life happens but so does running

Since my last post, there have been multiple obstacles that tried to get in the way of our training runs.  A couple times it would have really been easy, actually easier just to say we will skip a run.  But if we let that trend start, there's no telling where that would lead to, not to mention the guilt, restlessness and crankiness that would ensue from missing an important training run.

First of all for the Labor Day weekend Emir and I both took off Friday and Tuesday in addition to our 3 day weekend since the kids school was closed.  We decided to spend 5 days at our condo in Wildwood.  An end of the unofficial summer vacation.  Of course being on vacation is never a reason for us to not run.  Heck, we plan our vacations around running.  Lucky for us, my sister decided to come down for a few days as well.  She agreed to watch the kids for us Saturday morning so we could run together AGAIN, second week in a row!!!  Then comes Saturday morning.  We set the alarm for 5:30 so we could be out by 6:30.  Right around 6:30 as we were about to head out, all hell breaks loose.  Una starts screaming which of course wakes up Niko.  He's crying because he doesn't want us to go run and also he's upset because he's so afraid that we will make him go back to sleep.  Have I told you how much this kid hates to sleep!?!! AHHH!!  I felt terrible!  I didn't want Cindy to have to deal with this.  But being the awesome sister and aunt that she is, she laid on the sofa with Una with a bottle and got Niko to lay on the sofa with his tablet resting watching a cartoon.  Una finished her bottle and I took her to put her back to bed that's when she threw up all over the place.  Emir and I were freaking out, "you just go!"  "No you just go!"  Thank goodness for Cindy, she intervened and said "let's clean this up and then you are both going!"  And that's what happened.  The run itself was a 16 miler.  We ran down the boardwalk to the sea wall to Ocean Drive.  We ran to about the middle of Stone Harbor and then back.  It was a fairly tough run.  It was hotter than expected also due to the fact we left about 45 minutes later than planned and it was humid.  It didn't feel great but I've definitely felt worse.  Emir says he doesn't like running at the shore because he finds it boring.  I on the other hand love it.  Just having the view of the ocean, the beach and the bay is very relaxing and makes me happy.  As I have said I'm a total beach bum.




Us on our beach in Wildwood, NJ

Sunday we should have done a 4 miler however we opted to switch that run to Monday in lieu of extra sleep.  Una woke us up at 3 AM with a fever.  Of course we were out of baby Tylenol so off I went to the CVS open 24 hours.  It was rather interesting being a sober person observing the people out and about at 3 AM ;-)

Niko at Morey's Piers

 

Monday and Tuesday were morning 4 milers at the shore.  It was pretty humid both days and Emir and I had to take turns going out.  They felt pretty hard.  Sunday we were at the amusement park with the kids for almost 6 hours until about 11 PM and Monday we climbed the Cape May lighthouse which was 217 steps in a sweatbox.  I think our legs were feeling it.

The lighthouse in Cape May

 

Wednesday was a 6 miler on the trail by our house.  I had work so Emir and I had worked out that he would drop off the kids in the morning and I would pick up so that way he could just come home and go right out for his run then I would go when he came back.  Things however did not go as planned.  I had a new student start at work so whenever I have a student chances are that I leave a bit later than usual.  But I was thinking as I left that it was no big deal because Emir was going to run first anyway.  However on my way to get the kids he called me to say that he left about 30 minutes late as well.  So he told me to get ready so I could just go run as soon as he got home.  When I went to Niko's school, it was his first day of 4 year old preschool.  He's at the same school but he changed classes and was soooooo excited.  He was showing me around for a good 10-15 minutes.  I couldn't bear to tell him no, he was grinning from ear to ear and so proud of his new classroom.  So by the time I got home with the kids and got settled to start getting ready, Emir came home.  I didn't leave for my run until after 6 which meant Emir didn't get to leave until after 7. 

Smaller trail near our house

Thursday and Friday Emir did his runs in the morning before work while I took the kids to school then I did mine after work.  Thursday was 8 miles and Friday was 4 miles.  The 4 miler we switched to Friday instead of one of the days over the weekend because I had to work both days of the weekend and we both needed to get in a 14 miler as well.  By Friday's run, I was definitely feeling pretty tired!! 

Niko and Una at Forbidden Drive Trail

 

Emir did his 14 miles on Saturday afternoon after I got home from work.  He said he felt really tired and the run felt really hard.  I went into my Sunday afternoon 14 miler thinking that it would probably feel a bit hard but should be better than Emir's since I had a rest day Saturday.  Boy was I wrong!!!  I felt terrible!  So tired, legs heavy and sore.  I was also having some GI issues most likely due to gorging on spicy Indian food at our friend's housewarming Saturday night (I never said I was smart!).  I had worn my hydration belt that has four bottles.  Two with plain water and two with Tailwind.  I had planned that I was going to run to the small trail near our house then head from there to the big trail known as Forbidden Drive and then come back.  Emir was out with the kids at Fort Washington State Park which you can take the little trail to in the opposite direction from Forbidden Drive.  I decided to run that direction instead so I could see them since I had been at work all day.  That route is much hilly than the one I was going to do but I wanted to see the family.  I met up with them for about 5 minutes as Una needed a nap and I needed to get moving.  Emir told me to exit the park left and then I could still go to the Forbidden Drive Trail as planned.  There was still a descent hill to exit the park but then once out, it would be some rolling hills the rest of the way.  Well for some reason I kept picturing the right hand turn in my head even though I was saying left.  So what did I do?! I turned right.  And when you turn right, it's a pretty steep hill followed by intense downhill.  Of course my mistake didn't occur to me until I hit the next cross road.  I really didn't feel like turning around immediately and having to face the intense uphill to go back in the right direction so I continued on until I hit the next major intersection and made my U-turn.  I eventually made it up the huge hill and headed in the correct direction.  By the time I hit forbidden Drive, I was exhausted and so thirsty!!!  I was practically out of water and Tailwind.  I did the calculating in my head and I knew I only needed to do 1.5 on the trail and then head home.  However I was so thirsty and only had a little water left.  I knew that there is a spot to get water at about 2.25 miles.  I knew then it would be too many miles but I didn't care, I needed water.  So that's what I did.  On the way back, I stopped running at about 14.5 miles and walked probably about a mile home.  I was so beat when I got home and my left foot has been bothering me a bit the last few weeks.  I grabbed my ice pack and fell asleep in my hammock until of course about 20-30 minutes later Niko jumped on me, the joys of children! ;-) 

Forbidden Drive

It's felt like a tough week and a half or so of training.  Maybe all the switching around didn't work out so well as far as then we ran a lot of days in a row and this week was supposed to be a down week!   But I feel like doing that is way better than skipping a bunch of runs.  Also 5 days of "vacation" at the beach, I wouldn't call relaxing or restful. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time! But not much rest is going on with a 4 year old and 16 month old.  We definitely did way more activities and were busier than an average weekend which while tons of fun took it's toll.  Of course Emir is already worrying away about the rest of training.  Starting this week, it's all up weeks through our 50K race October 6th.  Our next several weekends are as follows: 18 miler, 20 miler, 20 & 10 miler and then the 50K.  I'm sure it's going to be hard and I'm going to feel like I want to die at times but in the end I know it will be worth it and honestly even when I feel like I want to die, I'm still so happy to be running. 

I could have used more of this!!