Weekly Wrap that ends with my birthday.

SO I skipped a week of weekly wraps because my back went from a little grumpy to full blown temper tantrum and for nearly a week it was all I could do to hobble around. Running was completely out of the question. I got in a 7.4 mile run on the 14th and then that was pretty much it until the 24th.

I tried to run a couple times but the back said no. Roader went on some walks with me though

Not running makes a person do crazy things, like sort the sock drawer and count compression socks.

38 if you were wondering

 Another reason to be thankful on Thanksgiving!  I got to run! Even if it felt so slow (for me) and Cola kept looking back at me like what is taking you so long!?  My back was still a bit mad, but if I held my core in really tight it helped.

Thanksgiving was at my parents house and was full of lots of food and fun times.

Friday I decided to do another 5k and keep it easy again, but it felt better than it had the day before so I ran 5 miles a little less gingerly than the day before.

Saturday felt even better on my back, especially once I got warmed up so I threw in some fast miles at the end

and yesterday was my birthday... so I did a 10k and the first half my legs felt tired and I barely maintained a 9min/mile pace but after stopping to take a cowfie with these pretty girls

my legs were feeling ready to go so I did some faster miles to finish it 8:04, 810, and 7:34 with a 7:29 paced .2

Did I mention it was also my birthday?

YAY!  For now I am swearing off crazy burpees.  I think what made my back so cranky pants America was doing some side burpees a couple weeks ago.  Instead of the feet going straight back you jump back to the right or left alternately.

once again linking up with Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap

 feel free to check it out and join in! 
The purpose of this link is to connect with and support other active women.  You can summarize your whole week or just a small portion of it.  It's up to you!  Race recaps are also encouraged!   {See complete rules} 

Weekly Wrap: No politics, just running and a cranky back

Sunday: P90X2 yoga in the morning. I enjoyed this one, as it was both tough and I felt very stretched out when I was done.  Later in the day I did a 7 mile progressive run that felt very divine. The weather has been holding in the high 50s low 60s lately and it's perfect for running. I also was feeling a bit like my lower back was thinking about getting cranky

Monday: Cranky back.. no running. which was sad considering the perfect fall running weather.  I did take a short walk and watched the Crown on Netflix

Tuesday: 15 minutes of easy yoga in the morning and a short run after work but still had cranky back

Wednesday: Back still cranky but I did get in a 5.5 mile  run that actually felt really good. I didn't get it Instagrammed,  Slacking off I guess!

Thursday and Friday:  nothing. Back getting better but really cranky still.

Saturday: Felt quite a bit better so I got in a good run first thing in the morning and since I was in a hurry I didn't even get it Instagrammed! Did it even happen? This guy will vouch for me

Note my super late blooming mums that smell like heaven

Why was I in such a hurry Saturday?  We had to get up to Bozeman for the last home football game of the season.  Our team hasn't done so well this year in fact going into this game they had no conference wins. :(    The weather was amazing and the sunset sky gorgeous and yes we won!

and we made sure Cade got his picture taken with  badass senior Chad Newell. We will miss him. He had a great game.

It was a great way to spend our 11th anniversary.  I have to say I have a pretty awesome husband :)

And my yoga poses for the week.. all the rest involved lower back bends and my back wasn't up to it.

Miles for the week: about 20
Yoga: 2 times
Strength: NONE

once again linking up with Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap

 feel free to check it out and join in! 
The purpose of this link is to connect with and support other active women.  You can summarize your whole week or just a small portion of it.  It's up to you!  Race recaps are also encouraged!   {See complete rules} 

Five For Friday

1. Side burpees and maybe just burpees in general and I have broken up.  I can't say for certain but I am 90% positive that more than once they have made my back really mad, even though I do them very carefully these days. I did them last week and have been sorry ever since.  I only ran twice this week so far.   and I haven't worked out at all.

2. Not running much this week is especially sad in light of this amazing weather.  60s all week. Still running in shorts and a third of the way into November. That is a win in my book!

3. Political post:  Nah, not worth it. I am just glad the election is over, there are no more angry commercials on TV and hopefully the tone of Facebook will lighten up.  Okay maybe I will just say I wish the commercials had concentrated way less on their opponents negative attributes which only made me hate them both and talked more about what they were hoping to accomplish. That is what I used when determining who I voted for.

Found this on Facebook

4. Seems like every four years the electoral college thing comes up. I found this the most interesting and helpful article for explaining pros and cons rather objectively.  Pros and Cons of the Electoral College system  I was trying to explain the electoral college to my kids and why we use it.  Thank goodness for Google!

5. Anyone else getting excited for Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales on running shoes?  I know I am!  Makes it really easy to justify getting new shoes and my birthday is that weekend as well.

Weekly Wrap

I feel like I kind of pop in and out of the habit of getting these weekly wraps done and Hawaii really threw me for a loop, but I am back and the running weather in Montana is on point lately.

Recovering from Hawaii took a bit.  I finally got the recaps done from the Ragnar I did there you can read Part one and Part two if you are interested. I pretty much came home from Hawaii and hit the ground running with a long day of preg testing and moving cows the next day. I felt jet lagged for a week maybe more.  This getting older is tough!

I lost my Garmin charger on the Hawaii trip so I have been running with my phone. I have a new charger thingy on the way as I really prefer having a watch.

Sunday: I ran 2ish miles with my daughter who was on her bike.  My stomach wasn't feeling so good so I didn't run the rest of my miles like I had planned.

Running is always funner with a captive audience

Monday: P90X3 Eccentric Upper  (this left my chest muscles so sore the next day!)
and a 5 mile run in the afternoon. For some reason I procrastinated too long and ran out of time to run any further and still get in a shower before trick or treating. I almost didn't run because I was tired etc etc (fill in any number of lame excuses) but so glad I did, I really needed to run. It was one of those much needed mood altering runs

Tuesday:  P90X3 yoga in the morning before work

Wednesday: Zuzka Light Power Yoga V2 which is a yoga inspired workout that leaves a person sweaty and makes you do enough chatarungas that your arms are left crying. I would give you a link to get your own, but I think it's sold out and they aren't making more
Run: 9.5 mile long run.  3 miles easy pace, 3 miles at 8:25 ish pace and 3 at 8:05 pace, and the last half mile was strides.

Thursday: Rest day?

Friday: 15 minute HIIT workout with Zuzka Light  and a four mile run after work

Saturday: 15 minutes of easy yoga in the morning. Butcher pigs and then a 5 mile run with 800s x 4 and one easy mile

and the poses from the November yoga challenge I have joined on Instagram so far

Running almost 29 miles
Yoga 3
Strength 3
Next race: Run to the Pub half marathon in March, maybe a Thanksgiving 5k

once again linking up with Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap

 feel free to check it out and join in! 
The purpose of this link is to connect with and support other active women.  You can summarize your whole week or just a small portion of it.  It's up to you!  Race recaps are also encouraged!   {See complete rules} 

Three Things Thursday

1. The weather has been nothing short of amazing. A few chilly rainy or windy days, but overall the running has been divine. Gorgeous days in the 60s. This is perfect running weather and I am running every chance I get! Too bad this week has been too busy for after work runs. Kids! Good thing I love them so much. :)

2. My shoulder.  Clear back when I was training for a marathon and did my last long run, my right shoulder started to give me the devil. All things considering it was better than a leg, hip or back issue. I could at least run a marathon with it even though it was incredibly painful and I have to wonder how I would have done had my shoulder not been in so much pain.  I consulted with a wonderful surgeon that I have worked with for 16 years a couple times and he could tell me it wasn't a rotator cuff tear and didn't seem to be a structural defect as for the most part I still had good strength and range of motion.   Nearly a month after the marathon it was still giving me a hard time. I had my husband "rub the crap" out of the sore spot three days before I left for Hawaii.  It hurt a bit on my first leg of the Ragnar and hasn't since.  I have felt maybe a niggle from it since then, but nothing major.

I have done several hard upper body workouts and it still feels good! I am so so happy. So what was the deal?  We think something with the infraspinatus or teres minor muscle.  I never had an MRI or anything. I was planning to go that route after Hawaii, but now hopefully I won't have too!

3. Running: It's going pretty good. I have no structure to it really right now, just run for the joy of running. The next thing on my calendar will be a half marathon in March. I did a 9.5 mile long run yesterday and it felt pretty good.  Do I see a marathon on my calendar next year?  I haven't ruled it out yet. I don't have much of a travel budget and there aren't many that are close to me, but I think I would like to do another one.

Ragnar Hawaii Part 2

I am a little slow getting around to part 2 of this recap. Life seems to have kept me on the run since I got home from Hawaii between catching up with sleep (jet lag really kicked my butt) work, and kid things.  I was going to start this yesterday and I remembered I needed to get the rest of my continuing education credits done for the year so I did that instead,

Anyway... part 2 of the recap! I left off with the first run done, we got into the 6th exchange as the very last van. They were already packing up most of the exchange area, the vendors were all closed. It was a little sad.

Anyway we handed off to the guys van with strict instructions to do some serious catching up and went off to find the next major exchange and try and catch a little sleep.  I caught a little catnap, but mostly didn't sleep very good.

It was the middle of the night when the guys van handed off to us and I think somewhere between around 3 am when I ran my second leg.  There was a full moon and it was awesome.  I could really see out over the ocean.  AND we were no longer all by ourselves! YAY I was running with people, passing runners. MUCH FUNNER!

Gotta love van life!

I had 4.1 miles and I don't even remember my time for it as my Garmin is dead, I can't find the charger and I didn't Instagram it (horrors)  but I do know it was warm, humid, and like breathing through a sock but I made good time.

The early morning hours are always a bit of a blur and now some two plus weeks later they are really a blur.

The sun came up Saturday morning and we were in completely different terrain. No more lush rain forest.  It was barren looking lava rock everywhere. No shade and HOT.  No more rain forest and no more shade!

My third run was somewhere around 11 am.  9.7 miles in 92 degrees. This sucked. I run at 5 am or earlier all summer to avoid running in these temps and the sun. It was rough. Thankfully we had ice in the van and my van mates would stop and give my a handful which I would put in my bra.  It was a lifesaver.

I was so happy to be done with this leg.

Overall I would call Ragnar Hawaii an incredible trip and worth doing. The relay was probably hands down the hardest one I have done with the humidity, heat and hills.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

I didn't take any pictures at the finish line. or post race party.  I admit.. I was tired!

We believe that being a Ragnarian is about more than being a runner; that misery loves company and happiness is "only real when it is shared"; that there is a badass inside all of us; that everyone deserves to be cheered at the finish line; that tutus make you run faster; that what happens in the van stays in the van; that adventure can only be found if you are looking for it; and that a little sleep deprivation is a small price to pay to watch the sun rise with our friends. Together we ran 200-ish miles. Together we can accomplish anything. WE ARE RAGNARIANS

I slept really good Saturday night and Sunday morning we got up and took advantage of the yoga on the beach our hotel offered.  It was so relaxing and calming and felt really good to our sore muscles.

and went snorkeling. After duck walking all the way into the ocean I realized I still had on my tank and shorts and had to walk all the way back.  Then I got into the ocean again and realized my mask had a hole in the side and let water in.  Once I finally got everything in order I had a great time snorkeling.

Sunday night we stayed at a hotel not far from the start of the Kona Ironman and took advantage of yoga by the beach again Monday morning.  I could get used to that.

My favorite place in Hawaii might have been some big grassy flats we found, I love those wide open spaces. and it was so peaceful here by the ocean.

Overall if you are looking for a challenging Ragnar in  a beautiful place, this is a contender!

One funny story.. Sunday in Kona (or it might have been Monday) one of our team members was talking to a guy about how he did the Ragnar Relay and they had this super sweet cherry picked team of Ironman athletes and they did really awesome and were awesome athletes, etc etc and they got like 30th overall.  He then inquired as to what kind of a team we had (a bunch of ranchers from Montana) and how did we end up doing (14th overall)  I think it deflated his ego a bit.  Just a bunch of ranchers from Montana and we beat his sweet cherry picked team. Go Team Beef and the Montana Running Ranchers!

Final thoughts from Ragnar Hawaii

• Friday was hot for running. 
• Saturday we learned that Friday was only warm.
• Heat, humidity and hills combine together to make a hard relay
• Relays can be life changing, they turn an individual sport into a team one
• Fresh guava is refreshing after a hot run
• Fish tacos!
• So grateful for the experience, the friendships and the opportunity
• Running past another running and yelling "touchdown" could be taken the wrong way by the person being passed (I was listening to the Bobcats play football while running my last leg)
• Maybe listening to football while passing runners just isn't good if you are really into the game.  (I yelled a lot of things)(like "ugh defense" "what the hell" "ack what are you doing" "NOOOO"  "YES!" My team lost by the way)
• Seriously can't say enough good things about my team. What an amazing group of people.
• Several teams we talked to had to double up on legs to finish before the cutoff time.
• Did I mention it was hot?
• When can we go again?!