New PRs and a holiday weekend

This was such a busy weekend and at the same time I felt like I didn't get anything done!

First I got off work on Thursday at 11:30 AM.  We were given 3 hours off and I didn't take a lunch.  I went to the park in town to do 3 miles before going to ride Eli.  It started off amazing and just stayed that way.  It was cool and overcast.  There was  fine mist at the beginning.  Perfect running weather.  Just over halfway through my Garmin beeped that the battery was low.  OMG.  I knew I was on track for my fastest 5K.  I just hoped the battery would last.  Thankfully it did!  I am so tickled with this pace.  It actually felt easy.  Now the rest of my runs this weekend were not like this.  But I'm hoping that I'm onto something and will need to re-evaluate my goals.

Then I went to the barn and I just had a great ride on Eli.  He's 20 now and things haven't been so good.  But he gave me such a great ride.  Great way to start my weekend!

It was a busy week and my 7 day fitbit step total was the highest I think it's ever been on Friday.

114K!  Usually breaking 100K takes some effort or some long runs.

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On Friday we had tickets to the Cardinals game.  We were going with my parents and it was their first time at this Busch Stadium.  I believe this is the 3rd Busch Stadium, but I'm not sure.  It opened in 2006.

We had fun!  There were fireworks after the game.  They do such a good job of this and everyone has a great seat.  It's fun to just sit there and wait for the lights to go off and the fireworks to start.

My mom took this photo of us.  I don't really love it.  I think it makes both of us look heavier than we really are. She got close (as opposed to zooming in) and I also feel like it's shot upwards a bit.   But there you have it. . .

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We didn't have any plans for the 4th.  A friend from my barn gave me some homegrown blackberries and I attempted to make a pie.   I tried this years ago and it flopped.  It was super runny and disappointing.  This time it turned out much better!

But holy sweetness!  I guess cause I don't eat much sweet stuff anymore, this was a shock.  We got some vanilla ice cream to top it with.  That helped toned down those blackberries, but my teeth were still coated in sugar.  Thanks for Carb-Ease Plus from Advocare.  I popped that before inhaling this hot mess of sugar!  :)

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Yesterday I went to the barn to ride and found this:

Swollen knee from a little cut above the knee.  I opted to ride him lightly for 40 mins to see if the swelling would go down.  It didn't.  It did get warm when it wasn't before.  So maybe riding wasn't the best idea.  But Eli puffs up like a stove pipe from the most superficial cut.  So I knew that's what it was from.  I put ointment on the cut and hopefully this is better today.  He was going to give me a really sweet ride so I was bummed that I had to go easy. :(  

Today is someone's birthday at the barn so I made a patriotic cake. 

Now unfortunately it's Monday.  I didn't gain any weight from this crazy weekend when I got on the scale this morning. :)   WHOOP!   I leave for Canada in 3 days! Well the first stop is Detroit.   The nerves have kicked in. 

Post race thoughts

It's been a few days since my run.  I'm still kind of dragging.  It's been a busy week I wish I had taken Monday (the day after the race off work).  I think I was the most sore on Sunday afternoon.  My hamstrings hurt more and more as the day went on.  I realized that when I crossed the finish I grabbed food (bananas and a power bar) and gave them to my husband standing outside of the barriers.  I never ate any of those.  Even the Noosa yogurt (did I tell you Noosa is the BEST yogurt ever!?!?!) we brought back home with us.  I drank 2 cans of Michelob Ultra Light though! :)  But I didn't eat.  I would estimate it was an hour or just over till we ate lunch.   I probably should have eaten something immediately following the finish line.  Not that it would help with my soreness, but probably my level of energy later. 

Living in this area my whole life I've always thought it was flat.  I remember growing up and we'd get a lot of rain and things would stay wet for a long time.  My grandparents farmed (as did my own parents for many years).  They both raised pigs at some point and the pig lots would get so sloppy.  My Granny would say "we live on the flat part of the round Earth".  Lol.   I'm here to say that St Louis is NOT flat.  And it sure drives like it's flat.  It "looks" flat.  It's not.   Here is what my Garmin says - the top is the elevation chart for my KY Half and the bottom is St Louis

That's quite a difference when you are on foot.  That makes me super proud that I beat KY by 6:20 mins.  :)   I will say that I'm quite sad I didn't make the 2:30:00 finish for this race but with the Garmin being off by 0.1 miles and at times my confusion over how fast I needed to run to make that time, I'm not sure I could have pulled it out.  But I was just so close!  I'm almost tempted to find a flat flat half marathon in Nov to do so that I can try to make that time, but I don't know if I'm that crazy!

Monday I went to work and I think I was brain dead.  Certainly stiff and semi sore.  I went to the barn to ride Eli after work and my legs were *so* tired. My calves didn't hurt till I squeezed them the first time when I was riding. Ouch!  Overall though it loosened me up and was a good thing, even if it was an awful ride. 

Tuesday I took Eli to my trainer's barn about 1.5 - 2 hours away (2 hours with road work this time) for a saddle fitting and a lesson. 

The driving made me stiff but we had a really good lesson and my body felt good after.  It seems the longer and more I run, the shorter my riding legs get.  I had to shorten my stirrups a hole before the half marathon and it felt like I needed to again after,  But I refuse to go up 2 holes!!

Last night my trainer was at my barn and I got another lesson.  *happy dance* for a lesson 2 days in a row.  But Eli and I were both tired and it wasn't that good.  Eli did really correct work on Tuesday.  He hadn't been anywhere in 2 years and I was super proud of how well he did.  But I think the long day tired him out.  

I'm thinking of running 3 miles today after work.  I signed up for my first virtual race and it's a 5K.  I could just do it tonight.  The medal is already in the mail to me: 

My husband signed up too and I will not let him have his medal until he runs the 5k!  I think that's one thing I don't like about this type of thing.  It's kind of like buying a medal.  But you better get your butt out there and do the work.  For me I do races because of the atmosphere.  The shirts are fun.  Medals are a plus.  Well medals are a *must* for longer runs and so fun!  This last weekend was the first time I got a medal for a 5K.   So I'm not sure how I feel about just running a 5K from my house to earn this medal.  But I'm going to give it a go!  

So one thing I wanted to do after my *first* half was get a 13.1 related tattoo.  When I finished the race I thought "that was a fluke" and I didn't earn the tattoo.  I'm whacked!  The training I put into this distance, the time commitment and the actual run are all worth it.  But I signed up for another just so I could make sure it wasn't a "fluke" and earn my tattoo.  I'm kind of having second thoughts still on whether I should do this.  I still don't consider myself a runner.  But . . .  currently this tattoo is tops on my list (I have many pinned on pinterest).  However, when I show this to people they really do not see what it is.  (I'd use 13.1 instead of 26.2 obviously).  I don't want a tattoo I need to explain all the time.  I already have a crap tattoo that no one can recognize.  Maybe that's why I have cold feet.