Long Run (24!), Eat, Chase Kiddos, Sleep and Repeat.

Friends that meet you at a ridiculous time in the morning to get in a long run are the best kind of friends.

It felt like a flashback to five years ago as I was running with these two long before the sun came up on our usual trail.  I used to run with both of them 5-6 times a week when I lived with my parents.  Back then we were training for the Utah Valley Marathon.  They sure helped me get through a very difficult time of life, I’m very grateful for them!

We are all training for different things now—> A 1/2 Ironman, ultra and an Ironman but I hope we can get in some good runs together over the next few months.

I ate an almond butter and jelly sandwich on the way to meet them and then snacked on gummy bears and chews throughout the run.  I ran with the girls for the first 12.5 miles and the time flew by with all of our talking.  Once we got back to the cars I started to feel cold which turned out to be the hardest part of the run for me… with each mile I felt colder and colder.  The run started at 32 degrees and then dropped down to 22 degrees with a cold wind.  I didn’t wear enough layers but the run built in some weather toughness for me which I might need on race day.  <— PS help me with my goal to not check the weather obsessively when race day gets closer;)

I put on my hydration vest once I got to my car and headed for streets with hills to get in some climbing.  I did about 1100 ft of climbing in that second half and I got back to my car and felt strangely really good.  I still had some time before the kids left to school so I decided to keep going (my training plan gave you the option of running a 20-22 miler or a 50k race this week so I just went somewhere in between the two instead).

Found a cool moose statue.

24 miles.  My last two miles were 7:33 and 7:27.  It was one of those training runs that felt really good (or maybe I felt good because my legs were numb from the cold) so I’ll remember the confidence from this run when the not-so-great runs happen in the future.

I didn’t need any caffeine for my run which was great because I usually NEED that to survive my early runs.  I’ve been going to bed super early lately so when I woke up I felt pretty refreshed.

Back in time to see these guys before they left.

Skye reminded me that I needed to do some yoga and stretching afterwards:

And then she rolled around on my legs in attempt to massage out the muscles.  It worked.

Andrew was off at an orientation and Skye decided she wanted to boycott her nap so we just hung out the two of us for awhile.

The kids got outside for a little while to play after school!

And I got in some stretching and rolling.

Lots of nutrients for breakfast, lunch and snacks and then this heaven for dinner.

If you live in Utah County please order from Two Jacks for your next pizza night and then thank me later.

Brooke has been bringing this little baby all around with her…

And now I’m off for 11ish miles and then I have three full rest days which my body is going to love.

———————————————————————————————-

Tell me three things that you are doing today?!