No Massive FAILS this week

After last Sunday's lack of runs, I determined this week was going to be better. I am analysing what I am doing wrong with fueling, sleeping, warm up, speed, etc. and trying to sort out why my runs are SUCKING.  I am not doing anything different with eating. OK not true!  Chocolate covered almonds are NOT an acceptable substitute when you dont have time for lunch.  An apple a day may keep the doctor away but it's not a meal.  and eating supper late at night? 

Sleeping is trickier to fix.  Because it's not a choice. I am trying to go to bed earlier but things still need to be done.  When you're away all day there are certain evening chores we need to do to catch up; not to mention staying up late to create awesome lectures for the new course.  So Im trying to get to bed earlier, skipping most TV watching, reading very little (even tho I got a good book), and keeping activities in the evening light.  I can fall asleep in seconds. But every morning I am waking at like 430 am. Part of the problem is definitely the cat. He wants company at 430 am. He starts the grooming on the bed, moving, meowing, playing under the bed, knocking stuff off the nightstand, clawing at the pillows under my head, clawing at the carpet, playing with his mouse, meowing out the window; I can lock him out but some nights that just means he is desparate to get in and claws at the door.  This is making sleep really hard. It's even worse than husband snoring!  Its even worse than sleeping with smallest child!
I could lock him in the basement where he would make enough noise to keep the oldest child awake.  Although seems she can sleep through a hurricane so that might be an option tonight.

But once I am awake the mind starts going through what has to be done that day, and that's it. The end of sleep.  If I could clear my mind before the imaginary lists start, I might be better off.  I am making lists of the kid's activities, where they are and where they need to go; I start going over what I need to do for work. What I need to do for Cross Country. And even one morning at 4 am I was going through a lecture I needed to give that day.  It was the best lecture ever!  Totally on Phylogenetics and Cladistics!  :)
Sleep is a problem.

Im not doing much warm up.  I figure running up and down the stairs with laundry and running around doing the chores is enough. That's not changed much.  I am stretching afterwards tho, and trying to do a lot of foam rolling, although that getting on the floor usually means Im a plaything for the cats. 

And speed. Maybe I am trying too hard for each run to be a good one, and not wanting to waste my time on "junk miles", since reading something that said if we are not either pushing it a little or running for like 3 hours, everything else is just junk miles and does nothing to advance the running. Im tense and in a hurry because I have too much to do. Im not relaxing, and trying to fit too much into too little time.  And time wasting is something I am well accomplished at.  Breaking bad habits has been really hard. 

In trying to improve the running, I am trying to fix some issues.  It's a slow process that I tend to sabotage at all corners.  A work in progress.

Sunday I didn't run which means I was hoping on Monday to have a long run.  HA when did I think that was going to happen?

It rained allllll night super hard, and kept up the next day.  Monday morning brought flooded and washed out roads.  I cancelled XC but it didnt matter since that school closed anyway...due to flooding.  My kids stayed in school and I stayed at work, once I made it there. They actually closed one area of road right behind me; I am so glad I have an SUV and not a small car. 



on the way to the kids schools



I heard they were talking about closing the one last route I had to home; Scott stayed on one side of town so that he could reach the kids, and I stayed on my side at work, so I could reach the house. If we were separated, at least that way all of the creatures were looked after. But if they closed that one last route, we werent going to get home to the dogs and cats.  SO we picked up the kids from school early, and took them home.  They didnt end up closing the bridge, because water stopped rising, but we didnt take the chance.

After getting home and checking for damage (leaking roof), working a bit, naturally I decided to go for a run.  I ran up the hill, little damage that way although the streams were all raging.

Then on the way home I ran down to the bridge. That's where all the damage is.



Drive home




near home



The road is running away!

Bridge they talked about closing. My kids were swimming here a week ago

It was neat to see the power of the water.

6.73 km in the rain.

Tuesday was bright and sunny (relatively) and the XC team ventured back to the park. Many of our trails were washed out a bit so we stuck to the lower park and did Jacob's Ladder, 174 steep wooden steps up to the top.  It was a little slippy. We were supposed to have a break in between repeats to run around to the bottom of the stairs, and only do a few repeats of the stairs themselves.  But without using the rock and sand strewn trail down (slippery) we were left with up and down the stairs. AND therefore too many were done.  Some of the senior boys, competing a bit, repeated up to 8 or so times.  TOO much!  I did 6 myself before we headed to the falls. We swam in the falls on Sunday. Today it was too full of rushing water so we just enjoyed the nice spray off the water and got soaked enough. I estimate about 5 km but not sure.  Those stairs left our legs shaking.I picked up the kids from School activities and ran them home before I had a VERY LONG coaches meeting in the evening. A way late night. 

Wednesday morning was ok :) not so sore.  Work was long and absolutely crazy.  Lectures and labs filled the day.  I went home afterwards and changed, headed out for a run with Toni. She keeps me paced well and we did 7.7 km in 44:30. I was beat although it didnt seem that bad. 

Wednesday night the discomfort set in, and walking became hard. DAMN the stairs.  Calves screaming, quads shrieking. LOL lesson learned? not likely. Did the same thing with hockey last week.

Thursday was another busy day and work was long and filled. Rest day!  :) I didnt run but I did meet the XC kids and timed them in a time trial.  Which was mean, right after all those stairs. They are working pretty hard.  :)  Holly had soccer practice; She made the junior high soccer team as striker.  :) proud of her; they only picked 2 grade six students and she's the first grade 6 striker.  After picking her up, we went home and stayed there.  We spent an hour doing the garbage, collecting some up around the yard and making sure there was no recycling in it before putting it out by the road. Early to bed; relatively since Scott is away and I had to stay up to put the dogs to bed. When they are kenneled all day it doesnt seem fair to put them to bed at 830! 

Friday morning we got ready to go out and watched while the garbage men rejected most of my carefully separated garbage and left no reason why.  This may indicate how "hanging on by a thread" I am; I might have lost my mind slightly and chased the garbage truck.  I HAD to find out why my bags were left; since I would just go put it out again next time?????  SIGH. I likely look like the CRAZY lady everyone is terrified of. My kids are humiliated.  But I did make those men be accountable for their actions lolol they didnt really give a good reason for leaving all of it; a bag was wrong colour but I only rebagged it so it wouldnt break when they lifted it (was a hole in one spot); left the paint cans because, well, they were paint cans?  I took those to the Enviro Depot and they took the ones with paint in them but told us to put empty ones in the trash so we carted them home, to be rejected by the trash men. They left a third bag for no reason. Only took one bag. 

Losing my mind isnt much fun.

After working all day, I had MIL picking up kids; they were being VERY difficult; one going away for the evening, one skipping XC practice because she wanted to go with her grandmother; I made her stay with me instead and run with the high school team. No skipping. 

I tried to have the XC team do Fartleks.  I explained they run on feeling, they should practice picking it up by increasing cadence, not stride length; I wanted them to increase turnover.  They don't like the lack of structure Fartleks gives them, so one actually had a whistle and used it to time out some short intervals and some followed, some didn't. Some did a pretty lame job of it, others ran their butts off.  So it is with this individual sport.  I likely went about 2 km on the 5 laps I did with Holly.

After practice, MIL came back and the two small kids were bugging for a sleepover. I totally caved; exhausted, and the thought of spending the evening with them mad and asking for a sleepover and why was I so mean?? And Why was I being so mean? lol I let them go. I was too tired to argue.

So I was kid free.  And I went for a run.  We just left the car and Toni and I started wandering around, up to the highway, back down the trail; 10.65 km in 1:09:19.  A slow, easy run.  After running I intended to go home for supper and a shower but just grabbed the shower and went to a friends place for a drink and some relaxing.  Sometime just before I went home, I felt suddenly, incredibly nauseated.  I actually went and laid on the bathroom floor for a minute. It passed. How odd.

Saturday morning I had every intention of getting up early and running but instead I was house cleaning and getting laundry done and rushing around.  Then Holly had hockey tryouts, and I took the kids to the mall to get Holly's skates heat-molding, then we shopped for some shoes for her, got a present for a Sunday baby shower, looked for something else (cannot remember where we went) then went home.  The rest of the night was a blur; the kids were playing with a magic kit, I did dishes, cleaned yard some, Taylor mowed lawn, Bunch of stuff I cannot remember lOL.  I didnt run.

Sunday was better tho. Still busy; we headed out early so the girls could go to Drama in Old Barns, which is about 22 minutes away. Holly and I spent that time running on the trail; she biked with me.  It's long slow run day, and Im full of other commitments. So I did what I could; I got in 10.2 km on the trail with Holly. At about 2 miles I was feeling spaced out and hungry. On the way back at about 4 miles, Holly spotted an apple tree and we spent a few minutes picking some apples; the best ones were up high. I had an apple (and a half) and felt much less hungry and happy to finish the run. I mean, really, it was pretty nice. We were on the Cobequid Trail so scenery was awesome

And I had this little one keeping me company on her bicycle :)

Running conditions were good despite a strong wind on the way back in our faces.  This was a good run.

10.22 km in 1:10:56 (includes the time spend picking and eating the apples Whooops :))

Took the kids home to eat and get ready for the baby shower we attended back in Old Barns; I spent HOURS in the car yesterday!  :)

We missed the Terry Fox Run in town which made me sad, but sometimes you just have to give up being everywhere at once.  :)

We left the baby shower early to get to Cross Country practice in the park.  3 local teams are kind of going to practice together on Sunday afternoons to utilize coaching efficiency in the area :)   I had my team doing long 1+ km intervals, 5 of them, on a loop in the park.  I did laps with them, and my long slow day contained some race pace km repeats on trail.  After they were finished I did another couple of miles on the trails, adding 11.56 km in 1:14:57 (includes some breaks) to finish the day up with 21.88 km on TRAILS!!  Too bad it had to be split, but it's the only way sometimes to get things in.  Running can be a time consuming activity!

Pretty tired now, we went home and did the typical Sunday Night routine, before I tried REALLY hard to get a little more work done, falling asleep on the FLOOR beside my bed, which kinda told me that was enough and I was better off going to sleep :(:(:(

Now it's Monday and I wonder what this week is going to bring me?