Week 5: Training for the 0 Mile Flint Hills 50K

 Week 5 with only 7 weeks left till race day.  Wheeeeeeee!

I want to first say that I have really been struggling with some mental health lately and I have finally gotten in with a therapist in Manhattan. I am super excited to work with someone again and get some coping strategies to help with life stresses.  I know therapy doesn't cure all things, but having that mental clarity does help me immensely.  I am a huge advocate for de-stigmatizing mental health and if people can learn from my journey, I am all for sharing.   

I had two midweek runs of 3 miles each.  I guess you could call one a tempo run because we moved pretty speedily through the work out.  My second 3 miler was on the dreadmill and my first time back on the mill since sort of falling.  I felt unsteady the entire run and basically had a death grip on the front bar that takes your pulse.  I kept trying to let go and my body would feel like it was falling again and I would have to hold it again.   Oh well, hopefully there won't be many more dreadmill runs this winter.  

My long run wasn't truly long this weekend, as this is a cut back week.  I had planned on doing a few more miles, but after struggling to just get my 5, I called it good.  Not sure why I struggled so much as I got in bed at relatively a good time and didn't have any alcohol the night before.  The dogs loved it no matter what so I call it a win.  My race is 7 weeks away and I know the next few weekends are going to be upping the mileage significantly, which means I will take an easy weekend with a smile.  

I am going to end this short post with a few pics of my kiddo.  He is already wearing my shirts/sweatshirts and the same size shoes.  Time please slow down!  We are going to dip our toes back into baseball and of course racing is starting soon as well.  I am glad for a tiny slow down between wrestling and spring/summer sports though.  

Week 4: Training for the 0 Mile Flint Hills 50K

Not a ton to talk about this week.  I did my four runs, most where uneventful.  I didn't get my speedwork this week because I just wasn't feeling it and hey, that is okay some weeks!

One week day run (Tuesday) was with both dogs for 5 miles and chasing a beautiful sunset and some killer wind.  

Thursday's run was Boom only, as Stella had her monthly adjustment which went much better this month.  I think we will stick to monthly from now on.   She loves Dr. A SO much because she makes her feel so wonderful after the popping and cracking.  Dr. A was sitting on the floor writing up her notes and stella just sat her butt right on her lap while she did notes.  

We did celebrate Valentine's day and for the first time, Andrew didn't have to make a box to take.  I was a little sad, I love watching his creativity unfold.  Instead this year they did bags at school and I LOVE his bag!  My 80's child used little sticky hearts as power pellets for Pac Man and Mrs. Pac Man.  

The parents this year were uber creative, so I am glad we also thought outside the box, literally.  I bought a file on etsy and we printed our own cards and then attached blow pops.  Plus, he took a whole bunch of extras and handed them out to people outside of his classroom including paras, support staff, his past teacher, and his own principal.  I love his loving heart!

I had a big surprise of roses and chocolate on my desk when I came back from errands.  These have got to be the coolest roses ever because they have slowly opened up over the week and have looked even more amazing every day.

We love supporting our fellow local businesses and these roses came from The Flower Mill in downtown Wamego.  

We also had a predicted snow event again this week.  Once again we were on the line of 0 and 6+ and this time we lucked out and got 0.  I took pictures several times during the morning and this was what it looked like every time.  I feel like there was a huge bubble over us the whole time.  I just want ONE good snow day, just one.

We also celebrated "Drink Wine Day" at our favorite local tasting room 456 Wineries.  I don't know who makes these holidays up, but I am glad they exist to give me an excuse to shut down 30 minutes early.  

We also FINALLY saw eagles on our run.  They were circling pretty high in the air, but I could make out their white on the tail and head.  I had to just stop my watch and watch them fly.  Stella did come a long as well and did great.  

I closed out the week with a recovery run post the girls D3 wrestling dual.  I honestly didn't know if I was going to be able to get this one in post standing for 9 straight hours working in a concession stand.  Note to self: Wear better shoes if you are going to be on your feet that long. I literally sat down 2 times the whole day, but my heart was full seeing all of the girls with their giant smiles and their medals and trophies.  

And last but not least, Andrew picked up a bat for the first time in 2 years and swung it several times in a home run derby. He of course came in last BUT he had fun and he surprised several of his football friends by showing up.  I am proud of him for getting out of his comfort zone and while I don't want to add another sport to our already busy spring/summer, I wouldn't mind playing baseball again.  All of the kids above play traveling ball and while we are not and probably never will be traveling ball material, we can have fun at the rec ball level with lots of really good players.   

Have a great week y'all!

Week 3: Training for the 0 Mile Flint Hills 50K

Welcome to week 3 of 12!  I would officially be moving into 4 runs a week if I was following the plan exactly, but we all know I have been trying to get 4 runs a week no matter what anyway.  I am also trying to get my speed sessions back and still doing a good job of fitting some sort of speed in my work outs!

I had 4 runs this week, one easy run on Tuesday with Boom and Stella, a snowman speedwork out on Thursday with just Boom, a long run of 7 with just Boom, and recovery run with just Stella.  Boom has been on fire lately with speedwork and with even a speedier long run and I am loving seeing those old numbers slowly creep back, even with my 4:1 run walk breaks.  

I also did a ghost hunt in downtown Wamego with my RBF Saturday night.  There were boos and there were brews and we had a great time!  I know not everyone believes, but we had experiences that would make ANYONE believe.  I will have to write a whole post about our experience some time, as it was so crazy all the ghosts we got to talk to.  Rockin Robin even got me my very own dousing rods and crystals for our ghost hunts and I had SO much fun using them.  

Sometimes it's so hard to look at our child and think, how did such a sweet loving, non competitive marshmallow come out of two very competitive parents who were both very athletic and very competitive starting at age 5. We weren't going to wrestle this year, but his football coach talked him into it and I am not sad that he did.  Andrew needs all the time away from screens he can get and wrestling really is one of those sports that is AMAZING on all levels for discipline, conditioning, and mental toughness.  

We weren't going to do but one tournament this year and we ended up in COVID quarantine for our home tourny, so we had to find another one to try.  Unfortunately, he had an 8 man bracket at the one tournament we picked, meaning he only got 2 matches the whole tournament.  He wanted one more chance, so we entered him in one more and ended up with 4 matches.  While he still walked away with 4 losses, he actually had two take downs in one match and wrestled quite well in another.  I am sad to see the season end, but racing and baseball is around the corner and my ambitions for him are just going to have to take a back seat and chill.  You would think I would know that by now as my child never changes even as he grows older.

Have a great week y'all and Happy Valentine's Day from the Red Aussie Crew!  

Week 2: Training for the Mile 0 Flint Hills 50K

 

Hi :)  How are you?   I'm fine thank you!  Just training with the fun that winter throws at us.  This week were were in this situation below.

We were right on the edge of a ton of snow and none.  Now that I work 2 minutes from home, I don't get as worked up about snow, but I had a meeting and an appointment in Manhattan on Wednesday, the day it was all suppose to hit.  We ended up only getting 2.5 inches, but don't laugh, it was enough to cancel school for the day and make my Manhattan meetings go virtual.  That is all a girl can ask for!  I don't like having to make decisions on driving on sort of bad roads and the weather took care of that for me. I honestly think we all needed a nice snow day, plus I can work from anywhere now.  

I ran four times this week, twice on the dreadmill and twice outside.  I did a speedwork session on Tuesday, but not my new favorite snow man run.  This time, I ran the 4 minutes with each minute being faster till my last minute being my fastest minute at 6 mph or 6.2 mph, and then I walked my one minute to recover.  I did that for the 3 miles I needed for that day.  For my second treadmill run, I did the hot buns run where I ran for 10 minutes and then got off of the mill and did squats, lunges, and jumping jacks for 3 miles total.  I will say for years my treadmill has ALWAYS been ahead of my watch in mileage, but here lately in speed and mileage my watch is ahead. My mill is old, at least 11 years old if not older, so it may be time for me to start trusting the watch over satan's sidewalk.   Yes, I do go a bit faster on the mill to just get it done, but not sure I totally believe the paces I am seeing on my watch.  

I only had 5 for my long run so we bumped it up to 6 so we could maybe see some eagles.  No eagles, but again some really big shy hawks were about.  I wore my big clunky trail shoes just in case there were drifts out on the prairie, however I only encountered one spot that had snow/ice on the road.  The dogs were loving the drifts on the side of the road and both had fun running and zooming in the snow off leash.  

I did have one mishap that I wanted to talk about before I close this out.  I have NEVER fallen on my mill and I honestly live in fear of falling. I tend to run very close to the front of the mill, as I have this fear that I am going to shoot off of the back.  I had done my work out and was actually walking to cool down when I somehow got twisted up with a bike that hangs out next to the mill.  I have no clue how or what happened, but all I know is that I was falling and I could see the belt coming for my face. I twisted to step off onto the railing, as I wasn't clipped in and couldn't get the belt to stop.  I somehow managed to grab at the clip one last time as I was going down to my knees and it popped off.  Lesson learned, stay clipped in even if you are cooling down.  I was sore all over and I scared Tony half to death as he ran in from the other room when he heard the commotion.  I was super sore the next day, but super glad I didn't hit the moving belt with my face or any other part of my body.  

We also had our first wrestling tournament.  We were only going to do our home tournament this year as he loves practice, but seems to get stage fright in tournaments and totally not do what we know he is capable of.  Since he still loves to wrestle, we continue to do the sport with a goal of one tournament, work hard, and maybe some day when he gets in junior high or high school he might get that competitive spirit and aggression he needs to battle.  We missed our home tournament thanks to Covid exposure, so we found a smallish tournament nearby to try out.  I will say I saw him looked pissed off several times today which is a start (he's the biggest teddy bear ever) and I saw him do some basic moves that he knows and has never shown us in actual wrestling matches.  He even capitalized on another wrestler's mistake and while he ultimately got pinned by said kid, that was okay because he had actually gotten points!  I love what I am seeing and he even asked to try one more tournament before the season is done.  We have one more relatively close to us which means I can honor his request and am tickled pink he asked!  I would love for him to win just one more time as a youth wrestler, but that is not our goal so I will keep my mouth shut.  Progress is the goal, every time he steps on that mat.  

Have a great week y'all!!!!

Week 1 Training for the Mile 0 Flint Hills 50K

First off HOW BOUT THEM CHIEFS!  What a freaking amazing game!  I seriously couldn't sleep after that game with all of the adrenalin coursing through my body.  If you ever wanted a story about not giving up, this is your story.  If you didn't watch the game, we had 13 seconds left and drove down the field to tie it and then went on to win in OT.  While I hate OT rules for the NFL, those same rules kicked us in the ass a few years ago so it's nice to be on the good side of those rules for once.  

We have officially begun!  Since it's a couch to 50K program, I am already at a higher mileage and more days running than what the plan calls for, so I will probably stay at 4 days a week running and do a short speed sesh or something for the fourth day and run a tiny bit more miles on the weekend till the long runs get appropriate for where I am at.  Since this plan got me to my last 50K successfully, I am excited to try it again!

Running wise I got four runs in this week.  I snowman run on the treadmill Tuesday where I really pushed myself, an easy 3 miler after a long day of work Friday, a long run Saturday with Rockin Robin, and a short run Sunday.  

Stella had another adjustment and a vet visit this week.  She is still having issues with her SI joint no matter how much I rest/don't rest her so we are going to go to once a month adjustments for now.  We also headed to the vet to try and get some sort of clarity on her allergies.  All of my dogs now have allergies and I am sure there is a genetic component since they are all related, but also I am pretty sure our house is trying to kill us.  Both Stella and Deuce keep getting ear infections, so I am going to at least this time get a type and culture and make sure the antibiotics we are using are working and correct and not creating resistance if they aren't.  Both Stella and Deuce are on apoquel, one of the best and most expensive allergy meds on the market, and Deuce is now trying a diet that is specifically for allergies.  We have been battling this for years and while we have periods where they get better, they also have periods where they have horrible flares like right now.  I just want my dogs to be happy and comfortable as I love them like my own human kid.  

And to end, Andrew finally got a haircut!  He has been very concerned about  freckle that is on his forehead showing and had declared he was growing his hair out.  When his hair gets too long it becomes a huge bird's nest of curls and thick red hair. I am so glad he decided to let his favorite stylist cut it and wow, he looks so grown up right now even though he has had it cut like this before.  I am not ready to have a double digit kiddo, but it's right around the corner like it or not!  He also had two birthday parties and a sleep over. I am so excited that he is getting more opportunities to get out and do things without me.  He has always been a momma's boy but lately, he wants to hang out by himself or with friends and I am totally fine with it.  

Have a great week!  Going to publish this before the Chief's game, so hoping that is a lucky charm like last week.  GO CHIEFS!  Hoping to not get dumped on with snow this week but if we do, I hope it's major or nothing at all. I am tired of getting all hyped up and not getting anything. I really do prefer snow over ice too.  We shall see! 

Covid part 1 million

Covid came to visit us again which meant back into quarantine thanks to Andrew not being 2 weeks past his second shot and our school shutting down their test to stay program due to being super overwhelmed.  Covid is never anyone's fault and I think there was a lot of finger pointing with this one, but I digress.  Andrew got two free days out of school  and two days in school since we didn't get the test results till Wednesday afternoon and he was out Monday for the holiday.  I quickly pulled him from school as soon as I had heard he was exposed to a positive, as well as his wrestling practice for Thursday, and his wrestling tournament Saturday.  We were able to get homework/remote work for him to do helping him keep from getting behind when he hopefully joined back with the class post testing on Monday.  Give him a ton of good luck, prayers, and good juju that he is negative as we are all symptom free.  I am lucky in that I can still be at work and around people as long as I wear my mask since I am vaccinated and boosted.  I kind of like wearing a mask because my face can stay toasty warm in this cold time.  Here is how the rest of the week played out.

I got four runs in this week, YIPPPEEE!  I did an easy run with both dogs Tuesday, did a treadmill speedwork session before my emergency board meeting Thursday, and ran Saturday after the wrestling tournament, and a Sunday long run.

I will have to say I am loving bringing back a little speedwork to my training rotation.  I can see the results already because even when I am doing my run 4 walk 1 minute intervals, my 4 minutes have been much much speedier.  Of course the weather has been amazing and cold, and that always helps my speed, but seeing some 10s on my easy runs and not feeling like I am dying has been nice.

In other non running/non Covid news, I got my hair cut and colored with my christmas gift card.  I went with a darker red with some natural looking highlights.  She was able to stay away from bleaching my hair at all since my hair is pretty thin and fine, and just used my natural colors to create highlights. I love it and wish I could curl my hair like that every day.  She made me feel so amazing and I just love how my hair looks!

Now if I could just get this one to cut his hair!  It's getting so long it's going straight, but not straight down, straight out.  He was kind of happy to have a couple of days off and gladly and easily got his remote work done quickly.  While I hope that we aren't quarantined for the rest of next week pending his test, I do think the process is going to be pretty simply for us.  I took a PCR test last week and was negative and am still symptom free, so knocking on wood.  

Have a great week y'all!

Short and sweet 2022 edition

Again, the writing bug has hit me hard lately.  I use to love blogging and here lately it's been more of a slog.  Here is the short and sweet version of my week.  Been watching the Chili Bowl on FloRacing since we are now addicted to dirt racing, so get ready for some racing memes because I am so ready for race season now!

Mom and Tony's mom came down for a quick visit to deliver Christmas presents that couldn't be shipped and just stay hi.  Of course my mom spends most of her time cleaning my house.  She just can't help herself and I am NOT saying no :)  I am seriously going to kidnap her this time.  

Andrew finished the test to stay program and got his second Covid vaccine while I was brave and got my flu shot.  I am trying to show him that needles aren't that big of a deal when I myself am terrified of them.  It's a hard balance y'all!  We are trying to do our part but there are many in our community that have 0 interest in helping others and it's severely affecting my ability to be nice to said people.  Still looking for the part of the bible that says thou shalt not wear masks.  Still haven't found it.  

I did a hot buns run (10 minutes of running followed by 10 air squats, 10 jumping jacks, 10 rear lunges).  I love these runs and could see making different exercises part of the run and spicing it up.  I also walked 1 minute of the 10 minutes, but my pace was really good on the run part, so maybe I could call this a threshold run? I did a Thursday five miler and boy have I missed my five miles.  Five is just my sweet spot and I love a good 5 mile run.    I took Boom on the hot buns run minus Stella, and then took both for the five miler since all of the ice has melted and them pulling wouldn't matter.  We had snow and ice Friday night into Saturday, and honestly I should have gotten out or gotten on the mill Saturday, but I chose to hang out with my mom and work a puzzle instead and be lazy. #sorrynotsorry

The puzzle was only 300 pieces, but it was a bitch and we were determined to finish it.  It may look easy, but it was not let me assure you.  Mom summed it up nicely.  

We got a dusting of snow at best, but we got ice before the snow.  That meant running was a bit tough for my long run.  The roads were slick as snot and the gravel was fine with just some drifting.  I knew if I wore my ice spikes that running on the gravel would be painful, so I didn't wear anything and just prayed that I wouldn't fall for almost .75 of a mile until I got to gravel.  After walking pretty much the whole time I was on pavement trying not to fall,  I called Tony on my way back and told him to come and pick me up to avoid that situation again.  Luckily the sun was out and melting a lot of those ice patches by the time I got done for other runners who went later.

Have a great week y'all!  Dealing with more Covid issues that may drive me nuts.  Can I just become a hermit and home school my kid and live in a cabin in the woods till this blows over if it ever actually blows over.  Stay safe!