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!