Week 12

After 44.5 miles last week, I have been tired this week. I took Monday off (YAY). My kids started back to school this week, so our schedule has been a little bit more "scheduled". (YAY). Tuesday I rode my bike to loosen my legs up and get the blood flowing which they really needed, and then Nate asked me to play catch with him and we went to the park and I threw soft toss to him. Playing catch with him was the scariest thing I have done in years. Scarier than the snakes. He just finished his15th year of organized baseball. He throws hard. Playing catch he throws 70+ mph. He plays 3rd which means he throws from 3rd to 1st base, 90 feet, trying to beat the runner. He plays catcher which means he throws home to second, 90 feet, trying to beat a runner stealing. He throws hard, far, and extremely accurate. Which is a good thing, except I don’t want the ball hitting me in the chest. I want to reach my arm way out from my body and catch the ball. That way when I miss it rolls to the fence, it doesn’t black my eye. I had also forgotten how hard it is to squat for long periods of time. And then chase and pick up 72 baseballs. I jumped the fence 4 times. And then did this all over again Thursday. The best part? I got to spend time with Nate. Not much I wouldn’t do to spend a couple hours in his company.
Wednesday I had a 6 mile run scheduled and Steve texted me and asked if I was up for running with him. I said yes. When I got home he said 10? I said sure. It was windy, so we drove north to leave a car, but 10 miles was a country road, so we went 11 and left our car at the Schneider’s house. I think I sweated the worst I ever have on this run. It was running down my forearms and dripping off. Is that too much information? Want me to describe the smell of Steve’s and my workout clothes that I didn’t wash till the next day?
I really see the benefits of running day after day and putting additional miles on, even when it’s hard. I’m understanding that’s where the increased strength comes from, not from the Saturday long run, but the weekday back to back to back workouts. (There is definitely a spiritual lesson in this, but I’ll save it for another day of the week and stick with training.) Took Friday off.
Saturday I ran 19.5 miles. Longest distance ever, and that is always a great feeling. We had a busy day Saturday, so we ran early. Not early for me, which is 8:00, but early for anyone. We crossed into another level of insanity. 6:00 a.m. Ridiculous. And it was 55 degrees when I left my house. Had to wear a long sleeve tee over my running clothes for the first 4 miles. Also dug out every old insulated lunch box I could find, every cooler, and bought one additional Styrofoam cooler and instead of dropping off water and planning stops by kwikshop, I hid coolers in bushes and ditches. Worked great. We had cold water/gatorade and snacks and energy gel plus a place to leave my tee shirt.
Steve told me today that when he has a new distance he doesn't ever think "I'm going to try and go 25", which he did on Saturday, but he says "I'm running 25 this weekend". I think there is something in that. Confidence, yes, but the idea that you will accept no less than that from yourself. I did feel great accomplishment, in fact I told Steve "I am amazing" and he agreed. It was a weird run in the sense Sheila was running 14, I was running 19.5 and Steve was running 25. We all ran the same route, Steve just ran further and had a headstart. I picked Sheila up at the corner on my way by, so I ran the first 3 by myself, next 14 with Sheila, and 7 with Steve, but he was really running well, so I told him not to wait for me and with 4 miles left, he took off for home. Sheila peeled off with 3 miles left for me, and I had to run them on my own. I had this feeling that Steve would get home and come back and check on me, and it would be hard Hard HARD not to get in the car with him, so I ran. When I saw the car pull out of the driveway, I was two blocks from home. He was impressed, which made me feel even better. Now today, I have two toenails turning black, a couple of blisters, and I thought I was tough enough for an hour of racquetball. It was an awesome workout, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but my feet and hip joints are sore. Will carry on, I'm actually enjoying this training.

Not nail polish.