Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Two Week Unplanned Running Vacation

So happy to be back to the land of the living!

At the time of my last post, I thought I was getting better. I thought wrong. My fever came back and stayed through Wednesday of last week. No bueno.

I had my first run in almost two weeks on Saturday. It was painful. Heart rate was out of control. (176 average...and that includes me walking the last 2 miles, and taking walk breaks during. Ouch.) I was so disappointed with the run, but at the same time, I got 14 miles in - so not all was lost. It just hurt. Coughing and gagging every few minutes didn't help. Ewww.

I was pretty sore. Probably from the high heart rate. Probably from not running for almost two weeks. Probably because the universe wanted to make fun of me for being so happy that I wasn't sore after my 45-mile weekend a few weeks ago...

I decided that it would be fun to take the entire family (Husband and three daughters ages 6, 4 and 2) to the track so I could attempt a recovery run on Sunday. It was awesome. The run was very short at two miles, but having them there with me was so much fun. There were some tears by my very dramatic middle daughter, who was upset that she wasn't "winning" against her big sister. Eventually, they all stopped and played soccer with Daddy.

Notice the skirts...heaven forbid we leave home without.

Warm fuzzies.

She said over and over, "This is so fun, Mommy!" 

Sunday turned out to not only be a good call for fun family time, but it also allowed me to work the soreness out, and I felt much better after.

My runs this week have been back to normal. I'm still pretty tired, but I suppose that can be expected post-plague. And now, I just coast into the Post Oak Challenge for this weekend...

And speaking of the Post Oak Challenge, I am so excited. I am heading to Tulsa with two of my most cherished girlfriends, and I am so happy to have some time to enjoy their company. The entire setup of the Post Oak Challenge is awesome. All runs both Saturday and Sunday start from the Post Oak Lodge. We're staying on property, so we'll literally be right by the start (and finish). This will be a very welcome change most of my previous marathons, where I've had to arrive 2 hours early. It will be a weekend full of friends and a bunch of people who love running just as much as we do. I love the concept.

The Saturday runs are all on technical trails. As in...something I've never even stepped foot on. The race director promises single track trail, rocks, roots, hills, and creek crossings. (Oh snap. And I'm signed up for the 25k.) While I have never done this before, I am going to channel my inner Indi, who sneaks onto trails when they are closed because she can't stand road running anymore. I hope to come away after appreciating the love of trail running that so many people possess.

Sunday I am signed up for the full marathon. They are calling it a "Troad" marathon. (Paved trail and road the entire way.) I don't expect anything other than a finish, which is perfect.  It occurred me to me last night that as of this Sunday when I'm running I have another marathon 3 weeks later, a half marathon 4 weeks later, and my first Ultra 5 weeks later.  So really, this is just a training run on tired legs which is ideal. And I get a medal at the end.

I hope everyone has a great finish to the week, and an awesome weekend. I'm sure I'll be back next week with sore legs and some stories of our weekend adventures. There are always adventures when girlfriends take road trips...