Boom's 2022 Running Recap

Hi BOOM BOOM here!  I get to write a post all by myself since Stella retired from running this year.  Although she doesn't run races or train, we still play and chase each other around the house and yard and she is FAST for an 11 year old doggo.  Mom didn't do too many races this year thanks to my two legged brother being so busy.  Dang ginger!  He races, plays baseball, plays football, and wrestles.  Mom says he takes precedence over our running races right now and I am A OKAY with that...for now.  We only had two races this year, so this is short and sweet, just like my attention span.  

First up was a 50K with Miss Kittie and Robin.  I run with Miss Kittie all of the time and she is kind of my girlfriend. Our moms picked a spring race, which can always be tricky in Kansas, sometimes cold and sometimes hot and humid already.  While Miss Kittie and I were honestly pulling our moms to a 50K PR thanks to us being expert runners and the weather being nice and cold, my mom's tummy decided to shut down and make her feel horrible.  

I took over all duties of keeping her safe and getting her to the finish line by gently pulling her and finishing any and all fuel that she couldn't stomach.  I mean, we can't litter, so I had to eat it right?  I also took great offense at the photographers.  Yes, Mile 90 takes amazing photos, but why does John and company have to look so scary with those big cameras?  I also met a lose dog that was enjoying the runners on the course and let's just say he and I didn't like each other.  Mom told me to leave him and go on and yelled at him and I did my best to ignore him, but he was a big old PUNK!  AND while he ran a lot with other runners, he didn't run a 50K like me!!!!

Last race of the year was a half marathon back out at the same trial we did the 50K at.  Since the momma doesn't like training in the summer anymore, we aren't going to do any fall ultras unless they are super duper late fall.  I'm fine with that, I don't like heat or humidity either.  Mom had a longer tougher race planned for later on in the fall anyway, but that didn't happen. I am getting head of myself, but mom says I am special, so maybe that is why I get ahead of myself?

This was on the same trail is our 50K, so I knew the trail well.  Mom had hoped by entering a shorter race that September might be kind enough not to kill us.  Mom was wrong.  When we started it was 100 percent humidity, but overcast.  Mom said if the sun had come out that we would have pulled from the race and lucky for us it didn't.  See my tongue?  That humidity didn't allow us to cool very well so mom made us take a lot of water breaks and also do lots of walk breaks.  

Mom and Robin decided no more September races, even if short for us pups.  It's just not worth the risk. 

I was super excited to get to do my first technical trail race at Clinton lake next.  Mom made me promise to not pull her down on the rocks and to be good like my sis Stella.  Whatevs.  Except the race didn't happen for us because my two legged brother's football team got in the tournament for football.  They actually won the whole dang thing.  I am pretty proud of him because he had worked super hard all year getting better at his position.  Plus, I don't know what a technical trail is but it sounds scary!

Lots of great training this year for me and looking forward to our first 12 hour attempt at pulling the momma to her next 50 miler (maybe).  Glad to get a 50K under my belt and wanting to get on some technical trails over the winter.  Mom also ordered me some funny shoes and a snow suit whatever that is.  She thinks I am going to wear them but she has another thing coming!  She s NOT going to embarass me in front of my girls!

Joy to the Run Week 4

 First off here is what I got done on this yet again, crazy week!

Monday: Joy to the run easy run

Tuesday: Rest (Club meeting, sigh)

Wednesday: Joy to the Core circuit

Thursday: Song Intervals on the mill

Friday: Yoga

Saturday: 7 miles (outside)

Sunday: 3 Christmas miles (outside)

Add a sick kid plus meetings at night and then a bomb cyclone with -28 degree wind chills and you get a jumbled mess of just trying to get it done.  I knew I needed to get at least 2 runs done outside before this mess hit just in case, and I just couldn't get away from work during the day on Tuesday at all or Wednesday to try and beat it.  By the time I got out Wednesday night, the roads were slick and even just trying to run the gravel alleys behind our houses was dicey, and I had to walk back through people's yards to stay upright.  Tuesday night was a club meeting that while peaceful this time, they always drain me because I get so worked up prior to the meeting dreading the unknown.  The Joy to the Core circuit was really good, even if I had to take several modifications on simple exercises I use to have no trouble doing.  I figured I would be super sore, but surprisingly I wasn't.  My long run was shifted to Saturday afternoon when it would at least have a wind chill above 0 and even without a wind break, I felt toasty warm.  Lots of lovely snow geese out to watch and an exciting murder podcast made the miles fly by.

We got lucky and just got a tiny bit of snow, but we got the cold for sure.  All of the pipes froze in the north wall that lead to our kitchen and that was with our heat cranked up to 78, all of the cabinets open, and water dripping (and as of publishing this they are still frozen).  I ordered the dogs booties and snow suits, because I am sure we won't have just one of these and they have been having problems just going out to potty in this mess.  Boom was okay when we went out running, thanks to the crazy wind blowing all of the snow off of the gravel roads.  

Andrew started getting sick Tuesday night while I was in my meeting.  We are very lucky that he was on his Christmas break already from school, so all he missed was wrestling practice.  He had a low grade fever from Tuesday till Saturday.  It ranged from 99 something to 100.4,  but luckily never higher.  He was super congested, but it stayed out of his chest thankfully.  He had a non productive cough for a few days and we got him some musinex to break that up and get it out.  His fever finally broke Saturday thankfully.  He had been crying that his Christmas was ruined and I told him that it wouldn't be.  I was hoping I would be right.  

 

We are still trying to shift Andrew over to parent's gifts = better than Santa gifts.  We really aren't sure he believes anymore or at least he is struggling to figure it out but still desperately wants to.  We are letting him decide one way or the other, but still getting Santa gifts for now, just not many.  He was SO excited about Christmas on Christmas Eve that he wanted to go to bed early, like 7 pm early.  I convinced him to stay up to till 8:30 pm, and he was out when his head hit the pillow five minutes later.  He has never been one to be up early, but sure enough at 5 am he was up and ready to go.  I however was not wanting to be waking up just yet, as I had a horrible headache.  He bulldozed through presents, loved every single thing, and then I went back to bed letting him stay up with daddy to play.  I was praying I wasn't getting what he had and that a little more sleep would help, since I slept like crap the night before thanks to him snotting and snorting next to me.  

I came down to this and chaos of open boxes and plastic everywhere.  After quietly cleaning up  around them, they woke up and Andrew started working on Legos.  He got two sets from us, one that had 2800 pieces and one that had 1700.  While I always think these sets will take him days, he usually powers through and does them in like one day.  

He got the Bowser one done in 8 hours and then I made him take a break. He was getting pretty emotional and tired at the end.  It's fully articulated, shoots out fireballs from it's mouth, and can move it's legs and head.  I am blown away by his ability to put these things together.  

I got a new vacuum cleaner that is cordless and charges and I am in love.  I got Tony a Chief's jersey and he pretty much has worn it all day.  My parents got us the prettiest ever fiesta ware and I have never been so excited about plates in my life.  I have always wanted fiesta ware but it's so dang expensive but got lucky when mom found some in a unit she cleaned out.  It was all very muted yellow and pink, so she decided to add some color into our lives.  She always knows how to get the perfect gift for us!

We ended Christmas day with a very non traditional dinner of steaks and rolls and chocolate cream pie from the Friendship House.   Andrew was feeling 100 times better and we got another dusting of snow.  I got my shorter run in, which always makes me happy to hit my marks on my calendar AND I think that was officially week 1 of training. I saw this on one of my ultra running groups and loved it and wanted to share.  

I love the last line.  "I think it was in the stopping that she found her power."  Can I get an amen?  AMEN!  If anything this year has taught me it's okay to stop, it's okay to pull back and it's okay to be lazy now and again.

Have a great week y'all!  We have a bonus week of training for Joy to the Run which will also be week 2 of training for the 12 hour.  Still not entirely sure how I am going to train exactly so just rolling with the flow!

Joy to the Run Week 3

This week was all about just getting through, shuffling days, and dealing with life.  I had meetings several nights and both Robin and I had some aches and pains that made the runs not so great.  Apparently neither of us are ready to get back into serious speedwork, even if this isn't totally serious and short.  I feel like I am falling apart and so does she.  I just want to be a well rounded runner and do all of the things.  Apparently my body doesn't agree and just wanted to be round.  Also, got my Strava recap fun for the year.  Going to be short again this year for hitting 1K miles, but that is okay since it wasn't an official goal anyway.  Me and summer running are not friends and that is just not going to change anytime soon. I know I said I was going to do a day by day recap, but I am tired and I have a million things to do on my to do list for the day.

Monday: Easy run

Tuesday: X to the T #2

Wednesday: Recovery

Thursday: Easy run

Friday:  Strength circuit

Saturday: Yoga or recovery

Sunday: Long run

We easy ran through rain. Nothing like being cold and wet.

We did speedwork that kicked our butts, but left out dogs super happy.  10 minute warm up followed by 5 rounds of 20 seconds hard, 20 seconds easy.  Then take those five rounds and multiple it by 3 sets with a 10 minute cool down.  

I had a board meeting Wednesday night that lasted 2 hours and post that meeting, I had no desire to do anything productive.  A glass of wine and bed was all I had in me.  

I did give my BRF Robin her Christmas present early.  I had gotten us both Noxgear vests after a great cyber monday deal and several close calls lately with drivers.  While I am still getting use to running with it on and getting it adjusted properly, I do think I will eventually like it.  I know for sure drivers could see us no problem while running and all of the light choices were fun.  I think based on where we have been running lately, it's mainly very distracted community college kids almost hitting us, and they should be done for the semester after this week.  She got me a trailhead's hat I had been eyeing for quite some time.  One word: AMAZING!  It has part trucker design, so I can have my headlamp light on the front and it stay put and not dig into my head, and super warm fleece in the back to keep my head warm, plus it comes down over my ears!

I did do yoga this week and the strength training work out which was a single leg circuit.  Both were challenging and I learned some new moves with the strength training again.  

I got my long run/Bingo run done on Sunday.  Usually I long run on Saturday, but I put yoga there instead just in case our Friday night Christmas party got a little out of hand.  I was only one square away from BINGO dang it!  Should have looked at the squares pre run but decided not to be influenced by it and just run and see what happened.  Decided to just do 6 since my official training starts next week for my 12 hour race. 

Have a great week y'all!  I have more meetings, but little A is done with school meaning I can sleep a full hour later in the mornings, and hopefully work will be quiet since most people don't want to spend money around Christmas and tend to not need us (plus we are super booked anyway).  

Joy to the Run Week 2

Joy to the Run week 2 is on the books!  Here is a daily break down because WHY NOT!  I feel like I haven't officially "trained" in a while and haven't really had anything to say about each and every day.  Well now I do :)

Monday: Easy run/Joy to the Run  #Bravelikegabe run.  I am use to Monday being a rest day, as I usually do back to back long runs on the weekends.  It's very odd to head out on a Monday for me, but I didn't want to miss the work out and miss the contest!  Plus, we got to tell everyone on our Facebook group what brought us joy.  I had planned on taking it easy, but Boom was not in the mood to go slow, so I think we actually had more of a tempo run than an easy run.  I have so many things that bring me joy right now.  A beer with friends, a warm cup of coffee post long run, my kiddo being so excited for Christmas, seeing so many houses lit up with Christmas lights at night, and my dogs just to name a few.  

Tuesday:  X to the T or Glute circuit.  I chose the X to the T since Tuesday is a normal running night for me anyway.  You could do both as it was an and or, but after doing the run, to be a southerner here, I was just plumb worn out.  The work out called for a 5 minute warm up,  and then 10 repeats of one minute "hard" and 1 minute "easy".  I chose to run full out for 1 minute, walk for 30 seconds to catch my breath and then a slow run for 30 seconds.  Even though it was only about a 30 ish minute work out, it kicked my butt SO hard.  

Wednesday: Recovery Yoga.  Okay honesty here.  I hate yoga.  I think it's mostly the fact that I have to be still, be in the moment, and kind of meditate, all the things I am NOT good at.  Pretty sure I have ADHD because my brain never shuts off, never stops going, so yoga is kind of like a torture session.  I always love it after I do it because it feels amazing to my body, but you'd better bet I hit stop several times on the video to see how many minutes I had left.  

Thursday: Ladder speedwork or Glute circuit.  I really didn't want 5 days of running so decided to skip the run and just do the glute circuit.  Except I realized after I did my glute circuit that this wasn't an either or day.  Whoops.  The ladder work out will have to wait.  Oh well.  This 30 minute circuit got my buns a burning and that is all that matters.   Andrew finally made his list for Santa.  Last year he waited till the very last minute to make his list and we got lucky that we already had what he asked for and even in the correct color.  This year he wants an oculus head set and a Nintendo N64 refurbished with games.  He is very into retro gaming.  Santa is on the headset but was a little unsure about the gaming system, even though Andrew found a website that sells refurbished systems.  Santa's elf Kerry came though though in a clutch and told me about an expansion pack you can buy for the Nintendo Switch that has most if not all of the N64 games he wanted.  Whew. 

Friday:  Easy run.  Was going to head to the park to get pics of the new lights they had just put up but my body had other plans.  Even though I peed several times before I headed out, the urge hit again and I almost didn't make it home. Usually I would just squat in a ditch but there was so much traffic in the industrial park and on our route home that this wasn't an option.  Oh well, got a picture of Mr. Serious. In none running news, Andrew announced to us that he had tried out for and made an honor choir.  While we haven't gotten an official notice that this is true, we are just SO proud of Andrew.  We are awaiting the details but I am blown away that he would step out of his comfort zone and do something like this.  I have always said he would LOVE to be part of either theater or musicals or something and he kept telling me NO.  I think he is going to really enjoy this and I am excited to see where this takes him.  

Saturday:  Etch a sketch run.  Long run day for me and not so etchy sketchy as my gravel roads are pretty much in a big box.  Rockin Robin went out earlier which meant Boom boom and I were solo.  I felt pretty sore from yoga and strength training in the days before.  Sometimes I think, why do I do this, it hurts and I want to not be in pain.  Then I finish and I feel such a great runner's high that I totally forget and go out and do it again.  

Post running we were on a mission.  First, a coffee shop in Manhattan was doing coffee flights and they looked amazing on their posts on Facebook.  We had gone once before and they were out of glasses.  We made the stupid decision to go into Manhattan on a day when graduation was going on and check it out.  Spoiler alert, it was not good.  The coffee was not labeled and I am not sure that they were in the order of the sign they had out as one was suppose to be hot chocolate and I pretty sure there was no hot chocolate.  Two of the coffees were cold and I can't do cold coffee as it makes me gag.  I tried, I gagged.  The other two that were hot were good, but I had no clue what was what to order more.  Then we headed over to the Discovery center where they were having a new exhibit about manufacturing and how things were made.  Andrew assembled a trolley, cut wax, learned how die molds were made, and learned how to use a 3 axis mill.  

I love the rotating exhibits they have as they are always very interactive and we always learn so much.  

Post having fun at the museum we headed over to the brewery to try the new holiday beers they had on tap.  I tried Tis the Saison and A house divided and they were both amazing!  Plus we played Minion Life and Trivial Pursuit and Andrew had some amazing hot chocolate.  All in all, a fun day in Manhattan despite the influx of out of town people in for graduation.  

Sunday:  Rest day.  We hit the mats at a small local wrestling tournament for Andrew to get some early season match experience.  We don't push tournaments as Andrew is not a fan, but my hope was a smaller tourny with maybe not the hard hitters might be good for him to gain some confidence.  You also at a smaller tourny run the risk of weight classes combining as they don't have enough kids at a certain weight.  I am pretty sure that at least 2 of the kids in his class were clearly over 120.  He was at 116 which meant he gave up at least 4 if not more pounds.  He had three matches and while he lost all three, two of them went three periods and had amazing things plus he got a take down and some points in two of the matches.  The third was the guy going for first place that was a good head or so taller and had thrown and pinned the other two kids in less than 30 seconds.  I had no hope for that one other than survive and don't get thrown on his head.  It really is the little things with this kid and I am totally fine with seeing lots of little things that will add up eventually.  

Leaving you with a funny:) Another four run week plus one session of strength and one session of yoga!  I call that a success!!!  Have a great week y'all!

  

Joy to the Run week 1

 Ah, my favorite time of year!  The end of my birthday month and the beginning of the Christmas holiday season.  I can officially start listening to Christmas music without getting dirty looks and most of my holiday shopping is already done (whew), so I can just enjoy the season.  I started early with Andrew this year because they had such great deals on several of the Lego sets he wanted, and I decided to get Tony and Andrew Chief's jerseys and they had a great deal on those on cyber Monday.  Mom wanted a Keurig like ours so again Cyber Monday got that taken care of, and got my step dad's annual photo calendar done.  Now to figure out what to get a few close friends and will be done done!

Running wise, Monday was an off day and Tuesday had Girls on the Run and then PTO.  We did run down to the local grocery store to sing and collect donations for the Wamego Christmas Bureau as our service project, but Robin and I ended up not running back and hooked a ride.  PTO was next and post PTO, I was just tired and didn't feel like getting back out into the cold, so pushed my run till Wednesday.  Boom and I got a quick 3 in and called it good.

We started our second year of Joy to the Run and Rockin Robin signed up so we could have fun together again.  Our first run of the week was song intervals. You started with a 5 minute warm up and then as the songs changed, you changed your tempo and got faster.  We got lucky that the Christmas songs we had for easy and medium were longer and the one we got for hard was short.  We can't wait to do this one again as it's speedwork that's actually fun!  We had decided to get 3 no matter what, but thanks to our speedy run on the medium and hard (thanks to the dogs pulling like crazy and getting into the spirit), we only went slightly over the time frame.  Since we are officially training for our race at this point, we will probably modify all runs to fit what we need to be doing (or should be doing LOL).  

The second Joy to the Run session was on Friday and it was just a short have fun run.  When we started it was feels like 61.  When we ended 3 miles later it was feels like 47.  The wind was ferocious!  Our goal is to take a picture with each lit up object in the park for posting to the AMR page to hopefully win a gift card.  I got home, put on my snuggie, and fixed a cocoa bomb to warm up.  

Since we had our girls on the run 5K on Saturday, we moved our rest day over to Saturday and moved our long run (Fancy Pants run) to Sunday.  We thought we had every girl covered with either a running buddy or a community member, so neither of us would need to run, but we were both ready just in case.  It was SUPER cold at the start which meant lots and lots of layers for our runner girls and coveralls and lots of layers for us to hand out medals.  We had a few girls out sick (major bummer), but most came with smiles on their faces and families excited and nervous.  Since our girls had been consistently running over 2 miles for multiple practices, I knew no one would have issues and was super excited to see what they could do if they chose to push themselves.  This truly has been one of our best seasons in all of our years of coaching.  With a big group (2 teams of 15), there has been relatively little to no drama and this season has just been a delight to coach.  

I also got my annual jump for joy picture with one of my most favorite girls.  Her family and my family have spent many a winter sitting in gyms full of wrestling mats.  Her mother was the one we lost unexpectedly this fall and my heart is still very broken for her.  She is now in middle school and on a different team and I have missed her dearly this year.   When her and her dad came over to ask to take our annual picture, I shed a few tears and said YES, let's do this!   She truly is one of my most favorite kids and I just lover her so much.  Mark my words, this kid is going to do something very awesome some day, just watch!

The rest of the day looked like this.  A quick cup of coffee at the Brew in our fancy pants.

Watched the Wildcats beat TCU and become big 12 champions and get a bid to go to the Sugar Bowl.

Went to the local sip and shop and had a few glasses of wine and bought some amazing products from local creators including our favorite cookie vendor.  

Sunday was long run day.  Since I was slowly going back up to 10 miles before I signed up for my spring race, I had 9 miles on the docket. I think I am going to just follow a very conservative 50K training program, one that I have done several times now and has worked well for us and then whatever I get post the 50k is just bonus in the race.  It's a 12 week program so technically I don't have to officially train for another 2 weeks.  We caught glimpses of eagles, we had lots of discussions, and we got it done in some nice cold but non windy weather.  I wish winter could be like this all winter, NO WIND!   

We also tried a pop up Christmas bar down in the bar district in Manhattan.  I had heard it was pretty magical and they were right.  Lots of lights and decorations, Christmas music on the speakers, and fun mixed drinks.  We tried several drinks, ate some pizza, and tried some very yummy dessert.  

You could even buy the cute little mugs and I had to have the T Rex Santa.   SO much fun and wishing we could have something like this in Wamego.  

Have a great week y'all!  With the Joy to the Run program in full force, we will be running Monday, Tuesday, Yoga on Wednesday, and running Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with Sunday being a rest day. I am sure we will shift things around as needed and there are options for cross training instead on a few running days. We will see how it shakes out for sure.