The Hawk Marathon

Last year's adventure with the Hawk 100

The Hawk.  What can I even say.  It's an epic race.  Last year I crewed for my friend Lindsey at Living Loving Runner.  I wrote a few blog posts about it here.  I knew had to do this race in some sort of capacity the next year (this year) and I knew looking at my schedule that it fit nicely in the weekend I needed a 26 mile long run. Why not do a long run with fully stocked aid station and lots and lots of running friends?  Yes, the trail is very technical and I haven't been on a trail in forever, but I have been doing hill repeats and working on strength so there is that.

If you follow my blog or my personal page, you know I have been sick.  I have battled upper respiratory yuckiness that knocked me out of my long runs last weekend and knocked my mileage way back the week before the race.  In some ways it was kind of nice to have a taper of sorts.  The plan had me doing some pretty high mileage the last few weeks and I was feeling SOOOO good and ready for it, but my body had other plans.

The nights before the race I actually got some decent sleep. I was still coughing, but it had changed honestly for the better if that is possible as in it wasn't as deep and hurtful.  The day before the race I actually started having some pretty serious head congestion. WTH body?  My son is also sickly again with congestion, so I figure he re infected me since I was already down.    I wanted to stay the night in Lawrence, but Andrew had his first fall baseball practice Friday night and I wanted to watch since we weren't coaching.  The marathon didn't begin till 8 am, so I didn't have to get up so bright an early, but I did need to pick up my packet and get stella's bib pre race.

I got up at 5 am and was on the road a little past 5:30 am.  I rest assured that the Trail Hawk aid stations would have anything I needed if I forgot something.  I didn't lay out a flat Michelle or flat Stella because we just had too much going on and when I got home I wanted to go to bed.  Luckily I didn't forget anything, but Stella in the meantime did eat some of my Tailwind singles that I had bought to carry in my pack.  She even ate one that was caffeinated, whoops.  I had them way back on the counter so I have a feeling that Elvis helped her by batting them closer.

When we drove up, someone was leaving the parking lot right by the start/finish, BONUS!  I got checked in quickly and got my swag.  There was SO much good stuff including a really, really nice drawstring bag, a collapsible cup for aid stations, a long sleeved soft T shirt, and a Hawk buff.  The rest in the picture came later :)

Stella was all smiles with her pacer bib. She always get so much love pre-race.  There were so many groups of adults and kids giving her love.

She ate it up.  At 8 am we were lined up and off!   If I could figure out how to download the video Todd got of the start I would so you could hear her barking her head off.  She pulled like a sled dog for at least 2 miles.  We ran around the playground and then dumped on white where we had a conga line. I was fine with it, I was not in a hurry at all.  This race is about finishing for me and not about a time.  I have said previously, but this is a technical trail.  Very rooty, very rocky, and lots of up and down.  No vert or huge elevation climbs except for the up for bunker hill.

You have to keep your eyes on your feet, pick up your feet, and watch out for snakes.  I had so many almost super man events where my toe caught some thing and I almost went flying.  I managed to catch myself every time, lucky for me, but I stubbed my toes multiple times and I am pretty sure I will loose both big toe nails.  

There are several small sections of runnable to me trail.  Some people run the whole thing and to them I say, way to be a mountain goat!  I am just not sure footed enough to do that.  That lady in the picture is one of my new trail sisters Indika.  We ran together for quite a while before she started feeling bad and we had to leave her at an aid station.  The humidity felt like it stuck around instead of dissipating.  The tree cover seemed to hold it in, and I was very quickly covered in sweat that was going no where.  I knew it was suppose to get hotter later but the forecasts had been all over the place with regards to the actual ending temps.  

We not only had technical trail, but we had steps, we had grassy fields that were mowed, we had gravel roads, and we had gravel hills.  

I am not a purist when it comes to trails, so this change in trail to open field was a welcome difference.  The only problem was we were exposed on these parts and it was getting hot.  The aid station workers at EVERY aid station took such great care of us.  They refilled our bottles, wetted stella down, helped me get Tailwind powder in my bottles, and fed me watermelon.  Stella got watermelon and peanut butter sandwiches and wraps.  She also got lots of love by many trail runners and just ate it up.  This year there was some parts of the trail where we actually met other runners this year due to the re route.  For the most part, it was fun to see the 50 and 100 milers coming through.  We had one gentleman that made some derogatory comments about Stella being out there,  but I tried to put that out of my mind and not let him rattle me.  

We had a section of out and back on a HUGE gravel hill.  We had to get a trail trinket before heading back down.  Of course we had to get the little dog :)

Back up and over Bunker hill.  The views were amazing, but the heat was getting real.  I was ready to head back to the trail and to the cover of the trees.  At least without the direct sun beaming on us, we were able to stay  cool enough.  I caught up with several runners and ran with a few over the course of the race.  Sometimes it's just nice to have company for a little bit.  I didn't get any pictures of the rooty and rocky trail parts which is pretty much the whole of the White trail that is on the way back because I was afraid of falling.  

there is a trail down there somewhere

You can see how flooded some areas where.  They RD and Trail Hawks did an amazing job with the re routes and re planning of the course.  They were dealt a ton of challenges this year, and they rose to the occasion as always.  I honestly can't say enough good about their races.    The course is also marked perfectly for a blonde like me. I can get lost easily on trail races and I never got confused or felt the need to back track.  

  It was about mile 17 according to my watch that I felt like it was getting a bit hot for both of us.  We were power walking at this time anyway, as for me most of white is not runnable due to the rocks and roots.  My watch seemed very off, especially when we saw a sign that said 6.5 miles to the finish.  We as marathoners needed to do another out and back around Sander's mound base before heading to the finish, but still the numbers weren't adding up.  I decided to not trust my watch since trails do crazy things to watches and just trust the signs that said we were almost done.  I think I did beg and plead to the lady at the spot where I had to do the out and back  to let me finish instead of going to the loop, but like a good trail course marshal, she made me head down anyway.  Mean lady :)  The out and back was again in full sun on grass that some of which was over deep mud which sounds weird but you had to see it to believe it.  Again power walking was all we had and we gave it our best.  One of the only complaints I have about this race is that we didn't have aid from Land's end to till the end.  That I think was about 8.5 miles and I ran out of water and tailwind.  I had Stella's water, but I was trying not to drink it, plus she gets sink water in the bladder and i think it has a weird taste.  I stopped several times to give her water because it was stupid hot at that point.  We finally headed back up the hill and to the finish!  

Ah the finish line!  Such a great sight until some lady was screaming out asking for my number. I honestly had to stop as at that point I didn't know my number, so who knows what my pictures will look like :(  Stella was pulling in front of me and then at that point she was stuck to my side looking at me because we had stopped.    

I was given my beautiful hand made medal and my sticker and I quickly had to get Stella some water and me some water.  As always, the Trail Hawks made sure we were good to go, bringing me a cup of cold water and Stella a bucket of clean water.  Stella quickly got a sponge down from the RD Sherrie.  We got a coke and some food, but I couldn't eat because my teeth hurt so bad from the dang Tailwind.  I have NO clue why it does that sometimes and other not but it's very annoying because all I wanted post run was some salty chips. Many of the runners snuck Stella food and she got lots of pets that she loved it all.  She is such a ham for attention!

We sat for quite a while before heading back.  I couldn't eat, but I tried to get something in other than just Coke.  One of the awesome volunteers made me a BBQ quesadilla that was quite tasty, but I just couldn't chew well enough to enjoy it.  The drive back was tough because I was so sore, but I talked to my mommy the whole way which kept me alert and awake.  When I got home I was running a fever and not feeling great, but so goes life lately.  I can't seem to shake whatever it is that i have.  I felt fine during my run other than being a bit snotty and having to spit, snort, and or cough.  I can't wait to see the Mile 90 photos as always.  I felt so strong during the race minus the heat.  If you want a great fall trail marathon with RDs that truly care and volunteers that are out of this world, this is your race!  I already can't wait till next year and maybe just maybe we can do the 50!

I will do another post about the good, the bad, and the ugly since I enjoyed doing that for the last trail marathon plus I will add Mile 90 photos because i know they will be amazing.  Thank you Trail Hawks, volunteers, spectators, runners, and all.  We had an amazing time and we will be back!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

this kid cracks me up

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

our poor city park windmill got demolished thanks to the storm

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

practicing with friends

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

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

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

Week 13 of 24: Training for the Run Amok 50 miler

Welcome to Michelle complains bitterly about the weather Kansas is throwing at her.  Please enjoy:)

New game!!!  I have no clue how to play it as I don't remember this game in the 80s?

Monday:  Rest day.  Enough said.  Major excitement = a new arcade game at the music studio.  Plus, little Elvis the kitten we adopted at the Clear the Shelter event went to the vet and got on meds to help with his horrible little cold.

dewpoint of 73?  NOOOOOOO!

Tuesday:  10 miler.  Woke up to horrible running conditions, even at 4 am.  Consulted with Robin and we decided no dogs, take it super duper easy.  Since school has started back, she can only do about 6 or so miles with me at the speed we go.  It makes me super sad, but any miles together with any of my running partners is better than none. I figured I would come back and run on the mill or finish out around the house once she dropped off.  It actually felt nicer or should I say I was more use to it by then, so I had a quick bathroom break and headed back out.

Storms all around us!

Wednesday:  6 miler with hills. Okay, so this was one of those no good, horrible, never want to have this happen again runs.  I had NO clue what precipitated this disaster other than I had one beer and some cheese dip the night before, but honestly, i have had this meal before and been fine.  Got up to storms AGAIN, so decided to dreadmill it. I only had 6 on the plan, which is much more manageable to me on the life sucking dreadmill.  Our treadmill has programs and it has several hilly programs which you can adjust if it is too fast or too hilly.  I started out with one of the programs, but quickly had to push  stop as I was getting pretty nervous with the speed + incline right from the start, even with adjustments.   Long long ago I tore up my quad running inclines on the mill and have been pretty nervous since then.   Decided to switch to speed work instead, using my 30 second intervals and decided to try hilly on my 8 miler.  I got off of the damn thing at least 5 times to go to the bathroom. Plus, the storm woke my kiddo up and he kept getting in the space behind me on the mill, which scares the crap out of me when I can't see him.  Add to the fact that he kept getting the kitten out of the dog crate we keep him in at night and the kitten of course loves to run UNDER the treadmill.    I had visions of  either a) my kid being slung off the mill and or b) kitten being sucked into the belt and well, you can fill in the blank there.  Between my stomach and my nerves it just wasn't great.  Plus, I tried to watch the new season of  Mind Hunter and they talk very softly A LOT and with my bone conductive head phones, that makes it super hard to hear what they are saying when I am running on the mill without ear plugs to drown out the mill sound.  Anyway, long story short, i was VERY glad to be done.

a mommy carrying her babies, which are those bumps on her butt!

Thursday:  8 miles.  Woke up to thunder AGAIN.  Didn't even look at the radar, just figured going back to sleep was better than 8 miles on the mill at 4 am.  Running after work use to be my jam, but I have gotten so use to getting it done early that it was tough to get the gumption to get going.  Took a honeystinger waffle about 30 minutes before and took one bottle of tailwind and one bottle of fresh water with me plus some jolly ranchers.  Left Stella at home due to dew point being in the 70s :(  I will have to say other than the sweat just dripping and staying due to the humidity, the run went really, really well.  I felt great, only had to stop once to pee, and finished feeling just as good as when I started. In fact, I felt so good that once I got home I decided to try and beat the sunset and get the yard mowed.  My hubby thinks i am weird, but I LOVE a fresh mowed lawn! IF I had time, i would probably mow my yard twice a week at least.

Friday:  REST DAY.  I fully enjoyed taking it easy and getting ready for a crazy weekend!

Saturday:  2 hour run and RACE DAY!  I had to get up and get going in order to complete my run pre race.  I was also working the tower without our president present for the first time so was SUPER nervous about that.  My run went great, other than being nervous about being out with Stella in the dark post watching an episode of Mind Hunters.  I am LOVING season two and would love to binge it but just too busy.  Got cleaned up and headed to the track where we had several delays, but got it done with minimal issues.  Whew.  I feel so much better about doing the tower, but still have problems with scoring lapped cars and keeping track in big classes.

my view for the day

I did a big long live video on FB about Andrew's performance, but short story is he tried, he passed ON THE INSIDE multiple times, and his placement doesn't really reflect how hard he tried.  I am really, super proud of him and we celebrated like he won. One of his friends kicked butt and took the checkered and it is so awesome to watch these kids all figuring it out and getting out there and working hard.  I am not sure what was different this week other than he has been practicing once a week and on the next restrictor plate up.

and it looked like that for ALL day

Sunday:  Long run day. I  already knew that this day would be a total poop show due to the weather forecasts.  Storms and rain all day were showing up on the app and I was NOT going to run 22 miles on the mill.  I have done 2 hours, but 4-5 hours is just not my jam.  I woke up again at 4 am to storms so went back to bed to rest.  I woke up around 7 to a steady rain.  I was very thankful for the sleep but not happy about not getting started till later. I needed to go work at KSU and I needed to start cleaning and getting the house in order for the appraisal coming up. We are trying to re finance our house and this is the last step so hopefully they see the potential value and not the value of the house in the state it is in right now.  Anyway, I finally got out around 9:30 to a light rain that changed from light to driving to light to nothing.  We also had wind, which was welcomed to dry us out, but we had a mix of sun and clouds and humidity. 

someone was digging the mud

At 20 miles I felt like I was toast for some reason, so I headed back to the house to refill my bottles with some ice cold tailwind.  I also made a decision to just do the last two on the mill.  Yes, I gave in to the humidity, but I wanted to finish the last two at any cost and I did.  #sorrynotsorry

Glad to be done with another high mileage week.  Next week has longer week day runs but a shorter long run on the weekend.  Hoping the weather is a little bit nicer to me!  Have a great week!

Week 12 of 24: Training for the Run Amok 50 miler CUT BACK WEEK!

I couldn't have had a better week for some easy cut back down time.  Another heat wave, a 1 mile PTO event I had been planning for a long time, and active recovery!

Monday:  Rest day.  After not getting much sleep the night before, I needed a rest day.  Note to self, don't work out right before bed. I finally popped two melatonins around 11:30 pm.  Those who know me know that I am usually out by 9-9:30 pm, so this is SUPER late for me! 

Tuesday:  Easy 6. I know I sound like a broken record.  Holy moly, 100% humidity and 76 degrees at 5 am.  Dogs were a no go and we were drenched in sweat in the first quarter mile.  We did see about 8 meteors during our run which was super fun!  I took it easy as it is a cut back week and just enjoyed what there was to enjoy.

Wednesday:  Easy 4.  It was a little less hot and humid, but still icky.  We took the dogs since it was a shorter run and they managed fine. The only problem was the dang gravel fairy had dumped a TON of rocks on our route and they were very hard to run on. They were very loose, big, and covered the entire road from side to side.  In the dark it was very hard to navigate and stay upright, so we had to take it very easy.  Later, we got an invitation to go spend some time at Widgets (our local Chucky cheese, but way a more fun place).  Since my hubby is the boss, he said go for it and we had SO much fun!  I love that he still has friendships with his preschool friends and wish more of them were in class together. I am not even going to tell you how much it cost to "win"  that Narwhal. 

Thursday:  Easy 6.  Another 6 ixer.  Another humid run, plus a full moon, plus the start of school!  How is my kiddo already in 2nd grade!  This is his last year at his current school and it's so bittersweet. I have loved being able to walk him to school every day and while I will still get to walk him to the shuttle bus for his next school, I will really miss the staff and teachers at his very first elementary school.

Of course we have to get back in the routine of Boom going and everyone marveled at how big he has gotten.  We need a TON of work on our leash manners and manners in general, but string cheese is the bomb.com and I am ready to get my dog trainer hat back on and go to work.  In picking Andrew up post school, I asked what his favorite part of the day was and he answered recess and getting to "hang" with his teacher.  I hope that she is very patient and kind with him and allows him to show her that he really is a smart and creative little guy.  

Friday:  Rest day.  The boys had KSU baseball camp post school and I had PTO stuff.  Our big run was Saturday and we had packet pick up, course marking, and last minute preparations to attend to.  I had planned on eating and getting to bed early, but I was dragging doing other stuff and then the boys came home and I had to get a recap on camp.  It sounded like a TON of fun and I think both the hubby and little man learned so much.  

Saturday:  Long run day! I planned on waking up at 4 am and then heading out at 5 to get my 14.  The weather had other plans.  It stormed most of the night and it got so bad that our neighbors tree fell over and blocked the entire street and almost landed on their cars!  The dogs were on top of me from about 1 am on, so I didn't get much sleep.  I sent Robin a brief message saying the storms didn't look like they were going to abate any time soon, so we could move our long run till Sunday since it is only a 4 run a week cut back week.  I decided active recovery would be nice and post the boys heading to baseball camp, I got on my bike and got some mileage in.  Lots of the fields were flooded and two sections of our long run route was under water.  I biked through both, but the one above is going to be fun to run through!

Then this happened.  It was clear the shelter day and all pet adoptions were 25 dollars.  Andrew has been wanting a kitten since Sparky disappeared and we told him if he worked hard in school  AND he took care of the cat, he could have a cat again. I told my hubby my two requirements were NO kittens since we have three dogs and NO long haired cats since I am allergic.  Guess what?  NO one listened and they came home with a very sickly, very scrawny long haired kitten.  I set him up in a dog crate with his litter box, food, water, and a big dog bed, as he is too young to be out and about unsupervised with the dogs. My hope is that he can go to work with us and hang out just like sparky did, so he doesn't have to be in the crate all day.  Post getting the kitten set up quickly, we headed out to set up for our Back to School Bash at the school that i have been helping plan since spring of last year.  

I think it was a success as we had gotten rid of the 5K and just had a 1 mile run, kid's fun runs, and added a meal.  We wanted it to be less about the race and more about the family atmosphere, and I think we succeeded in that.  Andrew and Tony ran the 1 miler, even though they were super tired from baseball camp and super late.  OOPS.  Their time was worse than last year but they had two days of baseball camp on their legs and it was hot by the time we did the races.  

Sunday:  Long run day take 2!  Up at 4 am for some kitten cuddles.  Little Elvis has a pretty bad cold and is sneezing and wheezing, so he and I sat in the bathroom with the shower on as hot as it would go so we could get some steam and hopefully help him to breath better.  We finally got on the road around 5:20 am and hoped we would miss the rain and storms as the radar indicated.  We had brief sprinkles but other than that, the weather was actually nice.  Cloudy with a little bit of wind, and only humidity and sun later in our run.  We took our time, enjoyed the run, and got it done.  Afterwards, we did errands, got some pool time, and enjoyed our Sunday. YEAH for shorter long runs!

I guess it's back to it next week!  I have some BIG runs coming up and trying not to freak out about it.  I will get done what I can and the rest will be what it is.  Have a great week!  

Week 11 of 24: Training for Running Amok 50 miler

One more week and then it's back to school time  AND another cut back week!  I can't believe that this summer has gone by so quickly. I will miss the flexibility that is summer, but I am looking forward to getting Andrew back on a consistent schedule with regards to bed times, wake ups, and day time activities.  I think he has had a very memorable summer, even if we haven't stayed up on our schooling like I had hoped.  Oh well, 2nd grade should be interesting no matter what.  Last year at his current school before moving up to be with the big kids, EEEEKKK!!!  This year he got an older teacher who has 16 years experience so I am hoping this will be a great thing for him since he has had two younger teachers previously.

School hair cut time!  Meet the curlhawk...that lasted one day LOL

Monday:  Rest day. We are starting back to our regular in school routine.  I can't believe this summer is already over with :(  Monday nights will be music nights again and Andrew was ecstatic about being back in class.  Since he turned 7 this summer, he has to start figuring out what instrument he likes so he can start specializing in it.  Every week it's something different, so time shall tell!  Right now it's the drums, but in the past, it's been the electric guitar and or the keyboards.  I would be happy with any and all instruments so I can play along with my trumpet.

Happy girl!

Tuesday:  Easy 8.  My running partner was out of commission, so I had decisions to make.  If it were too hot and humid to the point that Stella couldn't go, I probably needed to stick to the treadmill and not run by myself at 5 am.  When I woke up, we were right on the line with the dew point at 70, the humidity at 92, and the temp at 72.  I decided I would do a mile and see how Stella reacting. IF she was struggling, we would go home.  If not we would continue and I would re-evaluate at the 2 mile mark.  I figured any miles on the road was better than all miles on the mill.  She seemed okay and I had plenty of water for both of us, so we kept going to the turn around at 4 miles.  We both made it home sweaty and happy, but missing Rockin Robin :(

Game night!  

Wednesday:  6 miles of speed.  As always or should I say as lately, my body woke me up at 3 something and I quickly checked the radar as we had predicted storms.  I honestly don't mind doing speed work on the mill, as the changing of the speeds keeps my mind off of the fun that is dreadmill running.  It appeared that they would hold off until after 7 and I had planned on being done before that.  I decided to reset my alarm for 5 and go out around 5:15, since it appeared that i had plenty of time.  I took a little while to get ready and as I checked my radar and lightning app, everything still appeared to be pretty far away.  I headed out and got about a quarter of a mile before I turned around due to lightning.  Even though my app said the strikes were more than 25 miles away, they looked super close and I did NOT want to get stuck in a storm. I am so glad i went back because 2 minutes after I started running on the mill, the bottom fell out.  As I am typing this, it is STILL storming like crazy and roads are flooding everywhere around us. Later on we had game night.  Screen time for all of us has been a little out of control at night and i get it, everyone needs to zone out, but I feel like it has been a little too much lately.  We played Outfoxed, Sorry, Scrabble, Yahtzee, and Uno. I LOVE board games as mom and I played many nights just her and I, and I can't wait till Andrew loves it as much as I do.

stick a fork in me!

Thursday:  Easy 8.  Once again we were suppose to get morning T storms.  When my body woke me up at 3, it was already lightening outside.  The radar showed it going south of us, but the lightning was just too close for comfort. I made the decision to sleep in and run later.  This always makes my day not go so well, I am not sure why I always chose sleep because the whole day I am thinking about when I am going to run and stalking the weather.  Plus, normally if the sun is out and it's august, Stella can't go. When I finally got off work and ready, it was feels like 90 outside, but very low humidity.  I decided to try with Stella and have my hubby on stand by so that if she showed ANY signs of heat stress I could call him.  We were fine till we got to the turn around at mile 4 to head back.  We were out of water as I had frozen my hand held and Stella and I had drank all of the water that had melted.  The rest was still frozen solid and not melting for some odd reason.  I called the hubby to come bring us water and he showed up with my bladder.   Which is great.  Except, I had no pack on so no way to carry the bladder AND no hose LOL!!!!!  Great idea just didn't work, so I had him take Stella with him, and I managed on the little bit of water I had left.  I missed her dearly, but it wasn't worth her over heating without water to drink.

the aftermath of stella being in the hubby's truck.  Whoops.  

Friday:  Rest day.  I probably should have gotten my Sunday run in since we have a car race Sunday during the day, but sleep called my name and I enjoyed it.  The boys even went to a movie  so I could get into bed super early to get up super duper early.  My hubby is really rocking this training cycle by doing stuff with Andrew,  which means I can get in bed early, I really appreciate it!l

Saturday:  Tried to get in bed early and take some melatonin, but my body had other plans. I think I finally went to sleep around 9 something after some false starts of sleeping and then being awaken by noises/dogs.  The boys went to the movie theater, so the house was quiet, but the dogs swore they heard boogie men several times.  Up at 3 am as my body now automatically gets me up at that time anyway.  Fueled and got ready to head out.  Feels like 72 with 92% humidity. Sigh. I didn't know how much time i would get with Stella, as the dew point was already at 69 and suppose to get worse as the morning went on.

We did an out and back on my normal route (10 miles) and then hit the house up for a new cold bottle of tailwind, some more jolly ranchers, and a honey stinger waffle. I wanted to try alternating tailwind with something solid so I am not just sucking down tailwind for hours.  I quartered the waffle and tried taking a quarter at each walk break.  Stella also likes this strategy, as she gets a little bite now and again, so she says more waffles mom!  After our second out and back, I felt like the sun was out and it was getting to hot and gross for Stella. I was stopping periodically to give her fresh water and there was some water still on the road, but the cloud cover was spotty at best when the sun came up,  and I didn't want her to get into danger.  I dropped her off and headed back out to get the final 5 miles.  I know I need to vary my route and get more trail time, but right now to beat the heat, I have to get out on the road by 4 am.  The safest place for me to do that is on my normal gravel roads that are pancake flat.  I am doing hills when I can, but I am kind of glad my 50 miler is on a pretty gentle trail that is a 6. something loop.  

Yes I add syrup to my waffle, yes that's real butter, and no I did not eat the sausage patties because they tasted odd

Post running we had a nice brunch and hit up our local running store for me to order some new shoes.  Sigh.  High volume training = more than normal pairs of shoes.  The new Hoka Stinsons are out and I pray they haven't done anything crazy to them because the 4s are the bomb and work great for my weird feet and body.  Also, got the new tailwind Cola singles.  They said it tasted like drinking coke on the run, so I am pretty excited to try it!  Plus, it has caffeine and while I do like my Run Gum for a caffeine kick and actual coke at aid stations, it would be nice to be able to change up my flavors of tailwind and get some added bonus.  

it won't be long and he will be taller than me and that is crazy!

We also on a whim checked out the Hyvee Birthday Bash (our local grocery store we love).  It's their 10th birthday and they had all kinds of fun stuff including free bouncy houses, lots of samples, pony rides at 5 bucks a pop, all kinds of animals to pet and feed (feed cost money), and face painting/balloon art.  Plus, they had the most amazing shaved ice and food trucks including our favorite local food truck Smokin' Willies.  Just add a beer garden and we would have been set LOL!  

Sunday:  I had to get my 1 hour 45 minute run done pre race and that meant yet another early morning. I had volunteered to learn how to do computer work and the tower for the races and I was kind of nervous.  Other than the novice moms I hang out with in the stands, I really don't know any of the regular moms.  Plus, and I sound like a broken record here, the weather reports for the morning looked horrible.  Sure enough when my alarm went off at 4 am, there was lots of lightening and the storms were on their way.  I went back to sleep, even hit snooze when my alarm finally went off meaning no running pre-race.  I had a very full day learning tower stuff and I still am very overwhelmed.  The computer scores everything as the cars have transponders on them, but you have to have two hand scorers as well, because the computer can get confused.  I was super confused when cars got lapped. I have to get some sort of system down for accounting for every single lapped car.  It can get confusing because the oval is very short and lapping of slower cars for certain classes can happen very fast.  I also did not get any video of Andrew.  

I have alot in my brain about the day but I will keep it brief here.  He got 1st in qualifying with his fastest time ever, 3rd in the heat race (HE PASSED A CAR) and then last place in the feature.  I am not sure what happened in the feature other than he didn't want to pass, has lost total confidence in passing basically, so if he is at the back (fastest car goes to the back) then he will sit there and putter around.  I hated not being able to talk to him and see what was going on, but I had to work and work I did.  I even got to hand out awards at the end and talk in front of people which I LOVE!  The boys went to dinner and I hightailed it home to hit the mill.  I finally got on around 7 and finished close to 9.  Then I was WIDE AWAKE till 11:30.  Yeesh.  I don't like doing that, but it had to be done and Schitt's Creek and 4:1 run:walk intervals got me through.  

Thanks for joining me this week and see you next week when I will be in yet another wonderful cut back week!!!

Week 10 of 24: Training for the Run Amok 50 miler

This was a tough week for me.  Trying to get over viral mess, shuttling kiddos to the last camp of the year, and craziness in life in general dominated.  I am proud of myself for handling the ups and downs better than I use to, because the old me would probably be in tears 24/7 with the crap that popped up this week.  Enjoy my beautiful mess of a life right now.

Look at my V02 max!

Monday:  Rest day.  I woke up feeling much better, fever free and ready to get back it at sort of.  I had kids to take to camp in Manhattan and a full day's worth of work at the shop some of which I had planned on getting some done during the weekend.  Cue the fun that is Monday.  Tahoe wouldn't start which meant Tony had to hurriedly get dressed and take the boys to camp in Manhattan.  Got the Tahoe jumped off and to the dealership, was only a battery thank goodness.  Roofing nail in the tire of our shop truck.  GAH.  Then to work to deal with some issues.  AH the joy of owning your own business, you know all the things.  Sometimes I think I would like to go back to knowing nothing.  I am learning so much about the ebb and flow of business though and how to be patient.  Then, found out the bank I financed my Tahoe through still had my automatic payments all screwed up and I HAD to go to Manhattan to a local branch or pay a fee to pay my payment.  Sigh.  This is the third month they claimed it would come out of my account automatically and it didn't. I even had paper work to prove it was set up and set up correctly by said bank.  Oh well, patience is a virtue right?   Stress level through the roof but was able to get to bed early, read to Andrew some really good books, and read myself before getting to sleep.

The dogs laying on top of us AKA cuddling

Tuesday:  Rest day.  I honestly didn't know how many miles my body would allow. I had 10 on the schedule and I was cautiously optimistic while preparing my tail wind and Stella's water the night before.  I slept HORRIBLE.  I had nightmares all night about Andrew getting kidnapped and kept waking up with a headache and sore neck. I kind of thought I was just sleeping wonky or at least hoped that was the case.  I finally got up around 3:56 am before my alarm was going to go off and shuffled down stairs to get my coffee started, the dogs fed, and the thermometer.  My temp was 99.6 and quickly started increasing.  I quickly sent my running partner a message (who was out of town but mirroring my run where she was at), and asked her what should I do.  I was planning on immediately taking advil for my headache anyway, but should i push it?  It was PERFECT weather outside, low temps and not horrible humidity.  I went out and watched for meteors and contemplated taking another day off versus forcing a run. In the end I decided to not run and take it easy one more day. I kept my eye on the prize, the long runs this weekend versus getting the other runs done.  I hoped it was just the stress of the day that caught up to me and hoped one more day of doing nothing would help. I knew it wouldn't hurt for sure.  Who am I?  In years past I would be frantic that I didn't get my run in.  I think I am finally growing up and making smart choices LOL!!!!!

Wednesday:  I woke up well rested, fever free, and most importantly headache free.  I felt like an easy 6 with no hills would be okay.  I would just play it by ear and go back home if I was feeling bad or whatever.  I noticed my weather app said it might rain but the radar looked clear.  As I head out running east two things happened.  One a weird SUV that is NEVER on our road at that time of morning was out cruising around (not a cop) and two, there was HUGE cloud to ground lightening in the distance.  I don't take either of these things lightly, lightening can kill and so can not being up on your stranger danger.  I quickly checked my app and it appeared all of the lightning was at least 25 miles away.  Whew. Pretty to watch, but still super scary.  I also passed a male runner who Robin and I have been seeing out on our route coming back from where I was headed and stopped him to ask if he had seen the man.  He told me the man had not come his way so I was safe and that also there was a cop out on our route patrolling.  Whew.  We finished drenched in sweat and happy to be done!

Thursday:  Easy 8.  My body has this thing now where it likes to wake me up around 3:45 every morning.  I usually go back to sleep and sleep the hardest 15 minutes ever right before my alarm goes off.  Robin was back so we were ready to conquer the 8 miler together.  It was nice to run and talk and just get those miles done.

Friday Night Cudddles!

Friday:  Well....I had intentions of getting my 2 hour run done because Andrew has another night race and I knew Sunday would be a bust.  OR I could do 10 that I missed on Monday and still run Saturday and Sunday.  Either way, when I woke up, it was thundering and lightning so the decision was made to postpone till later.  Except it rained, all day long and the thought of doing 10 on the mill just never sounded appealing.  Even when it wasn't raining it was 100% humidity out and just plain yucky.  I chose to take a rest day, have a good dinner with the family and watch a movie.  No regrets.

Saturday:  Long run day and race day!  Based on the weather predictions, I fully expected to wake up to more storms.  I was surprised to wake up to very humid conditions, but no rain.  I had stayed up a little later than normal watching the movie The Upside with Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston.  I kept thinking I would just go to bed and finish the next day, but it was very good! I honestly didn't feel too bad getting up at 4 am, as I thought I would.  We did a quick 3ish miles in town and then dumped the dogs off as the sun started coming up.  The humidity was kicking both of our asses and we were SOAKING wet when we got done.  Thank you 4:1 intervals for getting us through 100% humidity safely.  We were super lucky that the clouds hung around so at least we didn't have the sun to compete with too.  I didn't get any pictures because oddly enough I left my phone at home after a bathroom break we took.

After long run and clean up, we had to get ready to race.  We had our next night race and I was nervous/excited to see how Andrew raced after 3 weeks off.  We have had some one step forward, 2 steps back races lately, and I just never know what we are going to get because well, he's a kid and he's 7.  In practice it seemed his car was really tuned in and running great.  He had the fastest lap he has ever run in practice.  He was running a beautiful line until other kids got out on the track and then he started running their line.  Sigh.  Oh well, heat race one he got 3rd, wouldn't pass even though I felt like he had the faster car of at least the second place car.  Second heat race he was in the back and decided to just hang out there.  Double sigh.  There was a wreck and he thought they would throw the caution so he slowed down, let all the cars pass him and guess what, no caution!  Lesson learned, never assume.  Feature race was super late and super long.  They ran over 100 laps before the race was called due to cautions/time limit.  There was lots of upset parents and the flag man quit before the race was over.   I was a little shocked at how some of the parents were acting and kind of embarrassed.  Oh well, I am learning this is everywhere no matter what sport we do.  We finally got home around 1 am and crashed.

Sunday:  2 hour run.  Andrew and I slept till 10:30 when I forced myself to get up.  The dogs actually woke me up at 6:30 to feed them, but I quickly went back to bed.  Getting up early to get this run done was not an option, so instead I focused on a late afternoon/night run.  I use to be an afternoon/night runner for years so it would be quite fun to try again. The boys went to the track to practice with another restrictor plate (less restricting + more gas = faster), so i had the afternoon to clean, listen to podcasts, and read books.  I finally got geared up to go out around 6 pm, and it was feels like 92.  Surprisingly, the run went really, really well. I got almost 10 miles in, maintaining a faster pace that I normally do, go figure.  I have been listening to the podcast The Teacher's Pet so that took my mind off of the heat.  Stella didn't get to go but hoping this coming week will be nicer for her. 

We MADE it!  What a week!  One more week of no childcare and then school starts back EEEEK!  I can't believe this summer has gone by so fast!  Have a great week y'all!