Nature Therapy

Nature continues to provide me with plenty of stress relief. But the stress of the past couple of months is taking a toll on my physical health. I've been sick more than usual, picking up the random viruses that I'm seeing in my clinic, even with the usual precautions. I've been losing a lot of hair. I've been feeling really fatigued the past couple of weeks, struggling both with motivation and movement. I'm finding that I have to push myself to get out the door for my runs and workouts. And instead of feeling energized when I'm done, I feel tired. My Oura ring keeps sending me alerts. I've been dialing things back a bit to give my body some grace. 

To try to keep my peace, I've taken a break from talking with my father, instead, leaning more on the care manager to check in with him and make sure things are going well. The caregivers are doing their best to keep her safe. I did speak with him this week, and it went ok. He won't be happy until he gets what he wants, which is a return to life before my mom's fall. That's not going to happen. 

I never thought that my life would be like this; that my parents would act like children, that I would be in charge of keeping them safe, and that they would push back like teenagers. I thought I had gone through all that when my oldest son rebelled in high school. Who knew?

Weekly Rundown:

Sunday: Ice Age Trail Lumbercamp Segment hike 12 miles

Monday: rest day

Tuesday: Yoga with Adriene

Wednesday: trail run 6 miles

Thursday: strength training

Friday: Yoga with Adriene

Saturday: Trail Sisters Run 5 miles

My son and I were still up in northern Wisconsin on Sunday, with plans to hike the Ice Age Trail Lumbercamp Segment. On Saturday, we hiked over 11 miles on 2 different segments- you can read about that here- and were very tired from that adventure. A little voice inside me was trying to convince me to bail on our planned hike. I shut that down, although I did ask my son if he was still up for the miles ahead. He was uncharacteristically grumpy that morning, so I knew he was feeling it too! No worries, we packed up our stuff and headed to the trailhead, where we would be shuttled to the other trailhead, allowing us to do a complete hike of the segment. 

Can I just say how glad we were to have done this? The trail was mostly flat with some mild inclines until the very end, where we had to climb over rocks and had a lot of climbing. There were lakes along the way, and we went off-trail to check them out. We saw beaver lodges and log chutes, where the beavers send the logs into the lake and float them over to the lodge. We saw 2 porcupines--one who was scared of us and ran up a tree, and another, a big old man who was proud to show me his quill-filled posterior. He was not scared of us, just annoyed, and he finally ambled away. What a hoot!

Speaking of hoots, no owls, but we heard lots of birds overhead. The Merlin app identified probably about 40 different birds. We saw 2 broad-winged hawks, a new-to-me variety. We were watching a deer in the distance when we heard a large fluttering behind us and saw a huge bird of prey flying overhead. We could not identify it, but it was loud! What an amazing day in nature! 

I did bring a couple of souvenirs home from northern Wisconsin as well. On Monday night, I woke up with a terrible headache. Thinking I had a brain tumor it was due to tension-I've been experiencing some of that the past few weeks, lol--I started massaging my neck. While massaging along my hairline, I felt something in my hair and pulled it out. Yep, it was a tick {{shudder}}. It was still alive and hadn't burrowed yet. I flushed it down the drain and went back to bed. A few hours later, I felt something crawling on my arm--another tick! I flushed him down the drain. There were no more tick incidents after that, but I took my duffle bag out to the garage and did that spring cleaning in my bedroom that I've been meaning to do.

After a couple of low-key days, on Wednesday, I drove to the preserve for my weekly trail run there. Although I still felt fatigued, my legs let me run. Spring was everywhere! The predominant color was green, which is so much better than brown. Wildflowers were popping up, and the deer were out, but not as many as usual. What surprised me was the number and variety of birds that were singing overhead. My Merlin app was ticking away--I must have heard 30 different birds. What a great morning!

It was back to the gym on Thursday. Still feeling a little off, I was looking forward to some cleans!

Strength and skill: 

Warm up with empty barbell, then build:

4 x3 Front Squats (45#)

4 x3 Tall Cleans (45#)

Every 2:30 x 8 rounds:

1 block clean + 1 front squat @65-75% with a 2 second hold at the bottom

-we built to 75#!

Accessory work: 

4 rounds: 

8-12 Arnold press (15#)

8/leg Bulgarian Split Squat (10#)

8-12 kneeling Pallof Press per side

I met up with my Trail Sisters on Saturday for a run at a local preserve. I had a feeling it would be low-key, and it was. I hoped to save my energy for a Sunday run at 'my' preserve. A Mother's Day gift to myself, if you will.

It was a beautiful morning. We comfortably looped around the preserve twice, stopping often to walk. After finishing up 5 miles, the leader of the group and I met up for coffee. It was nice to slow down and chat, especially with someone who has been there and gets where I'm at with my parents. Running friends are the best!

Off the road...

Fun mail is great, and especially when you're not expecting it, it's really great! On Saturday, I received a card from the Lodi Valley Chapter of the IAT. This is our 'local' chapter, and they maintain the trails where I spend most of my miles. Thanking me for my support of their trails, they sent me a 25 year anniversary patch. I was so touched and honored! 

Finally, it's the 10 year anniversary of our gotcha day for Cocoa. It's also the 10 year anniversary of that terrible tibial fracture that sidelined my son for 6 months. Yin and Yang. The universe, balancing things out. This was Mother's Day in 2016. I hope to recreate this photo on Sunday, only without any mishaps, lol.

I have quite the collection of trail patches! What should I do with them? I'm considering putting them on my hydration vest. What do you think?

How was your week? What do you do to manage your stress? Are you training for anything? Any fun plans for Mother's Day?

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