Back at it!

Last week was awesome recovery. Sleeping in, lounging around, short bouts of running, some leisurely weight training, eating and more sleeping, that's how last week went. I was pretty tired after WS, it must be age as I was in bed by about 8 p.m. and slept as long as I could or until one of our animals woke me up. Alex was away at Christian Outdoor School and Bill was trying to be so quiet in the morning but my cat just stood on top of me and howled. I think he might have been saying, "lady....it's 7 a.m. and you are supposed to up!". Bandit (the husky) just stood at the side of the bed and licked my face and I would try to retreat under the covers but that meant play time to him so up on the bed he pounced. Alright already.....out of bed I came. Bill would say, "no rest for the weary around here". Physically my body bounced back well and I was running short little bits by Tuesday and up to an hour by Thursday. Weight training was harder than the running probably because of overall fatigue. I think if I would have been able to push harder in the middle of WS I would have been more physically beat up but since I was slowed by my stomach the benefit is faster recovery. That is how I am choosing to look at anyway :). My brain was fatigued too. I did some really dumb moves like got in my car and tried to drive with no keys, put a load of laundry in without soap, walked purposely into a room for something and forgot the whole reason I went in the first place. Zoned out to Peoples Court on TV and actually felt bad for the people on the show, yikes, then realized I was watching Peoples Court. All the gels might be starting to overflow into my brain making the synapse much slower. I am happy to report that I am back to full thinking mode now.

Friday Susan I drove to retrieved our boys from camp and I swear Alex grew 2 inches inches and his voice is deeper. He is now officially taller than me and out weighs me by 3 pounds and he is only 10 (almost 11). He used the phrase, "yo mom" with me yesterday and we had a firm talk about that.....I am not to be beckoned by using a "yo" ever again. Yikes, he will be in middle school next year and all those girls will be calling and I will have to get all my spy gear upgraded. Hug your babies now because you will wake up one day and they will say "yo" at you and you'll be thinking the same things :). Back to running......

Today I ran for 90 minutes, lifted upper body and did my first bout in the steam room in preparation for Vermont. The sauna was bad but the steam room is worse. I was only in there for 15 minutes and it took a lot out of me. I was soaked of course but breathing in the hot steam is icky! I emailed Olga and asked for her a run down of Vermont as she did it a couple years ago right after WS. She gave me some great info. about the course and a few tips about things I will need to manage like the wet feet and body which will cause blisters and chafing. I am not sure how I will combat those but after another week or so I might come up with ideas to try. If any of you have any good tips please pass them on. I downloaded all the Vermont information and began looking at it last week for the first time. I am not really looking forward to the run, I don't know why but I am not that excited about the course and I can't wear my headphones! How am I going to relive all my youth, my twenties, my thirties all my triumphs, heartbreaks, ect. without my music? Reminiscing about bopping to the B52's when I got my driver's license, a little Boston to remind me of being 17 in car full of girls looking for trouble with the stereo blasting so hard it the car shook. All the disco of the Bee Gee's reminding me of dressing up to go roller skating. Reliving the 90's and all the angry chick music....man those chicks had chips on their shoulders but the music was good. Their music ensured me I must be the victim of something and it had to be some man's fault....joking! I won't have my music to remind me of my wedding day when Bill insisted on playing some bad country song called "queen of my double wide trailer" at our wedding. Oh well, I will have to listen to myself breath :). The course looks very rolly and that is not my strong suit but by the end of Vermont I bet I am better at running rollers ha, ha ha :). I don't know why I find all of this so funny but I can't help myself, I have been laughing for 3 days!

After my run today I could feel my legs due to the deep fatigue of running 100M. It was fun to run today and think that just last week I was in California running in their mountains and here I am back in Portland running in our forest. Tomorrow Ultra and I will run for 2 hours and I bet I will feel it but my schedule says, "you should be back to regular running by next week". I just love that.....how absurd it is that running 100M is less debilitating than running an all out 10K. At least how I remember running an all out 10K was, it's been awhile.

Bill and I are off tomorrow afternoon for 4 days in Vegas. We are looking forward to it. Alex is going camping with his grandparents and the rest of Bill's family. I will be using the treadmill while were gone and I have to do a threshold workout next week, 6:51 pace for 20 minutes on a treadmill. I will be sweating like a pig?