Mother Racer

Monday: I was able to sleep in this morning… Spring break starts today and so HS track practice was moved to the mornings (7:30 a.m for this week). I went out for a 3 mile run before I met up with the HS kids and ran an additional 8 miles with them. My Achilles felt tight during this run (and throughout the rest of the day). I’m worried about it because of all the research I did online for Achilles issues. Hopefully I can get it under control this early on! It was a good run, though.  

 Today is the Foriegn exchange students birthday, so we went out for snow cones…  

 Then we headed off to the Bean Museum…  

 My youngest some how shut the movie off in their little theatre room. It’s always my kids! 🙂 I ran to the chiropractor (Dr. Crockett) for an adjustment (foot adjustment, too, for my Achilles). I had it scraped and lasered.  As I was in there laying on my stomach, I thought the doctor started to massage my butt… A little weird but I wasn’t going to question it. I finally looked up and saw it was Corom. They (Corom, Dr. Crockett and one of the assistants) started to laugh because it took me a while to look up (it felt nice… Why would I look up?) 😉 

We made a cake for the Foriegn exchange student, had the Fullmers over and celebrated her birthday.  

 The Halls came over for a little while. Sarah worked on my Achilles and calf, then checked out Kitty (our English Mastiff). She should be having puppies any day now!  

Tuesday: I met up with Walter, Beth, Dana, Ty and Nate for a run. I was supposed to go 14 miles today with 3 x 2 mile tempos. Instead I ran a 3 mile warmup, 2 x 2 mile tempo and a 2 mile cool down:  

 Walter and I did take off… I followed him and just tried to stay with him on both sets. I know for our 2nd set we averaged a 5:45. With my Achilles, I decided to stick with 2 sets only. Ugh! This is driving me crazy. I did have to hurry back to make it to track practice. I sent the distance runners off to do 3 x 1 mile repeats. It was tough!  

 After practice, about 40 kids came over for breakfast (the sprinters and field eventers, too)…  

 I ran over to a friend’s house (Jossie)… She scaped my calf, ankle and Achilles so good, that tears were streaming down my face. It hurt so much but it felt better after (well a different kind of soreness). I took the girls swimming at Rachelle’s indoor community pool. Amber, Amber & Heather also showed up with their kids. The kids had a fun time…  

   I went in for a 30 minute deep tissue leg massage at the chiropractor’s office shortly after we returned home from our swim…  

It felt so good and something my legs needed. If massages weren’t so much money, I would be here once a week! I’m hoping all this work will help me out in some way! We shall see! We went up to the Fullmers after dinner to try to catch a lizard or salamander of some sort…  

 They didn’t find it, but they had fun looking! We came home and had movie night as a family. 🙂 Pretty low key night! 

Before I go through the past couple of days I need to let some thoughts come through and see if anyone has advice. I don’t want to put it out there (on facebook, etc), so I am writing it here. My Achilles has been a little tight this past week. Nothing to really worry about until yesterday… It was tight all throughout my run and then through the rest of the day. I iced it, went to the chiropractor and had it scraped, lasered, and my foot adjusted. I iced all day. I ran a speed workout today and same thing… It was tight (more so than yesterday but I don’t know if that is due to the scraping or not). The pain moved into my lower calf the last mile of my cool down. I went to a friend who scrapes for runners and she did a number on my calf/Achilles. It hurt so much but she found the spot of the main source. My Achilles does not seem as tight now but the irritation is still there (and due to the scraping… It still hurts tons… Which was to be expected). Now my question to you or maybe it’s just to get it out of my head… I wasn’t planning on racing Boston (which is 2 weeks from today), but I don’t know if I can train a heavy 10 weeks with my Achilles like this. I just don’t know if it will hold up through that much training (and the pocket book would really suffer :)). I just don’t know how bad it is and I hate to pass up Boston (and just use it as a training run) to still try for Grandmas in June to be injured along the way and miss that one, too! I’m not quit ready for Boston but I am thinking  this might be my only shot for a while.  Do I go for the Olympic Trail qualifier at Boston not fully being endurance ready or do I take the risk and hope to be good with my Achilles and train for Grandmas (in 11 weeks)??? I would hate to wait and still be out for grandmas and miss that opportunity (for both races), but I would hate to try for Boston, miss the time, be injury free and screw up my training for Grandmas!!! I am mentally in trouble! 🙂 What to do??? 

Saturday: My alarm went off at 5:15 a.m. Not happening this morning! I decided to sleep in. We attended a baptism at 8 this morning and then I went for my 17 miler at 9. I decided to try out music for the 1st time ever in my running career. 🙂 Holy Crap! Where have I been? I loved it!!! I didn’t realize how fast I was going until I was done.  

 I really enjoyed this run (I did take a Gu at mile 7)! We had a Easter Egg hunt with a bunch of neighbors (in between general conference sessions)… It was a lot of fun.  

 Later this afternoon we took the girls hiking. The Foriegn exchange student and the Fullmers went with! Mike, Corom and Mike’s daughter went rock climbing…  

   In the evening I watched my friend’s kids and Camille Burk came over with her girls. The guys went to the men’s session in conference (in the bus) and we had pizza, cookies and a movie. 🙂 Once the girls went to bed, we got ready for the Easter Bunny to come. 

Sunday: It is Easter! 🙂 Corom and I went to bed way late and got up early! The Easter bunny did come but he hid all of our baskets…  

 The Easter Bunny knows how much Corom and I love Reese’s peanut butter cups. The girls 1st went through the basket that grandma and grandpa Hansen sent out and then they went through the Easter Bunny’s basket…  

 We had a nice breakfast and then enjoyed General Conference… Well the girls were a little noisy and hyper but that is to be expected. We drove little goodies around to some neighbors, walked around the pond…  

 and then watched the 2nd session of Conference. We went up to Corom’s mom’s house for Easter dinner and an egg hunt… It was great food, great company and an even better Easter egg hunt. My 3rd child made out with $24, my oldest $8, 2nd oldest $1, and my youngest $6. With lots of candy as well.  

 We had a nice, lazy Easter! It did take a while for the girls to go to bed though! Too much candy and excitement for the day! 

Tuesday: I had a hard time waking up this morning and I had a no desire to go out and run. I was slow getting out and slow getting up to the starting point of my 800 speed workout. It was a 2 mile warmup run to the start (15:48). Now I know I mentioned this before but I do my 800’s on a very slight downhill… Maybe a 1% if even that (for the 1st half while the 2nd half is flat). My 1st 800 was: 2:38; 2nd: 2:39; 3rd: 2:38; 4th: 2:36; 5th: 2:36; 6th: 2:37; 7th: 2:36; 8th: 2:39; 9th: 2:33; 10th: 2:31. I was able to run back to the starting point to finish off the mile with 7 of them being between the times of 6:01-6:13… 3 of them were 6:16, 6:16 & 6:17. I was tired and my calf muscles were burning! I was glad to have finished the workout and ran a nice 2 mile cool down back to my house (14:06.8). I was amazed how much different I felt from the beginning of my workout to the end. I’m glad I pushed through this workout because I felt so much better once I was finished. Once I dropped the girls off at school, I met with the principal for PTO stuff. I took the girls to the park to play around… 

 We had a track meet today that we hosted at our school. It was with 2 other schools (a small meet)… But it was a great speed workout for everyone.  

   The meet went by fast and I was home by 6 to help with homework and bedtime. 🙂 

Wednesday: I went out for a 10 mile easy run. It felt good after yesterday’s workout.  

 My youngest and I went to the Retirement center (old folks home) for a little message and visiting. We went with Megan & her daughter and our neighbor, Vickie. It was nice.  

 Track practice was an easy 8 mile recovery run and my girls played in the sandpit for practice (well and they had piano)….    For April Fools, I was able to get my girls with way salted pasta! Corom tried to get me today with putting something in the shower head… But of course I didn’t fall for it. We know each other to well to be able to do anything. Corom was able to get quite a few people at the jail (with his chocolate covered cotton balls).  

Thursday: I met up with Amber and went out for a 13 something mile run. I helped pace her for her marathon time.  

  It was a good run! My left calf is feeling a little sore but nothing to worry about… Yet! I helped in my 3rd daughter’s classroom and then helped with the book exchange (PTO stuff) right after.  

 Shortly after, Corom and I went to cafe rio while my mother-in-law took my 2 youngest to McDonald’s. It was nice to go out with Corom… It’s been way too long! I left for track (and Corom helped all the girls with homework and after school stuff)… The kids went on an easy run (we have an invitational/ track meet tomorrow).  

 One of the kids trying to scare the coaches… Didn’t work! 🙂 We had the Paices over this evening (they have 5 little girls). They all just ran wild and played around…  

Friday: I met up with Danny for a 10 mile run. It felt good!  

 I had many errands to run before I had to head off to the track meet. My girls went to different neighbors houses throughout the day until Corom got home… So thank you everyone for helping out! The HS kids did really well at the meet today!!! There were 10 other schools at this invitational. I had a couple of kids qualify in their races for State. They all looked great. We were able to win the invitational in both the males and females… It was exciting!  

   And there was plenty of entertainment!  

 We didn’t get back until late. We took in a Foriegn exchange student this evening for a little over a week… Hopefully she doesn’t go crazy here… But what do you do. 🙂 

Saturday: I set my alarm for 4:45 a.m. On a Saturday… We have a huge invitational track meet today and the bus leaves at 6:30. I decided not to take the bus, so I could get a decent run in, shower, etc and then make the 30 min drive to the meet (mile race starts at 8). So I went out for a little over 11 easy miles…  

 I was able to come home, get ready, get my girls ready and make it to the track meet by 7:45. The HS kids ran good miles… Most of them not their PR (I think only 2 PR’d this morning), but still ran fast times (I only had 6 qualify for this meet in the mile… 3 girls and 3 boys… It’s a tougher meet to get into and it’s based on their times.) The 800’s were next for the distance part of the meet (which was a few hours later)… The 2 boys that qualified had good races. I PR’d and the other was so close but then hit a wall the last 100. It happens. 🙂 The 2 female racers from our team ran great 800’s. They both looked strong! The 2 milers were the 2nd to last race… Oh this was a fun race to watch. Our top female and male both had huge PR’s and qualified for State!!! (He ran a 9:33 and her time was a 11:24.) It was so exciting. They looked great and did not let up. The other 2 male racers ran strong. They also PR’d. They ended off well.  

 The rest of the team competed well! Our girls team took 1st overall (there were about 15-20 teams)… This is just the beginning of the season, so it’s hard to see how we are ranked in our region…  

 Of course, we had to BBQ! There was also the steeple chase at this meet. Always a fun race to watch. You will always see our top distance runner turn back and congratulate every other racer on the track! He is a good kid! I had to hurry off to a meeting with a few others… We are setting something up so I can began coaching/writing plans for beginners to elite runners of all ages and distance races (800 meters to marathon). I’ve been writing plans up for a lot of people lately and I really enjoy it. So we shall see how that goes. While I was out today doing my stuff, Corom and the girls went fishing…  

 Yes, they had so much fun! My oldest and I went to the women’s broadcast later on in the evening. We had a few neighborhood (teenager) kids come over for a movie night (they use our house to come hang out at). 

Sunday: Today was a great day. The girls wore their Easter dresses to church that grandma Maria sent them. They looked so beautiful. My kids are really cute!!! 😉 I’m sorry but here are a lot of pictures…  

     It took a while to get a picture where all 4 would cooperate. Church was everything I needed to hear (testimony meeting). And the 2 blocks after sacrament meeting was great. We had the Barneys over for dinner and then Megan and I went out on our “visits” for RS. When we came back, our hubby’s and kids were everywhere. A few other neighbors stopped by to hang out when they saw us goofing off… It was a nice evening!  

 Our youngest got into trouble; my 2 oldest thought the cops were going to come get her. 😉  

 It’s nice to see that they were truly concerned for her. 🙂 Shortly after they all went to bed. 

Monday: I went out for a little over 11 miles this morning.  

 I had A PTO meeting (where we ended up at Simply Juicy for a smoothie), I babysat for a friend of mine, went VTing, my friend Camille came over to hang out for a little while and then it was off to track… The distance runners went on a 7 mile run today. We have a meet tomorrow but it is a smaller meet, so we train right through it. Then they ended up in their gym for some pull-ups…  

 We did have a few families over for dinner and Easter eggs… (There is a new mom and her 2 young girls that moved in… We had her over with another family that had kids the same age as hers)… It was fun.  

 We had a short little Easter message and then the kids played the famous “Turtle” game (something Corom made up). Good times…