has gone down now, and as long as I don't wear a sock, I can wear my normal shoes to work and about.

probably going to gain 10 lbs during recovery but #don'tcare

I coached Girls on the Run on Thursday but did not run, not even close. I cheered the girls on at the top of the hill and that was good enough.  I am trying NOT to get sick but half of them were coughing their guts up and or had sore throats.  Apparently strep is going around at one school and a stomach virus is going around another, so I am praying and taking vitamin C because I know my immune system is beat up.

My "you did a hard thing here's a present to yourself" present. I had noticed several people running with this vest at other races, including Jackie that I  paced at the 100 mile race, and I had serious pocket envy.  I had the tab to Solomon up on my laptop forever and had decided that even though this would mean new bottles and a new bladder, that it was worth it.  This thing is the mecca of pockets and I can't wait to have it. My only concern is fit.  I hope i sized it right, but of course right after I hit the buy now button I saw a post on FB about sizing up.  Whoops.  I should get it Monday, so I will keep you posted.  

Andrew's 2nd grad picture.  I wish I took this good of pictures when I was a kid!

The weekend ended up with some serious cleaning and re organizing.  Since I couldn't and didn't really want to run, I used that energy to get some cleaning done.  We got the deck ready for snow/re arranged and cleaned, cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom getting rid of a bunch of stuff we don't use, and tried to organize the dining room table/craft table/lego creation center.  I took two big bags to the downtown thrift store and have more to give to friends.  If anyone has any great suggestions on how to organize legos I am all ears.  He currently has a lego table in his room that is covered, several of those three shelved drawers full of legos, our kitchen table has legos and he of course wants more legos for Christmas.  I feel like our house went from toy trains and Thomas stuff to lego stuff and honestly I think the Thomas stuff was waaayyyy easier to deal with!  I do love the creativity that they inspire and I love the fact that not only does he make the kits that he buys but then he destroys it and remakes without the instructions some times or just takes the pieces and makes something else entirely.  In a world full of screen time, I will take lego mess any day of the week!

Have a great week everyone!  I will more than likely take another week off next week and just walk and recover and maybe bike if the wind isn't blowing 100 mph.  Stay warm and enjoy the weather were ever you are! 

Run Amok 50 miler: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Alrighty, get ready for another the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Again as with my other recaps this this year, most everything fell into the good category.  This year really has been a dream year for me for training and racing, and I am SO grateful that things are working for me as I venture into longer distances and more technical trails.

Good:  Organization and crew.  Mom I think was a little nervous as she has never really crewed my races or been at my big trail races but she and my cousin Elane did a WONDERFUL job of keeping me fed, happy, and dressed properly.  Mom and I spent a day with all of my gear spread out figuring out the most logical way to organize that made sense to us.  We only misplaced one thing (my watch charging cord) but after a brief minute or two of searching, mom remembered where it was.  Next time we will make sure it's in the crew box.  Even though the main aid station was less than 100 feet away from our crew tent, Mom cooked me broth and made me nutella tortillas to consume.  She also quickly spread my honey stinger waffles out in the sun, as the first two I tried to eat were frozen and hard as rocks.  She also was good about helping me find any hot spots and lubing those up.  She also had my bottles pre filled according to what I thought I might want the next loop, and her and Elane quickly filled my packs.  I was probably only at her aid station for a few minutes at a time and that was good practice for when I do a race with cutoffs.  I think i probably was only grumpy runner once when they were all videoing me instead of taking my pack from me as I ran in.  Mom got some of that on tape:)

note:  not food I got to eat, food my crew ate at the Friendsgiving dinner

Good:  Nutrition.  I liked my plan and honestly I think it would have continued to work if I had been running longer.  I think my brain knew I only had a a little over an hour to go, so technically i didn't need to force anything down.  If you didn't read my recap, I ate something small every 30 minutes.  I broke my Honey stinger waffles into halves and ate a half every 30 minutes plus every time I hit the aid station going into the 4.5 mile loop and the crew tent, I ate something as well.  I also carried Tailwind every other loop and tried to get through each bottle during that time.  I didn't have any teeth sensitivity issues this time, but I think in the future I will brush with sensitive toothpaste the week before the race and also bring a toothbrush/toothpaste to the race just in case.

Good:  Pace.  I think most of my 6.5 mile loops took me around 1 hour 45 minutes.  I had one loop that went a bit long because I paused for blister prevention, and then I had one loop where I pretty much power walked as fast as I could the entire loop.  I will being doing a race with a cut off next, so I will have to maintain a certain pace the entire time  The good news, it is not technical and while hilly, it's all gravel roads and I can do my 4 minute run 1 minute walk and try to do a better job of pacing.  The technical part of the race was right at the beginning and end was tough mentally for me and I will be happy to not have technical as part of the equation.

Bad: I got my first really big blister during the race which we did attack quickly, but also resulted in a new very big puffy fluid filled blister.   I am very glad the RD took the time to tape me up as I truly felt that the original one could have affected my race negatively.  I have NO clue why suddenly the shoe and sock model that i have worn for multiple training cycles caused blisters, but they did. The trail was technical at the beginning and the end, but mostly nice runnable trail.

Ugly:  My right big toe looks horrendous. I have NEVER lost a toe nail due to a race, so again I am stumped. I  don't remember a specific incident that cause my toe to start hurting, but towards the end, I was sure my toe nail was off of my toe and poking me in said toe.  When we took my sock off post race, the toe nail was still attached but the nail bed was and is severely bruised and swollen.  Time will tell if the nail will fall off but I think it probably will.  I just need it to heal so I can wear shoes and socks again because it is winter.

Once again mostly if not all good for this race.  I had prayed for an injury free training cycle and an injury free race and my prayers have been answered.  Honestly, for my next 50 miler, I am not going to change anything.  The next one will be a bit different with the loop being 25 miles versus 6, but there will be 5 aid stations on each loop and I have already told mom she has to help crew me and that Tony can drive her to the crew points.  We will have to figure out how to do broth on the go, but other than that I think we have a good idea of what we need to do.  Excited to have some down time before starting to run again and excited to try a different training plan with slightly lower mileage.  Onward and upward and more good, good, good!

Run Amok 50 mile race recap

Okay grab a cold one, get comfortable, and get ready for lots of pictures.  I instructed my cousin and mom to take as many pics and videos as possible, as I was worried about using my phone too much since it is SO sensitive to cold and dies quickly.  Here goes the recap starting with packet pick up.

So remember we checked into our dog friendly hotel about 20 minutes away Friday afternoon.  Well, it was 9 miles but 20 minutes away from packet pick up due to having to drive on a very windy country highway (cue my vehicle motion sickness).  Packet pick up was very low key.  Basically I was handed my hoodie and my bib and we went to set up our crew tent area.  We noticed others were already setting up, so we figured we could as well.  Very jealous of the people with the cool tent lights.  Next year for sure!  There was a pasta dinner starting at 6 pm, but we were going to go eat just ourselves somewhere else.

Who can resist a good photo opp?

For my birthday mom had gotten me a purple pop up tent to use at the track at Andrew's races, so we made use of it and got it set up with our table, chairs, and cooler for the next day.  

crew site

After set up we headed into town to eat at Cracker Barrel and make a Walmart trip for sheets to go over our white comforters at the hotel.  Again, who has white pretty comforters on dog friendly beds???

Harrison Bay

The Awesomesauce group was having a pasta dinner and many people had rented cabins on site for the night.  It got way below freezing so I feel kind of bad for those who stayed on site.  Post dinner we headed back to the hotel to set out flat Michelle and then try and get some sleep.  

Flat michelle and not so flat stella

Usually I have no problems sleeping but a) we had no fan and the temp was controlled by a fancy thermostat so no way to make it override and run all night and b) my mom and my cousin are quite the accomplished snorers.  I think even with melatonin on board, I got 4 hours of sleep, but my watch said 2.  At least I had had several other nights of good sleep to compensate.

not good that i look this tired and the race hasn't started

We were up at 5:30 am to get showers and head out to the race site.  The race started at 8:00 am with many distances starting together and then many other distances starting later in the day, night, and next day.

RD Courtney giving us runners the low down

 The race director explained how we were to do laps, get our bibs marked for each lap, and the course in general.  The course started in the campground before dumping onto a technical section with hills and rocks and tree roots GALORE.  This section then had a brief road section before dumping into a clearing that was hilly grass covering rocks.  This lead to another road section and a giant hill up to the main trail which was a four and a half mile circle around the bay.  You could go either way upon entering the washing machine as they called it.  There were two aid stations, at the start finish where you got your bib marked and at around mile 1ish before you got to the lollipop or the washer.  I had to complete 7 laps plus a marked out and back for my 50 miles.

getting instructions with my cousin Elane

We headed out a little after 8 am to start our laps. We had been told that this was a record breaking number of entries and we could tell as we dropped onto the trail.  

Me starting at the back to be courteous

I got behind many, many walkers (this is a very walker friendly course which is awesome, just new to me) and had to wait until I could get to the road section to pass.  This meant a very long conga line and a very antsy Stella who wanted to pull me to my death by rock to the face.

part of the road section looking at the boats and fog lifting

 It seems that most people started counter clock wise on the lollipop/washer part of the course, but Stella and I chose clockwise and stayed that way till the end when we had to go right to find the turn around. 

the lollipop or washer section

 Lap 1 I was just annoyed.  Constantly having to get off of the trail to let people by, walking on my 1 minute walk breaks and having people pass and then passing them back on my 4 minute runs, as well as talking to runners who wouldn't talk back (ear buds in maybe?).  I have always been taught to say something to each runner that passes, even if it is just a hello, but many people were concentrating or in their own heads and didn't reply.  I did meet MANY very friendly runners throughout the day that gave Stella lots of love. 

flat non technical part of the trail that leads to the lollipop

Lap 2 was much better, less people, starting to see the same people so we could say hi.  Enjoyed the many funny signs and stuffed animals randomly placed on the course.  The course was such a nice mix of technical, hilly, flat and easy, road, and hard that it was refreshing and my body liked it till the end.  

boardwalk section

There were a few bridges and a short boardwalk section that apparently was paid for by race entries. Much of the proceeds from the race go directly back to the park for improvements which I think is awesome!

one of the many awesome signs that made me laugh all day and night

My main concern was with my ability to eat consistently, not have stomach issues, and NOT have teeth issues so I could chew in the later miles.  For this reason, I decided to be sparing on the Tailwind and to mainly fuel with Honey Stinger waffles.  ALSO, every time I came to the crew tent or the aid station, I wanted to eat something.  I broke my waffles in half so that every thirty minutes I could eat one of those and my favorite aid station foods included pretzels, BACON, and Halloween candy in the form of chocolate which I ate every time I passed whether I was hungry or not.   

the rocky section that went on for a while that reminded me of Clinton lake white trail

I had my jolly ranchers as well, but tried not to use them to spare my teeth, since they seem to go rogue when I have too much sugar in my mouth.  I am proud to say that up until my last out and back, my tummy behaved and I was able to keep something going every 30 minutes.  

heading out to the trail

Lap 3, 4, and 5 went well with my crew firing on all pistons.  Every time I came through the camp ground I would go get my bib marked and then head to the crew tent to eat, be lubed up, and change clothes if needed. I  had on heavy tights, a winter running shirt and my running jacket with gloves, my buff, my gaiters, and my pack.  I quickly shed my jacket and did a lap with just my heavier shirt, then switched that out for a lighter shirt next lap.  I never did change my tights, and I was fine that way.  I ended up pushing up my sleeves for a while in my lighter long sleeved shirt, but was other wise fine.  My crew quickly re filled my pack with waffles, helped me attack any hot spots that were coming up around my sports bra area, and fed me whatever I needed or sent me with food.  Nutella on tortillas is amazing and I glad we brought it with. I figured out real quickly that I needed to not eat the whole thing though after I downed one and then got a slight side stitch.  I was alternating laps with Tailwind versus regular water in my pack.  That way I wasn't carrying two bottles and making my pack too heavy.  Stella had her normal portable bowl of water in my pack, but after the first lap they had her one waiting at the aid station and mom had her one at the tent.  

tree roots!

I had two issues with the course and I mean issues that made things challenging, which also makes things fun.  First of all tree roots. I kicked SO many roots that I am pretty sure my right big toe is broken and or I will loose my big toe nail on that foot.  The other challenge was that the most technical part was the beginning/end.  I didn't really have a set in stone time goal as my main goal was to finish, but i had secretly thought a 12 hour was possible, especially when I was at 6 hours and some change at the half way point in my mileage.   

another great sign

Spoiler alert, that time goal did not happen, but I am still okay with that.  The VERY nice ranger staff at Harrison Bay had actually gone out on the course and blown the leaves off so you could see the trail/roots/rocks.  HOW nice is that?  

this made me sing Hukuna Matata every time I passed it

As it got dark, things changed for me mentally.  I started to feel a bit alone and scared out on the trail by myself. I was VERY glad Stella was with me, but it was still lonely. I decided to start listening to podcasts at that point to stay awake and going forward.  I had tried to use my phone sparingly to save battery and to keep it out of the cold.  At this point I needed it and we had portable batteries for charging if needed.  I started with one podcast and just couldn't get into it so changed to Another Mother Runner with Dave McGillary and was very inspired.  

We saw SO many deer

The runners were fewer and far between and harder to see who was who with our head lamps on.  At this point we were all power walking most of the course.  Most of the marathoners were finished, so it was just our 50 milers and 100 milers left.  I had two laps in the dark and they were tough.  I have SO much respect for 100 milers who run through the night and without pacers.  I also know that for now and for a while I do not want to do a 100 miler at all :)

I have to do what?

It wasn't long till I was getting done with my last lap and heading back out for the out and back.  OF course you have to do the most technical part of the course again, which mentally was challenging.  I had been power walking pretty fast on the last lap, but on this lap, my legs decided they were done with up and down motions.  I was fine on the flat, but any other time I was dying.  Stella was still steadily pulling and I am so glad I had her to steady me and help me.  Not going to lie, was pretty freaked out in my tired brain about missing the sign.  Apparently we had to go back out on the trail and look for a sign not stuck in the ground, but up in a tree to tell us where to turn around.  It was on the side of the trail I had not been starting with, so I had NOT seen it up until that point.  Lucky for me, one of the ladies I had been running with/near was coming back from her out and back and she told me where the sign was.  I was SO glad to see that sign and turn around and Stella knew we were heading back out and started pulling like a mad woman.  My legs were so done and she so wanted us to run, but I just couldn't.  We got lots of high fives and congrats as we headed back from 100 milers heading back out to keep going.  They are so brave and awesome.  

I managed to at least run into the finish (it was down hill so a little easier than normal).  I always think oh I am going to cry or whatever and I never do, I just finish and go on.  There were two runners ahead of me, 100 milers who made everyone get up and ring the cowbells and hoop and hollar for me.  They were so awesome but i didn't cry. I think I was too tired LOL!  Mom and Elane had already packed up our tent site and had the van running and warm for me.  We decided not to stick around in the cold but get me to a hot shower.  My body always starts it's weird temp regulation issues right after I get done, so I was shaking pretty badly and ready for a hot shower.  

The hotel shower was awesome, but I could NOT sleep post shower.  I was wide awake till at least 3 am and got lots of FB time. Your welcome for my sappy posts.  I also got water on my finisher's award and it made the colors bleed, but we think it gave it character.  I am really glad I found this little race.  The RD was amazing just as everyone had said and helped me with a blister that was on my foot. I have never had blisters and I have a giant one now from the tape BUT the one that was hurting quit so I call that a win.  She was very encouraging and welcoming of Stella and I appreciate that.  This race is SUPER low key.  There is NO chip timing.  They depend on you to be honest.  They have someone at the start finish to mark your bib but if they aren't there you can do it yourself.  There are NO time limits.  You finish when you finish.  Many of the 100 milers walk the entire thing.  I think that is awesome!!!!  Even tonight as I type this people are still out on the course running.  Plus they had a pasta feed for packet pick up, thanksgiving dinner Saturday night that my crew got to eat at, and they had breakfast both days.  They really are AWESOMESAUCE!

a very tired but smiling Stella

Stella was fine the entire race and maybe only did the hoppy skippy action one or two times.  I will watch her to make sure she isn't too sore, but honestly I think she handled this course way better than I did.  She got bacon at the main aid station and some of the noodles and chicken from the chicken noodle soup my mom made for me for the broth.  I also shared small bites of my nutella tortillas, waffles, and any other things I snacked on.  Pretty sure bacon was her favorite, especially the most fatty pieces.

I posted this on FB and no need to retype it.  I am going to close here because I could keep going on and on and I will have a what worked and what didn't work post because this won't be my last 50 for sure!  Run Amok 50 miler, till next year!

Week 24 of 24. RACE WEEK!

IT'S RACE WEEK!!!  Yes, I am yelling because I am SO excited!  I won't do a day by day break down because honestly there won't be much running till the big day, but here is a little of what happened leading up to the big day.

The week started out with laps with my Girls on the Run girls.  We got 2.47 miles done and lots of great discussion.  I have two girls that normally run with me during practice and I love them both dearly because they push themselves every practice and we have great girl talk!  I may never have a daughter of my own but I get a set of them every fall to run with.  Normally I would go out and finish whatever mileage I needed but I decided that was good enough.  I honestly wanted to do a run during the day with Stella to see how her 8 miler on Sunday affected her if at all.  She had her X rays on Tuesday and while I hoped that we found something we could treat, I was also hoping there was nothing to find and she would be good to go for Saturday. We found nothing of course so now we are on to either soft tissue or mental.

We drove down Wednesday to mostly sunny skies but some rain towards the end.  We stopped once to get McDonalds around 2 pm and then we stopped again to fill up for gas and that was it.  We made good time and mom had one of my favorite suppers ready for me.

We took all of the above and organized it into one tote below.  We put light tights and heavy tights in separate bags and light and heavy shirts had their own bags.  Different accessories had labeled bags as well and this served us well race day. 

We also hit up mom's gym to do some power walking at the indoor track since it was raining.  We pushed ourselves and got 3 miles in where 9 laps equals a mile!  Afterwards we hit up Rockin Dough Pizza and brewery for calzones and one tasty in house brewed beer.  

Stella got regular massages from my mom and loved them.  To be one of the most naugty aussies of my crew, she sure does get lots of love.  

We packed up mom's van and headed to the Chattanooga area for our hotel Friday morning.  It was about a 4 hour drive through some sections of mountain and of course I had a few panic attacks.  I don't think i could ever live in mountains and drive regularly.  

We checked into our dog friendly hotel (with white bedspreads, go figure) and met up with my cousin Elane to head to packet pick up and then dinner at Cracker Barrel.  I am going to end this here and type the rest in my recap so head over to the race recap and check it out!  Spoiler alert, I ran my FIRST 50 miler in 14 hours and 39 seconds and had a blast!

Have a great week!

Week 23 of 24: Almost there!

Say it ain't SNOW!  It's not even Halloween and we are getting snow.  I LOVE it and HATE it all at the same time.  Since I am not getting a ton of photos due to the cold/snow/dark, enjoy some photos from Mile 90 from this weekend's race.

Monday:  Girls on the Run miles and then miles with boom to equal 4.  Originally we thought we would be inside and I was going to take a full rest day, but we took a vote and even thought it was feels like 32 outside and snowing, the girls CHOSE to go outside!!!!!  We got about 2.5 done so Robin and I decided to finish up and get the 4 I needed for Wednesday.

Tuesday:  Rest day.  Take Stella to the vet day to see what hoppy skippy means.  As the chiropractor could not find anything glaringly wrong, neither could my vet.  This is good and bad.  Finding something = treating it.  Finding nothing = throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.  On top of not finding anything, what she did find was something I really did not want to find.  She almost immediately said Stella has a heart murmur.  Of course Stella has been on grain free food for years because of deuce's weird allergies, so DCM (dilated cardio myopathy) could be an issue.  Sigh.  I didn't loose her to IMPA and I am NOT going to loose her to DCM.  Luckily, I had switched her to grain included foods back in March of this year, so hopefully if it is diet induced, we can reverse it.  Going to see a cardiologist at KSU to see what we can find out.  Glad i have been working hard on my credit card to get it paid down :(

post snow, all of the trees dropped their leaves before they even turned

Wednesday:  8 miles.  Based on the forecast models, we thought we would wait till post work to run as they snow and ice should be done.  We woke up to.......nothing.  Of course.  Decided to hit the mill later and get as much as I could without loosing my mind.  Low and behold, I found a new Netflix series to watch (Unbelievable, very good, but also very hard to watch) and 8 miles went by quickly.  Plus, we had SNOW finally!  Kind of fun to watch it fall from the comfort of your own home and know it would be gone by the next day when the sun came out. 

Sheriff Woody x 2

Thursday: HALLOWEEN!  Normally this would be a Girls on the Run day, but we had the day off and I took it as a total rest day since we would be walking from house to house trying not to freeze later.  Andrew didn't really want to trick or treat that much.  We maybe hit three streets worth of houses, so maybe 10 or so houses and he was done.  He didn't even want to go downtown for the trick or treating there.  I was shocked but secretly happy, we don't need a ton of candy hanging out in the house and it was cold.  We headed back to hand out candy and turned out lights out at 7:20 pm to eat pizza and watch scary movies.

Cups everywhere!

Friday:  8 miles or rest?  I chose rest.  Yes, I wimped out on a run and you know what, the hay is in the barn, so I am not stressing about it.  I had planned to run post work but post a very painful and productive massage, I decided resting would benefit me more than getting back on the mill.

our relay team Sofa King Hood

Saturday:  1 hour run.  A while back Mel had mentioned doing a marathon relay.  I had never done one before and it was the same day as Tails on the Trail in Topeka, one of Stella and I's favorite races.  I decided to step out of my comfort zone and stay local, and join the relay team of 3 other speedy ladies. I warned them that I had NOT done speed in a long time and I had no clue what I could do.  I was running third of the group with Mel our speediest bringing up the rear.  I figured this would either work for my hour, or I could go get 4 more post running.  Lucky for me, I was able to push and get an hour and 3 minutes and get my speediest 10K in a long time (59 something, my PR is 56 something on the flattest course ever made).  My mantras included "I can do anything for an hour" and "DO WORK".  I kept locking in on someone ahead of me and then trying to reel them in and pass.  Luckily for me, most of the people out on the course were half marathoners on their second loop or marathoners on their third loop (this is a looped course that each of us ran 1 time so the marathoners did it 4 times total), so a little bit easier to pick tired runners off.  I have to admit, I am fan of looping because you are always near aid and bathrooms.  We finished 3rd female team and 10th team overall of mixed, female, and male teams.  While I am still more in love with trails that pavement, it was fun to get back out there and push myself to see what my body could do.

First year in Jr Novice!  

Later we had the Topeka Quarter Midget association's banquet.  We dressed up, bought a frozen pie (long story), and headed to Topeka for a night of fun.  We had a BBQ dinner with amazing sides and dessert, lots of awards (Andrew won 2nd overall in the night series and also got a trophy for his complete first year in Novice), and then headed out for a big bonfire and more fun.  The boys played non stop the whole night and had SO much fun. I am really going to miss everyone and want to fast forward till next season!!!!  Andrew has made such great friends and I am sad that they all live either in Topeka, Salina, or KC, so we won't get to see them much in this off season.

Sunday: Longish run day.  I had missed an 8 and a ten mile run so I had my pick.  I knew I was going to take it super easy no matter what we did.  It was a BEAUTIFUL fall day so we slept in, stayed in our pjs way to long, and then ran later in the afternoon.  I will take a whole month or more of this weather PLEASE!


What a great second week of taper.  While I didn't get all of my runs, I did what was best for my body.  Now on to RACE WEEK!