Giddy

I decided this week -- okay, I decide this every week -- that it is crazy to try and take on training for my first ultramarathon with kids ages 3 and 5 and working full-time. 

It's a lot of mornings of getting up between 3:20 and 4:20 a.m. to get runs in. It's being ready to crash at 9 p.m., still glancing at my work BlackBerry, and my husband eyeballing me like an insane woman. I'm almost never fully rested.

And yet I wouldn't have it any other way.

Seriously. I am having a blast this year. 

I'm running trails as much as I can squeeze them in, which makes my heart (and 46-year-old knees and ankles) so, so, so happy. 

Yesterday I ran at Bullfrog Lake, which can be hilly in parts. I'm not a strong hill runner, since I mostly run in the flat, flat city, and yet I just loved the challenge -- the panting, the glute muscles firing on the way up the hill, and the quads on the way down.

Happy on the trails.

But the woods, the peace, the fresh smell of trees and grass. Oh my.

And the sheer physical feeling of pushing myself. 

How often in our comfortable, soft lives do we ever really push ourselves to be uncomfortable? I don't with most things. But I want to when I'm out on the trails.

My run was followed by a long but great day at a pumpkin farm with a ton of time on my feet. I felt so physically drained, even though I was happy otherwise.

I woke this morning at 5:30 to darkness and thick fog. And tiredness, deep tiredness. My M-man was up a couple of times with diarrhea and nightmares. My muscles ached. I could tell I never got that nap I craved Saturday.

I'm lucky a great friend, who is running the Twin Cities marathon next week, was willing to do half of my 10 miles with me. 

It wound up being a fine run. I then got my 3-year-old daughter to her buddy's (and her mom is my friend, so it's super fun) birthday party. It was more standing and I could have practically slept standing up. We managed to get to Trader Joe's for a  big shopping trip before heading home.

And finally, during the second half of the Bears Packers game this afternoon, when both kids were jumping on my husband, I snuck in that heavenly, blissful nap.

I am a new woman.

The next four weeks are going to be, for me, brutal. Highest mileage I've ever run in my life. Sleep will be precious. 

And because I had a nap today, I am feeling good about it all. Bring it.

***

Week 9 50k training (cutback week)

Monday 9/22 Rest day; did all of my old physical therapy/core strengthening work

Tuesday 9/23 5.3 miles

Wednesday 9/24 8.3 miles

Thursday 9/25 5.2 miles

Friday 9/26 Group Centergy class

Saturday 9/27 15 miles (6.9 miles in the city, 8.1 miles on trails at Bullfrog Lake)

Sunday 9/28 10.3 miles

Total weekly mileage: 44.1 miles
Total training mileage: 346.8 miles