Sunday, September 13, 2020

Fool in the Rain

We had rain this week. A lot of rain. In fact, the drought we were experiencing is gone. The grass is green again and it looks like spring. I only wish I could share this rain with California. Believe me, there has been plenty to go around. 

Music fans will recognize the title of my post from Led Zeppelin's final album In Through the Out Door. It was the first song that came on when I was running in the rain on Friday. Kind of funny that at the end of that run, I passed a dog walker who was laughing at me!

Friday's rainy run

Weekly Rundown
Monday: run 12.5 miles
Tuesday: yoga with Adriene
Wednesday: trail run 6 miles
Thursday: strength train
Friday: run 5.5 miles
Saturday: rainy rainy rainy rest day
Sunday: Naperville Trails virtual Half Marathon 13.2 miles 2:28:29

Running

It rained on Sunday, so I moved my long run to Monday, which was actually a pretty nice day. It was about 70 and partly cloudy when I headed out to the bike path for my long run. Initially, I had a plan to do an out and back of 10-11 miles. Unfortunately, 2 of the bridges across the creek were out. There was a detour off the path, but you know me--I ignored the signs. I ended up having to go around a locked gate and to cross the creek on a plank of wood before I was back on the path. After all that, I decided that I didn't want to return on that route. I decided to instead run to the forest preserve and loop back home. Having done this before during marathon training, I knew it would be a 12 mile run. I was fine with that. It was pretty crowded at the preserve and to avoid so many people, I ducked into the woods for some of my miles. This run was definitely an adventure! It was also a dry run for my upcoming halfs. Using 4:1 run/walk intervals was a good strategy and my pacing my nice and steady. I felt good afterwards too!

No bridge, no problem!

Wednesday morning was rainy and cold--relatively speaking. I didn't want the temptation of running on the single track in the woods, so I drove to a different preserve. I used to run at this preserve a lot but they've redone it and tore out almost all the trees. The trails are limestone, which is pretty nice to run on, but it was wet and messy! Glad I wore my trail shoes. I wound around the preserve and was able to eake out 6 miles, using 9:1 run/walk intervals. 


I started my pre-work run on Friday morning in some drizzle. As with the previous Friday's run, my legs felt light and I let them fly. I mostly had the path to myself--no complaints there--but when I reached the turn around point, the skies opened up and I ran the rest of my miles in a downpour. I stopped once for a selfie and once to use the portapotty, but like last week, this was a satisfying sub-9 minute/mile paced run. 

When I woke up Sunday, it was 60 degrees and sunny. I drove to the preserve where the actual Naperville Half Marathon would have taken place. Using the RunGo app, I was able to run the race course, following verbal prompts provided by the app. From the start, I struggled. Even though I used 4:1 run/walk intervals as I had planned, my heart rate skyrocketed and would not stay down. I sweated profusely. I ended up walking a lot more than I had planned and finished with what was my personal worst time for a half marathon. Right now, I'm feeling queasy. I'm not sure what went wrong, but I'm going to do a lot of reflecting on this race and will recap it later in the week. 


Strength

I skipped CrossFit on Monday in lieu of that long run, so I only had one strength sesh with Sammy Jo on Thursday. She had me work on cleans-both hang cleans (above the knee) and power cleans (from the floor). I just love how she breaks down these technical moves for me and thanks to that, I hit a huge PR of 85#! It's amazing how a little tweaking of my technique allows me to lift heavier than I expected. This was a surprise for both of us. After that I worked on pull-ups and toes to bar. Inching ever forward to that strict pullup. 


Off the road....

You know how ads pop up on Instagram for kind of cool but obscure things? Have you ever been tempted to make a purchase? Thanks to one of these ads, I joined a 'succulent of the month club' where I get 2 little succulents shipped to me on the regular. I've become kind of obsessed with succulents. They are low maintenance, high satisfaction plants, in my opinion. Hard to kill, unless you overwater them or leave them out in the cold. Not that I know anything about that... Trader Joes has jumped on the succulent bandwagon and look what I found when shopping there over the weekend. They have all different colors and plants. It was hard to pick just one. 



Running has served me well over the years, giving me an outlet for life stresses. This week was no different. My work weighed heavily on me--I spent most of my clinic time talking with parents and kids about anxiety. Guys, elearning is taking an emotional toll on a lot of kids and their parents. Kids I've been caring for for years, struggling with their emotions. I had a nine year old begging me for medication to make him feel better. Multiple moms broke down in tears. When I did that fellowship last year in pediatric mental health, I never envisioned that I would be using those lessons like this. It's heartbreaking and can I just say I'd rather be treating ear infections, asthma, and strep throat than this?

This is hanging up at my desk.

How was your week? Rain? Sun? How are you holding up? Are you a parent doing elearning with your kids? Have you gotten into succulents?

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown. 




36 comments :

  1. Wow. I don't have young nieces or nephews anymore, so my siblings don't deal with that. Although one of my nieces is a teacher of young children. I can't imagine having to deal with that -- as a parent, or as their physician. Hugs, Wendy.

    Sorry about your half. Too bad you can't switch it for the run on Monday! Sometimes you can figure out what went wrong, and sometimes it's just a mystery. There is always another race,though.

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    1. Sometimes I think it's just menopause doing weird things to my body. I don't know. I still don't feel well.

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  2. We will take all the rain you can send (if only it worked that way.) We slept with our windows open Friday night and our house smelled like smoke when we woke up. The Bobcat fire is about 45 miles from us and air quality is horrible.

    I felt "off" this week - tired and totally unmotivated. My heart breaks for all your little patients and their parents.

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    1. There is just so much bad news right now--it's hard to stay motivated! Hang in there and stay safe.

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  3. I admittedly kill all of my plants! Maybe I should try the succulents? They are kind of cool. I also bought a fake plant for my bathroom bc it makes me smile to have green in there. We also had ridiculous amounts of rain and flooding last week. I am starting to see signs of fall though and that makes me happy.

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    1. Last week was just so depressing with all the rain. It made me think about winter...anyways, I'm really glad to see the sun again.

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  4. I'm glad my kids are a little older so I don't have to be hands on with elearning but the social isolation has been brutal for my 15 year old. Just brutal.
    I did not see the Halloween succulents at TJs this year but I still have one from last Halloween, as well well as a bunch from Costco. They're fun!
    Sorry your half did not go as you'd hoped. I know you don't typically taper for a half but I think you had some tough workouts leading up to race day that may have sapped your energy. Just my 2 cents. :D

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    1. Yeah, I thought about that too. Like you said, I don't normally do a taper but I did take it completely easy yesterday. I've never had anything like this happen before. Ugh.

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  5. Oh man, that breaks my heart about so many kids dealing with anxiety :( This e-learning stuff is so hard on the kids, parents and teachers. Sadly, I don't see it totally ending anytime soon. I just hope that we can provide kids with outlets to help them deal with all the stress.

    That sucks that it was so rainy there this week. Hopefully next week will be much better. Great job pushing through to finish your half marathon today. It's so easy to bail, especially when it's a virtual race, so kudos to you for pushing through the discomfort to finish.

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    1. They sent me a medal, so I had to earn it! I never considered quitting but I was frustrated with my heart rate. Trying to sort that out as we speak.

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  6. Ooh I'm going to Trader Joe's tomorrow and my stepsons love plants, so I think that some "back to school" presents are in order. I'm sending you a virtual hug for your half and for your kids...it's just all very hard.

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    1. Thank you! That's why I love little things like getting my succulents, stuff like that. The little things have become the big things!

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  7. Three out of four runs were great! A success rate of 75%.
    It would be interesting to know what was different on Sunday’s run. Maybe just tired from the week?
    Sometimes it's hard to find a reason.
    I'm really interested in your recap because I sometimes experience the same phenomenon.

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    1. I'd love feedback on that, since you experience it too. I don't know if I just had a hard week? But I wouldn't expect the profuse sweating and high heart rate. My gut tells me it's probably some menopausal thing.

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  8. Years ago, way before kids, I was really into house plants. I think I had 40 at one time LOL Gradually, my time (and attention) faded, and I'm down to a few that are not looking so vibrant. Maybe succulents are something I should consider. We had way too much rain this week as well. We did need rain, but 4-1/2 days of it was overkill.

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  9. I'm sorry you had such a tough race! Hopefully you can figure out what went wrong. But congrats on finishing!
    This whole situation has been so hard on everyone. I'm just glad that so many mental health providers can now offer telemental health so kids can still get services (especially the ones who were getting them in school). While not the same as in person, its better than nothing. The need just keeps getting greater.

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  10. Ugh, this is so hard on kids. My daughter is tutoring high school kids and at least she can meet with them in person to give them some personal support. I can’t imagine how younger kids are coping.

    Sorry about your race, but to take a page from one of my other friends who had a crappy run last weekend, maybe you didn’t do anything wrong and it was just a bad day? Hopefully your next run will be a good one.

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    1. I hope that's all it was. It was so unexpected, after such great training this summer.

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  11. Remote learning has really been so hard for so many kids - it's really heartbreaking. I'm grateful that my boys have dealt with it fairly well and are back in a classroom.

    I'm sorry your race was a struggle. I hope the queasiness has passed.

    Congrats on your PR!

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    1. I do feel better but am going to take a couple rest days to allow my body to recover. Thanks!

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  12. Thank you for being there for those kids, I'm sure you help them but it's a heavy toll and I'm glad you've got running to help you.

    Sorry that the race day was crappy when the rest of your week was great for running - what a shame! I got a marathon PB this week myself ... but over 5 different runs and yesterday's excursion was at way over 6 hour marathon pace!

    Love your strong lifting - you amaze and inspire me!

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  13. I'm new here so maybe you've discussed this before. What do you use to determine whether you run a 9:1 or a 4:1 intervals?

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    1. I use longer intervals for shorter runs. I'd love to eliminate them completely. For longer runs--10 miles or more, I'll use 4:1. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions. Thanks for reading!

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  14. Oh, your poor little patients and their parents. What a tough situation. Glad they have you as a resource for help!

    You had some really cool (and fast!) runs this week! Way to go Wendy!

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    1. Thanks Jessie! Bummed about my 'race' yesterday tho. I would have loved to have a good run for that.

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  15. I'll happily donate my rain as well. We are saturated.

    A is in virtual school and it's a mixed bag. There is something to be said for the freedom and flexibility. We can take random field trips and we will go to the mountains without him being counted as absent or needing to make up work. But he misses his friends and his teachers, and some days, he just cries. That being said, there are cases in his school, people are quarantined, and when his allergies really kick in, they won't let him in the front door.

    There are just no good solutions.

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    1. It's interesting because the kids here are counted as absent if they miss their Zoom classes. It's a lot of pressure on the parents and the kids.

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  16. Fantastic Run On Monday - Excellent Runs In General - You Go Girl - Lets Just Hope That You Felt "off" Because Of Dehydrations Or Something Common Like That - Thank You So Much For Working With The Little Ones - So Often They Just Wanna Talk And Felt Heard

    Big Hugs

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    1. Still feeling 'off' but better. I must have picked up a little GI bug.

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  17. Love succulents, and your vase. Thank you for being there for your patients & their families
    Sorry you had a frustrating race. Hope the queasiness passed quickly.

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  18. Oh Wendy, I cannot imagine what you are feeling when you see those kids! Now I am wondering what I can do on my end to help with anxiety. Right now we are MAP testing which I think is stupid (but what do I know). I finally had a chance to review all of the assignments and I was planning to notify the parents but part of me does not want to and part of me has to because grades will be due soon. And their grade is a whole different story

    Great job on your race! I need to check out that app. I don't think I've heard of it till now.

    I love that vase! Did you say Trader Joe's is where you got it?

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    1. Yes, I got the vase at Trader Joes. My son bought the large one. It's so fun!

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