Yup, I missed this post last week but there wasn’t much to update anyway. Due to 1) last week of school insanity (working 15 + hr days) and forced taper entering 3 weeks of long races, I stuck to the 2 kickboxing plus personal training sessions and maybe ran a total of 3 miles for the week. Great for normies; uneventful for me. This whole week was leading up to the first epic weekend of 3 runny weekends; Grayson Highlands 50k (more on that later). Since I had to register for the race months ago, I miscalculated when the semester would be officially over. Unfortunately I had 3 full blown analyses and publication quality research studies to write within the last week and a half. My toughest and final class project, graph theory, is due on Monday, May 8. Oy vey. Work hard to play hard I guess. Somehow I managed to get all the research and papers written by Friday, 11 am in time to leave for Virginia. So, with all that in mind, here was my training week:

• Monday: 1 hour kickboxing at X3 Sports, followed by 45 minutes personal training.
• Wednesday: 1 hour kickboxing at X3 Sports, followed by 45 minutes personal training.
• Saturday: Grayson Highlands 50k in Virginia!
  • This race was amazing even under less than ideal weather conditions. I say that lightly. Race morning was barely 30 degrees, whiteout conditions, sleet, and 35mph winds…in May…in the South. WTF?! Running across the high point of the course we had almost no visibility and could barely run due to the wind in some spots. Trail conditions were a mess, with tons of water so my feet were wet and freezing from the start. It was not shaping up to be a good day. Sometime after lunch the clouds blew off a bit and the sun made an appearance for a few hours, making it a completely different day. Right about the time we had been pretty soul sucked, we found the long horn steer, and the wild ponies! The wild park animals are not to be trifled with but one of the ponies had different plans. The pony encounter gave us some energy for the next few miles but sometime after mile 21 my IT band started acting up and I got some runners knee in my left knee. I managed alright but it was pretty frustrating and I was definitely feeling exhausted by this point (probably some due to lack of sleep this week and some due to elevation). By the time mile 25 rolled around the cold, wind, and sleet were back with force and I slogged the last 4 miles back pretty wet and cold. I was an hour slower than I hoped but a finish is a finish, especially in crazy weather!

• Sunday: I was supposed to run the half marathon today as well but opted out due to my weird knee situation. I’m pretty sure it’s fine and just needs some stretching and rest but didn’t want to aggravate further considering I’m traveling next week for a half and full marathon in Maine. I may be dumb, but I’m not that dumb. 🙂

So there you have it. Not too shabby. Interspersed with all that was 15+hr work days including CDC reports and 3 research projects, completing house chores, errands, packing for a weekend trip, and somehow seeing my husband every once in a while. #NoExcuses