Week 17 of 18: Flint Hills 50 and Trail Marathon

Spring.....knock knock....Are  you there?  Maybe this week?  Maybe for a few days?  Yes? No? Okay, I will try back next week.

of course if you save up your hard earned tokens from Sylvan, you get a giant hammer!

Monday:  I am renaming Monday to Marathon Monday.  We had school, Sylvan, and grocery shopping all bam, bam, bam.  Then upon getting home, I had to feed dogs, do several loads of laundry, and load and unload the dishwasher.  The fun never ends.  I love being a BAMR but sometimes it does wear me out. A little side note here.  We had our monthly meeting with Sylvan and Andrew has started struggling with a few things writing related.  It's so weird how something in his brain can't make the fingers work to get the letters on the page.  He knows the letters, can identify them, but just has some sort of mental block about getting them down and out of his head.  He is definitely a visual learner, as in if you show him the letter, he can write it no problem, but just asking, nope.  Sylvan also met with his school and his school seems to still be firmly in the ADHD category.  I am still kind of unsure as to what to do if anything.  I still feel in my gut that he is young, that he will catch up, and there is NOTHING wrong with him.  I am going to try and focus on that feeling.

Tuesday:  Okay, I was suppose to do speed work, but I was still kind of sore and tired from the race.  I decided to make an executive decision and not do hard speed work.  Instead I just did 6 easy with the girls on the concrete track.  I wanted to meet at the track so that maybe Stella could run with us and her toe would be safer since there would be no rocks.  She seemed to be fine, a few little steps where I thought maybe she might be ouchy, but the overall she ran fine.  I am hoping this means we will be good to go for the full.  Her vet says that the quick will shrivel up and no longer be painful, and that the nail will re grow around it. I am keeping a close eye on it and making sure it stays clean and she leaves it alone.  Thus far, she hasn't seem too concerned with it, other than the one night where she broke the rest of the nail off and the quick was hanging out.

Wednesday:  Cross training/strength.  My intention was to get home, air up my tires, and head out for a nice long bike ride.  As I was driving home, I noticed my van was getting blown all over the road.  DANG WIND!   If the wind was coming from one direction and one direction only, I might have been fine, but it was coming from the south and west, so I was doomed.  Instead I did some fun stuff at track with the kiddos.  I introduced them to speed work and intervals and fartleks, which of course left them in tears from laughter at the word.  I did one lap of fartleks with them, but as I have said before, the track hates me and my body was screaming to not do that again, so for intervals I just watched and used my big mouth to yell at them when to run.  Even with only doing a warm up lap, one lap of fartleks, and one cool down lap with them, my body was super sore.  Why does that surface hate me so?

taken from a friend's FB page.  WHY Kansas WHY?

Thursday:  4 easy with the girls.  I love these runs.  No thinking, just go.  It was a lovely 60 degrees at 4:40 am and we ran in shorts and t shirts.  While I am not a fan of heat or humidity, I am seriously at the point where I enjoy being able to get dressed so quickly and easily, and not be wearing 5 layers.  Stella seemed fine with her foot, even on gravel, so I am can breath a sigh of relief about her and the race.  I could tell the sudden increase in temperature did slow Deuce down, so I hope we do have some sort of spring, in which we ease into high temperatures instead of a huge LEAP into 100 degree/100 percent humidity days.  I also really hope that the weather is cool/cold for next weekend.  That is one weekend where I won't complain at all about cold!

our outtakes from using the selfie ball clip thingy for my phone.  She has a big mouth :)

Friday: Normally this would be a rest or cross train day, but because of the predicted snow and nastiness, and the fact that my hubby would be working Saturday, I figured we would go ahead and knock out the long run before work.  Of course life threw me a curve ball in the form of transmission work needing immediate attention to my old van, so I slept in, took little man to school, dropped my van off at the shop, and ran home to pick up gear and deuce to head out (Stella rode with me).  The wind was horrible, around 25 mph sustained with gusts up to 40 mph.  I tried to keep an east/west route and mostly in sheltered areas, but even with that the cross winds were horrible on the open prairie and the wind occasionally whipped around to the west to give me a nice head wind.  We saw our first snake of the season, and lucky for us he was just booking the other way.   I also got blown off of my feet, which is a weird sensation.  I luckily landed on my feet, but I initially thought Stella had tripped me.  When I looked back to fuss at her, she was no where around.  It was also hot. Started at 70 degrees and ended close to 80.  We needed this though because next weekend looks to be warmer, so we need some warmer runs under out belts.  At this point I am still hoping to get to race with Stella, but probably will watch the weather and decide the night before.  While she is probably fine to run up to 80 degrees or even more, we just haven't had many hot runs yet period to acclimate any of us.

our first official son/mom date

Saturday:  Cross training or rest.  I chose rest.  I am battling a few little niggles...per usual for my weird body, so the more rest I can give my body, the better.  Plus, plummeting temperatures and snow/ice predictions just didn't sound like fun.  I did try a barre class last week and something tweaked in my hip during the very simple work out I did, which scared me.  I am going to wait till after my marathon to start my barre classes in earnest.  I LOVED the class I did and even though it was just 20 minutes, I felt like I got a great work out.  I am just paranoid right now with the race one week away.  I also don't want to write this here but I have to. I am scared that i am getting plantar fasciitis in my left foot:(   Ever since I started running in my new Saucony Triumphs with the Everrun all throughout the sole, I have been having weird foot issues.  Mainly weird shooting pains in my toes, but about a week ago, I started noticing I was having pain in my arch right next to my heel.  Can I scream the F word right now???  Now I have battled PF before, years ago before I was even a runner and won, so I am hoping I can beat it again.  I am massaging, stretching, icing, wearing my compression sock for my calf muscles, and doing everything I can to defeat this.  I really don't want to have to change shoes brands/models yet again.  I hate that my feet have been fine up until this update.  I really don't want to have to throw away or donate a 160 dollar pair of shoes either.  Sigh.

Later on Saturday, Andrew and I had our first official son/mom date.  Our local Chick Fil A had a Lego event where we had our own fancy table, had table side service, and got to do a craft and big Legos.  The only issue?  When we go to Chick Fil A normally, we eat while he plays, so he was looking longingly at the play area the whole time.  I finally let him ditch me when we were done with dessert.  We had fun and would come back if they do another night just for us!

stella had the right idea!

Sunday:  Another rest day.  I went ahead and ordered a compression sleeve Saturday for my foot, as well as started on a round of anti inflammatories.  While I normally try and stay away from drugs, I need to try and knock this out as quickly as possible, as I have my race next weekend and three pacing races to go.  I plan on taking some time off  with NO running post my full, even though I have some half marathons to pace, because my body needs it! Since it was snowing/cold/icy outside, we decided to just hang at the house and be sloths other than some stretching, icing, and active recovery (does doing laundry count as active recovery?). 

I will not obsess about the weather.  I will not obsess about the weather.

Getting super excited for my race next weekend!  We got our big email blast about aid stations, crew stations, and all the details we need to race successfully!  The butterflies have started dancing in earnest.  Have a great week and see you post my next marathon!!!!!

Week 16 of 18: Training for Flint Hills 50 and Trail marathon

Three more glorious weeks till race day!  Coach had mentioned the word taper, but I know better than to get all excited about that word because when I opened final surge this week, the first thing I saw staring back at me was 8 miles of speed work.  Gulp.  Here is how the week went with a little bit of good, a little bit of sad, and SNOW!

Monday:  I would like to call this a rest day, but sometimes the fun of working, going to pick kiddo up, racing back to town to Sylvan and then adding on other errands that didn't get done over the weekend isn't very restful.  I am glad we got everything done, but I was ready for bed when we got home!

Tuesday:  I woke up to rain and wind, which is fine because I was going to do my 8 miler post work anyway.  What I didn't want to have to do was speed work like this on the mill, but with the weather throwing a tantrum, I had no choice. I modified my coach's plan again by making my pace my "hard pace" versus her exact pace.  I did 2 x 2 mile repeats with 800 meter recovery in which I walked a little, and then ran easy with a 1 mile warm up and a 1.5 mile cool down.

I have started watching Forensics Files on Netflix and am thoroughly hooked.  The little 30 minute episodes make perfect little markers for how long my work out is going to take. It's funny how dated it looks and feels and it was filmed in the late 90s when I was in college LOL!!!!!

Wednesday:  Track club and Cross/Strength.  I haven't said much about this topic lately, but if you have read my blogs for long, you know I struggle with staying on top of strength. I have never been a gym rat, and even though my coach gives me some great little workouts, I just have trouble fitting them in my busy life.  I know, I know, I fit running in and that takes way more time, so why can't i fit a 30 minute gym session in my life?  I just never have had that strength training bug, even though I know it helps with my running.  I seem to have a knack for doing moves wrong and tweaking things, or getting totally bored doing the same moves over and over.  I have a thought and I am going to try it out a new strategy for me.  Money is a huge motivator for me and i don't like spending it if I don't have to.  This is why weight watchers was such a big success for me because once you loose your goal weight and maintain, you stop paying.   I am going to try and find a group class or some sort of online classes so that I will have another source of motivation to get this done.  Stay tuned.....

Thursday:  Easy 4 and Track club.  I just love doing form drills in track club!  The thing I don't love...how sore I am after coaching track club and running on said track.  OUCH!  I thought running on the track was suppose to be better than asphalt?  Someone please tell my body that???

In non running news, we had a death in the family.  Our eldest aussie Harley (15) passed away while I was gone for my morning run.  We are all really torn up about it.   It was just really a shock because while we knew the end was near, he was alive and awake when I left for my run, and gone by the time I came home.  We are grieving, as he was a member of our family and like one of our kids.  He was the first of many puppies that Tony and i ever owned and trained together.  While I am super glad he is at the bridge with my other two red aussies and no longer in his elderly body, we will miss him so much and his quirky little attitude.  I wrote a little tribute to him here if you want to read all about his amazing and long life.

Friday:  I have no excuses, my plan was to start the free trial with the work out service I found online starting Friday.  I just didn't get it up and get it done, but I am going to get back on the wagon if it kills me.  I did have a nice lunch with my running partner and we exercised restraint by not getting dessert.  Exercising will power is a form of strength training right?????

Saturday:  The plan was to do our long run out on the course where I would be doing the marathon.  I was going to meet up with another local runner and we were going to do my 14 and her 15 together.  As the week came to a close the S word kept getting thrown around for Friday night and I was super worried that the roads would be bad to head to town early Saturday.  Well, we did get snow, but more like a dusting than the inches they predicted.   What we did get was bitterly cold temperatures.  My friend texted me Friday night and said she was hitting up the mill and I didn't mind the thought of a later start or possibly a split long run between outside and in.  We had a very busy schedule for the day including Sylvan and birthday parties, plus KSU was having open house.

While we were two for three hitting up Sylvan and the b day party, we didn't have time for the Open House.  Maybe some day:(  The good news:  We got a much later warmer start and Mel got to run with me.  The bad news: during the run, we found a ball, which I threw for Stella a few times, and she split a nail causing there to be blood everywhere.  I had to call Tony to come and get her, even though she seemed to be okay with it after we got the bleeding to stop.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but it is broken/split and still attached pretty firmly to the quick and the rest of the toe nail.  I clipped as much as I could off without hurting her, but it needs to be cut further up under anesthetic with the quick being cauterized.  I am really beating myself up because I knew better with her wild style of ball chasing that to throw the ball on our gravel route.  This of course comes less than 2 weeks before her marathon debut, and 1 day before one of our favorite 10Ks we were going to do together.  

Sunday:  Dog and Jog 10K.   Okay going to be real about this race, but in another blog post, so check it out here.   This was Deuce's first race, and the first time i had done the race with the new race course.  Long story short,  the race itself was SUPER short.  Not hey you didn't run the tangents short, like .6 miles short.  SO, while the time looks like I had a PR, I did not, but we still had fun.  

I am ready for a full taper week.  I am ready to relax, to do some barre work outs, and run some easy runs.  And yes, I still see the word SNOW in the forecast.  Sigh.  Maybe spring will get here some day?????

Have a great week!!!!

2018 Dog and Jog 10K---Deuce's very first race!

Okay going to be real about this race.  I did it for years when it was on Saturday and well organized.  It typically conflicts with other events, so it was hit or miss when I could do it.  I entered it on a whim this year since it was on a Sunday.  My coach was honestly not very happy for me to 1)enter a race during taper and 2)be doing a race post a long run.  Sometimes I am kind of naughty when it comes to running with my dogs at races, as in I will do them even though they aren't a good fit for my training. 

There was NO communication about anything, and I honestly thought maybe it was canceled this year.  I even answered some of the questions on the FB event page that people were asking just to help others, because NO ONE else was answering any questions (and still haven't).  To be fair, the event is run by students and different students each year at that, and the event page on the KSU page had everything you needed to know, thus the way I knew things. I just think people, including me, are super use to emails from the RD on things like packet pick up and start times and in just general reminders overall.  Yeah, yeah, call me spoiled :)

The weather was not predicted to be good at all, which always worries me when you are running on sidewalks and they are talking about ice and snow.  Luckily, they had packet pick up on Friday night from 5-6 pm, or else I would have to do packet pick up at 11:30 am and the race started at 1:30 pm (ICK).  I would have had to camp out in my car for 2 hours waiting.  There were a few booths this year with freebies and a radio station broadcasting, but the weather was cold, windy, and very overcast, so I pretty much stayed in the car.  Now I know the RD can't make the weather behave, but I was super puzzled by the late start.  It was cold this year, so it worked out, but I can't imagine doing this race when it is hot out and with dogs.  I don't even know how to fuel for this kind of mid day race, so any suggestions would be appreciated!  I ate something I normally eat, and even though I had it 2 hours pre race, I still burped the entire race.  

I had to sub in Deuce in for Stella.  If you read my weekly post, you saw that Stella broke a toe nail during our long run yesterday.  While she acted like it didn't bother her at all,  I just didn't want to chance her ripping it and it bleeding more.  She was NOT happy to be left behind, but Deuce has never raced with me ever, so I figured now would be a good time to try him out.  I was hoping with the weather that the crowd would be super small.  Deuce is a HUGE lover of people and other dogs, so I knew large crowds and lots of dogs would be challenging for his very gregarious nature.  When we got there, we walked around a bit, double checked the start time, and then went back to the car.  It was still super windy and cold, and I didn't want to stand out in it.  About 15 minutes prior to the race (we were parked fairly close to the start/finish) we headed out and got lined up.  There were lots of dogs, but not as many as say Tails on the Trail, so his brain stayed in his head.  

Shortly after starting, the sleet started coming down in earnest.  It HURT!  I had my glasses on, but they quickly became covered and icy, and I couldn't see out of them.  The course was all new to me, weaving all through campus versus going out and around Manhattan and back through campus.  I did like the course, it's just as I said in my weekly blog, it was SUPER short.  I know all about running tangents and it wasn't that.  I knew when I hit 5 miles and was pretty close to the finish that it was going to be short.  The start kind of freaked deuce out with the air horn and the mass exodus, plus we immediately had to go onto a narrow side walk that had trees and trash cans on either side.  Many of the dogs just stopped or freaked out in that funnel.  There were only 12 of us signed up for the 10K, and I wanted the majority of the 5 K faster people to get out and get ahead of me.  My plan was just to run hard and whatever pace hard was, embrace it.  I didn't think this would be a PR race because of the conditions, but I still wanted a nice even effort.  My overall pace for the distance my watch recorded was 9:38 miles, which is typically what I get for 10K races.  The first mile is always my fastest thanks to deuce or stella pulling (9:01), and then I settled in and ran a 9:40, 9:53m 9:40, and 10:08.  The back side of the course was pretty much all up hill, so the slower miles on that part don't surprise me.  Plus, I could tell my legs were tired from the long run the day before, but I didn't care, I just wanted to push through.  

I was SO proud of Deuce.  He settled in and did really, really well.  I could tell he got a little tired at the end, just like me, but he always stayed either right in front of me or right beside me.  There was a young lady directly in front of me, and he liked trying to keep up with her. In fact we could have passed her at one point, but I hung back and let her finish ahead of us, just in case they had finish line photographers, which they did not.  Crossed in 53:35, which would have been a lovely PR had it been an actual 10K.  I was 9th out of 12 and 7th out of 10 females.  There were no age group awards as they use to have, but instead 1-3rd overall.  I was disappointed because I was the oldest female in the 10K,  BUT I understand, the goal of this race is to make money for their cause, not give out medals.  Anyway, we quickly loaded up after our bananas and one picture, and turned on the heat full blast and tried to warm up as we were both drenched.   

He is such a hugger!  He won't just take a selfie, he has to be hugging your face LOL!  I was VERY pleased at how he handled the race.  I was very pleased in how I performed and will be back again, even with the lack of communication because again, it's put on by a different class every year.  

2018 Dog and Jog and Deuce's very first race is in the books and I am SO proud of him!!!!

Kyroka's Beating Your Ace MXJ, AX, OF, OAC, OJC, WV-E, TN-O, TNG-N, NCC, RS-O, JS-N, GS-O AKA Harley Coleman 3/3/2003-4/5/18

 This is not the blog post I wanted to write this morning, but here goes.  We lost Harley this morning to old age.  He had been progressively getting worse with his balance and his coordination, and even though we were feeding him three to four times a day, he was loosing weight, and just not doing well mentally.  We knew the time was coming and we knew we were probably going to have to make the decision, which is always super tough.  In true Harley fashion, he decided it was time, and while I was out running this morning and the family was sleeping, he quietly passed.

In some ways it breaks my heart into a million pieces that the original red aussie 3 is no longer.  He was the last of my original aussies and the first puppy that Tony and I got together.  We were honestly just learning how to be good dog trainers and how to be good agility dog trainers, and we screwed him up a bit with our inconsistencies, but he always gave it his all in his quirky style.

 He was always very naughty and very smart and gave us a run for our money.  He wasn't a huge lover of people, but he loved HIS people.  He endured us trying to teach him agility, with his style of running contacts, which was more like super man over the yellow every.single.time.  He went through a period of time where he refused to do anything on the table and wouldn't even look at tony or I while on that damn obstacle.  The few times he and Tony qualified, it was always a blue because he was smoking fast.

I tried to do  competition obedience with him and he had quite a bit of training under his belt, but he hated the stand for exam no matter how much value I gave the "judge".   We never competed because growling in the ring is just not allowed.  We also did Rally and got his RN title, but he just didn't think it was all that fun and at the time, you had to travel to find rally shows and I only traveled for agility.  He was incredibly smart and even though I was learning how to train a dog in competition obedience, he had so much grace and patience and seemed to read the manuals and some how get it even before I did. 

 He LOVED tracking to the point where he would shake with delight when I got his tracking harness out.  I took multiple classes with him and practiced a ton. My biggest regret is that we never actually tried to get his TD or TDX.  He was trained up through VST, but we just never had the time or money to compete, and I wished we would have because he would have been a star!

 We attempted herding a few times and again, he loved it.  I remember working the pens at an ASCA show in Colorado and he got to help.  We had a very nasty ewe that kept giving us troubles when it was her turn to be in the take pen.  At one point, she got so pissy she came at me and him in an attempt to get back to the rest of the sheep that were resting.  She ran both of us over in the process, and i just knew he would never do herding again.  Instead, he jumped up, went and herded her back to the take pen group, and then checked on me still on the ground.  He even cut his leg in the process, but just didn't care,  he loved herding sheepies that much.

 I was so worried that my crew of Miller and Berry would not want him, but from the minute I brought him home, they loved him and accepted him.  They let him keep his puppy card way longer than I would have thought that they should.  I think berry thought of him as her baby.

One of my other favorite harley memories is going to the kid's camp and doing disc dog demos for them.  They would line up and throw the frisbee over and over and over to him.  He didn't care who threw the frisbee, as long as it was for him.  Even in his older age he would try and catch the disc.  He did many demos both agility and disc for many kiddos and adults alike through the kennel club.

He helped us foster many foster dogs through ARPH.  While he always had to make sure they knew who was the top (and he was certainly not the top, but tried to play it that way), he generally got along with most if not all of our foster dogs.

 He was the first dog I clicker trained and the first dog I ever had that loved to be brushed and have his nails trimmed.

Another fun memory of Harley is the time he got sprayed point blank by a skunk in the chest.  We tried everything to get that stench and stain out and nothing worked.  He smelled like skunk for at least a year.  He didn't seem to care at all and seem to enjoy his skunk perfume!

He was known for sneaking out of the yard to go on little walk abouts.  We have a gate that if not closed exactly right, can be pushed open and he knew it.  I always said he was like a velociraptor in Jurassic Park, always testing the gates and fence to see what he could do.  Even as a young dog, we had a nice shaded concrete kennel run for them to be in during the day while we were at work, that had a 10 foot panel fence and a roof.  He would find a way to climb up and out no matter how we fastened the roof to the panels.  He was a naughty x 100.

 I moved to Colorado for a year to work in industry post grad school, and my then boyfriend, now hubby had to stay back in KS until he was done with school.  Bless his heart, Tony would make the 8 hour drive on the weekends to see me, basically driving all day Friday, spending the day Saturday, and then leaving again on Sunday.  He would load up the crew and bring them with.  Of course I was living in a one bed room hole in the wall apartment, because that was all I could afford at the time.  One weekend Tony came up and brought the crew and we went out to eat.  We left all the dogs loose (big mistake), and Harley decided that the door frame needed to be remodeled.  Needless to say I spent whatever hard earned money I had left over from my paycheck that week on sanding paper, paint, and wood putty.  They never noticed or said anything when I moved out, so I guess we were golden!

Harley helped me raise two puppies, Deuce and Stella.  He and Deuce were best friends until Stella came along.  He was always so patient with them and let Stella assume the role of alpha after Miller left us.  He and Miller had remained best buds until the day Miller passed.  He preferred to be crated with Miller, probably because when he was a puppy and we traveled to shows, we just put them in a crate together.  

This was a picture from his 14th birthday.  He made it to 15 and was still running around in the back yard in his old man manner and eating with gusto a week before his death. 

This is my all time favorite photo of Harley man and where i will end this post.  To my dearest Harley, please go find Strawberry and Miller and watch over us as the Red Aussie Crew at the rainbow bridge.  We miss you so much, but are so happy you are whole again and back to your young quirky self, catching discs and escaping fences.  We miss you, we love you, and we will forever be grateful that you blessed us with your presence as you taught us SO much.  Thank you for putting up with us and giving us 15 years of your crazy little red headed self.  Love, your momma and daddy Tony and Michelle.  Till we meet again.......................................................................................

Fall Racing and Running Plans

My brain...on a good day!

Yes, I am already thinking about this summer and fall. I am a planner and type A like nobody's business.  I need to get my thoughts down and mull through what is the most important to me.  I would like to keep my goal race for the fall the 6/12/24 hour race again and try to go for 12 hours versus 6, and just see what I can do with no expectations of an exact mileage.  Here are my thoughts, that of course are subject to change at any moment. 

Possible Summer races:

June 30th-NightHawk could do 10 or 20 mile loop-night race
July 21st-Psycho Psummer-Run Toto Run leaning towards the 10 miler due to heat-very technical trail
August 4th-Brew to shoe 10K-road course

Possible Fall/Winter races:

My next goal is to pace my friend at her first 100 miler on September 8/9.  The plan at this point is she can't pick any pacers up till past the 50 mile mark.  Each loop is 25 miles and she has two of us, so I would only be doing 25 miles total. . 

There will be some fall races that I can pace, but I count those as training runs anyway.  The runs I have on my radar screen for fall including pacing my friend are:

September 8/9: pace Lindsey 25 mile loop
September 23rd: 25K trail race-still on the fence.  May just volunteer but volunteered last year and would kind of like to run it this year.
October 20th: possibly pace KC half 2:30 or slower
November 3rd:  Half marathon-possible pace or just run for fun OR dog 5K in topeka (They haven't scheduled yet and I seriously love this race so would defer to it)
November 10th: timed run/12 hours
November 22nd:Turkey trot 5K

As always, it's a lot and I don't typically race all of these races.  I usually pick one race as a goal race and everything else is for fun.  My goals don't always include time goals, sometimes it's just the goal of finishing period. So there is what my tentative plan is for the rest of the running year.  It always makes me feel so much better to get it out on paper and run it by my coach for approval.  Hope to see y'all at one of my upcoming races!  Stop by and say HI!

Week 15 of 18: Training for the Flint Hills 50 and Trail marathon

Hello Spring...I think.  This week is going to be yet another interesting trial in how to get long runs done with a thousand things going on :)  Spring sports are starting in earnest and hello Easter weekend!

Can't resist a peep meme!

Monday:  Rest day.  Nough said.  I rested like a BOSS.  Except for working.  And Sylvan.

2018 Spring school picture.  STOP GROWING!

Tuesday:  I moved my speed work till after work hoping that would help my motivation.  Coach had 2x 3 mile repeats at a quite brisk pace.  I had decided that I would run around marathon pace or what my marathon pace use to be rather than what coach was hoping for.  I am NOT interested in a PR right now, so there is no advantage to doing crazy fast speed work.  I did my mile warm up and when my watch beeped, I had nothing.  No gas.  Nothing to give.  I even looked at my phone to check humidity because that is usually what makes my chest feel heavy and keeps my breathing out of control and nope, low humidity.  I had plenty sleep and was well hydrated, so I have NO clue what was going on.  I decided rather than beat myself up or continue to spiral down, I would just run the 8 miles prescribed and end on a good note.  It was cloudy and cool and the dogs and I just did our run at a comfortable for us pace and enjoyed it.

Form Drills!  My favorite!

Wednesday:  Coach Track club!  2018 season has begun.  WOW!  Huge turnout for the first practice and parent's meeting.  So many kiddos returning and SO many NEW kiddos!  I am super excited to help coach and can't wait to see some kids get turned on to running.  I am stepping up my game this year and coming up with fun games to play with the littles to encourage running in a fun and positive way.  Not that I wasn't positive last year, I just did drills and many of the littles had no interest.  If you have any fun games that are actually skill drills, let me know!

Thursday:  Speed work again.  2.5 mile repeats x 2 with 1 mile warm up and half a mile cool down for 7 miles total.  I tried a different tactic with this one. Instead of putting a specific number in my watch I decided to go out and run hard.  Whatever hard felt like, that would be the number I would settle in and shoot for instead of a program where my watch yelled at me constantly for going too slow.  Hard for me was from 10:30-10:55 so I tried to stay under 11 and be happy with what I got.  I tried not to think about how 10:30 a few years ago was my easy.  I tried to remember instead how 10:30 was my goal for my first Chicago marathon and that was what I would like to try for again.  I always have an A, B, and C goal and I don't mind putting 10:30-11 minute miles as my A goal knowing that this is a trail marathon and the odds of that happening aren't great.  While this isn't technical trails, it isn't road and it is hilly, so I will be happy with whatever my hard is that day, but I need to set a time goal somewhere and there it is.

Friday:  Day off from work, Good Friday.  Really glad we had the day off because little man was up puking again till after midnight.  His normal routine again, two puking sessions, lots of tummy pain, a visit to the toilet, and he was good to go to sleep.  Not sure if we are the most unlucky people in that he gets every single tummy virus that goes around, or if he has something truly wrong.  I guess we need to get back to food logging again to try and check for any food intolerances that might be present that we are missing.  Anyway, we got to sleep in, and I was really glad for any sleep I could get.  Was going to actually get my bike out and ride for once on the roads.  My will to ride on the trainer in the house was 0% this winter.  Hubby got off of work just in time for us to head straight to sylvan and then post sylvan, we went to a playground and played.  Looks like bike time is going to have to happen in the dark of the morning again if it is going to happen outside.

X marks the spot!

Saturday: LONG RUN DAY!  Since we had the Easter egg hunt in town and sylvan right after, I needed to get up at 4 am and be on the road by 5-5:15 am.   I woke up with my alarm, but quickly shut it off and went back to bed.  We had had Chinese the night before and for whatever reason, it had sat super heavy on my stomach and made me feel horrible.  I ate what i always eat, steamed rice and some sweet and sour chicken, and I had taken an indigestion pill right after eating just in case, but neither of those strategies helped.  I am wondering since it isn't our normal joint that we go to if that caused the issue. Some secret spice or ingredient that my body just isn't use to???  Anyway, sleeping in and letting my tummy figure itself out was the best decision, even if it meant an afternoon long run thanks to our crazy morning schedule.

After years of trying to find a prize egg, Andrew finally succeeded!

Post crazy Easter egg hunt in Wamego, Tony took Andrew to Sylvan (we are trying to make up for the time we missed during spring break) and to see Ready Player One at the local movie theater, while I ran for 4 hours.

Me trying to distract myself and take a pic of stella.  She was too nestled behind me to show up!

This run started out great, but the wind just beat me down.  North wind sustained at 18 mph made for a horrible head wind, and for that matter also a horrible cross wind, so no matter where I ran, I just couldn't get away from it.  I also felt like the wind was shifting and coming from the east as well at times.  I did 13 miles with Deuce and Stella with the the remaining 7 with just Stella.  I made a pit stop at the house to drop off Deuce and to get a jacket.  The temperature steadily dropped during my run and my shorts and a tech T were not good enough anymore and I was NOT comfortable.  I had to take my hat off and hold it almost immediately, and then attach it to my pack because the wind kept blowing it off.  Lucky for me, I had my trail nerds buff already on my neck, so I just moved it up to cover my ears and keep my hair out of my face.  Win/Win.  I tell you what, going back out to finish was tough mentally, but I got it done.   Now to see if my coach is going to try and get me to do one more 20 or if we are officially in taper.  She always has a different approach, so excited to see what she does this time!

Sunday:  Easter and an easy run.  I will admit, the long run made me super sore and I did everything I could to thwart that soreness.  I was surprised I was so sore since I ran on mostly flat good gravel roads.  I even took some aleve before bed and I slept on the heating pad, I was that sore!

The Easter bunny came and brought a mine craft themed Easter basket.  I am not sure I like the fact that he is growing up so quickly and is in to "bigger kid" stuff now.  I want to go back to Disney Channel and Doc McStuffins and Mickey!  We have a tradition of going to Cracker Barrel on Easter and having Easter lunch.  When we headed to Junction City to get food, the weather was fine, cold, but fine.  When we pulled up in the parking lot, there was something falling from the sky, some sort of slush.  When we got done, it was full blown sleet, and as we drove the 30 or so miles home, we were creeping and watching cars slide off of the interstate left and right.  

That is pure ice he is driving on.  So glad it was him and not me!

My hubby was driving, so we decided to cut off on a scenic road and try Manhattan roads, which turned out to be equally as bad.  We took our time and saw several wrecks, but made it home in one piece.  I ended up on the #insteadmill to get my 5 easy, finishing up the series The Night Of and starting on Forensic Files. I took it super easy and took walk breaks every mile for a tenth of a mile and surprisingly, my body and hip felt fine.  Yeah for good recovery!

What a week!!!   My coach says this was peak week, but I never believe her because she is always psyching me out.  I will eagerly await final surge to update later today and see my fate!

Have a great week and hope you are actually having spring where ever you are!