Track life

This week did not go as planned! My running has taken a totally new twist and turn. I've become involved in helping Jacquelyn's coach with his high school team. They are an amazing group of teenage girls and talented runners. We currently have 7 that went sub 2:40 in the 800 this week. Instead of getting up before the kids go to school and run, I have been running after school with the girls...I'm talking 3:30 in Florida! I've run with them quite a bit over the past several weeks but now it has become official. It is a huge adjustment because it isn't just warmer...there are days that it is HOT. My stomach doesn't exactly like the heat but we'll see, so far, so good. Often times they only run 6-8 miles and my marathon legs need longer workouts. Sometimes I'm finding that I can add on mileage or I'm doing #doubledays to log the marathon miles. In many ways this is really working because the girls run a lot of soft surface opposed to road running. We spend a lot of time on the trail and in the dirt. It is amazing how much better that feels on a recovery run. I would never just go out to the trails and run with my friends but I do this routinely with the girls. I'm doing some double runs to add the mileage and my legs seem to really be responding well to it. The downside is that I miss my morning routine and it is a bit of a juggle some afternoons. With that said, I'm not exhausted from uber early alarms or stressed about bedtime. Ultimately it comes down to balance and I just have to figure that out because I am in BOSTON TRAINING MODE.

Trying to juggle my running and the activities of my four kids is pretty insane most days. For those of you that don't know, hubs is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician and works craZy hours. It is a different lifestyle. Most days he doesn't wake up until between 10 and 12 depending on when he got in from the ER the night before. He is gone most evenings leaving me to kid drop off and pick up on the soccer fields. He is a rock star on the nights that he is home and is awesome doing the driving around since I verge on truck rage driving so much. I got side tracked there with that information but since this blog is fairly new, this gives some of you insight to my crazy life.

Talking about craZy, I went to 3 track meets this week! I'm a total rookie at this track thing. Jacquelyn was always too busy with state cup soccer and tournaments in the spring to run much track so I'm not as familiar with it as I am with cross country. Speaking of being a rookie...I was so busy working with the girls on their baton hand offs that we missed their race in the first heat...luckily they squeezed them in the second heat! OOOPS! Luckily they redeemed me by placing second overall in that event - 4 X 800 relay.

The first track meet was on Tuesday night and it was Jacquelyn's first races for this season. The kid rocked them! The times were still a few seconds off of what we were shooting for but nonetheless absolutely solid times. This meet did not have much competition in her events, so she ran alone out front and paced herself solely on splits being called. She posted a 5:24 mile and 2:33 in the 800.

Ice bath time!

She got to tag along with me to the high school meets Wednesday night and Saturday. She really enjoys watching the high school kids race. I was not prepared for high school track season. The 2 mile did not start until 10:45pm Wednesday night...that is past my bedtime. There was no way that I could get up at 5 and run the next morning after a night like that. These meets are exhausting. Although, Saturday was my off day running, I ran sooooooo much. I spend a lot of time warming up and cooling down with the kids. I suppose they could go alone but I find it to be a good time to talk to the kids about how they feel about the race. I got a lot of shorts sprints done during the events calling splits. There is a learning curve to this but hopefully I figure it out soon.

After 3 track meets, my little diva was exhausted!

Quick summary of my miles this week:

Monday 6.25 miles

Tuesday 6 X 800

Wednesday 8 miles

Thursday 8.5 miles

Friday 10 miles + 6 striders

Saturday off (track miles with the team)

Sunday 13 miles with 5 marathon paced miles, then PM 6 miles with the team

Week total - 58.75 miles

Post 10 miles on Friday

Randomness...I found a big bag of stuff from Pink on the coffee table on Valentine's Day! The Dr. did some shopping at Pink. Hmmmmm....I think this sports bra is a bit revealing even for me! Doesn't matter....love that he shopped for me!