A Bundle of Nerves

It's been a long time since I've had pre-race jitters like I've had this week. I think it's because Leadville is the first destination race I've gone to in a long time. There's so much more to a destination race than just showing up at the start line, which is why I don't do them very often. There's all the travel, the logistics of getting from point A to point B, and wrangling the 4 young adults who have accompanied me on this trip. Not to mention that one of my niggles, toe pain that I didn't mention a few weeks ago, decided to get really angry (see below). As the week went on, the pain lessened, but it didn't completely resolve.

My goal was to finish and I did that! I'll share more in a full recap soon. For most of the race, my foot behaved. As expected, the altitude was my nemesis, but I did better than I hoped. My son crushed his race and made me cry when he met me at the finish line. I was able to celebrate with my Trail Sisters. This was just such a great experience! If you want a sneak peek before I post the recap, check out my IG post, 

Weekly Rundown

Sunday: volunteered at local race

Monday: CrossFit with 1850m running

Tuesday: trail run 5.75 miles

Wednesday: Pool running

Thursday: strength training

Friday: travel to Colorado

Saturday: Leadville Silver 15 miler (actually 15.78) 

Running

I had hoped to get some miles on Sunday after my volunteer stint at the Stampede, but it rained and it rained and it rained--in fact, it rained so much that some places around us set a record for rainfall. On Wednesday, I took a nice leisurely run around the forest preserve. It was humid and it warmed up very quickly, so leisurely was the only option. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was having some niggles and one of those, my 2d left toe, got very angry when I landed on it. It calmed down in a hurry and I don't think it's a stress fracture. It's not right, though, and I definitely will have it checked when I return from Leadville.  

As I shared above, Leadville exceeded my expectations. It was also one of the hardest things I've ever done. No regrets. I'm so glad my body let me do this!

CrossFit/Strength

After spending the very rainy Sunday on the couch, I woke up Monday eager to head to CrossFit.  The strength/skill portion was a 14 minute on the clock of 2 laps heavy bear hug carry (I did 70#),  20 flutter kick plate presses (I did 15#), and 3-5 ring swings (I did 5). I completed 4 rounds of this. The MetCon was a 16 minute AMRAP of 400m run, 15 thrusters (I did empty BB), and 15 Ab Mat situps. I completed 4 rounds of the run and 3 rounds of everything else. The warm temperatures made this one a challenge. 

After taking time to recover, I completed this week's Summer Challenge, which was a 1000m Farmer's Carry. I did 10 laps of 100m carrying a 35# KB in each hand. It was a lot but I am glad to have gotten that out of the way!

Because of my upcoming race, SJ had already programmed mostly upper body work for Thursday's strength session. I was so glad about that, especially in light of my foot injury. She started me off with 20 banded pull apart alternating. I did 3 sets of those alternating with 3 assisted strict pull-ups with 5 second descend and toes-to-rings. The pull-ups were HARD and initially, so were the toes-to-rings. I hadn't done them for a while, but on the second set, I found my groove and on the third set, I was flying. So fun. After that, she had me do 3 sets of 8 per leg single leg glute bridges and 3 sets of Turkish sit-ups, holding 15# DB in each hand. She stood on my toes which helped a ton! Those are HARD!

How was your week? Since we are still in Colorado, I'm going to cut this rundown short and will share more in a week or so. What challenges have you taken on lately?

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