Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

[GollyGadget]

Congratulations! You did it! Enjoy some time relishing in your accomplishments.

 

[nancipants]

If I didn’t have a big trip already planned for next summer, I’d be tempted!

 

[The Expert]

I'm 75% sure I am doing Chicago with a charity bib next year, but if not, I will seriously think about it!

 

[LSUlakes]

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My obsessively laid out ready-to-go morning-of race gear.


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5k in! This is so easy!


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Exiting an aid station. We were told by station workers that we were very easy to identify because of the sparkle skirt and the flag shorts.

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The sign telling you to go to the top of the hill (also example of the clear course marking)



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But wait. What's this sign on the back? WHY did I go up that hill!


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I legit almost fell over after I took this because I looked up.


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SIL getting pics at the finish!

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DH taking pics at the finish (and you can see SIL in the pink behind me)

Congrats!! Thats a awesome accomplishment!!

 

[Herding_Cats]

WHEW! Quick catch-up!

After the race, Monday became a recovery/clean/pack day. We were headed up to the Marquette area in the UP and needed to get the camper ready, the coolers ready (because DH doesn't like to pull the trailer with the camper fridge running on propane), the kids and the dogs packed and ready. We did some last-minute grocery shopping where I leaned heavily on the grocery cart and generally walked more slowly than usual. (As a note, I'm still unable to convince DH that we NEED to buy the Mickey/Minnie pumpkins at Costco. *sigh* )

Tuesday included a trip to the vet for the puppy to get her last shot series and her 1yr rabies, and then a trip into the dentist for DD to get a filling. Where I then found out that we needed to come back AGAIN to get another filling done since they won't do an upper/lower or a right/left side in the same appointment with kids her age because of the risk of biting their cheek or tongue while they are numb after the appointment. Ugh.

Wednesday we packed everyone into the vehicles and headed north after DS2 got home from practice and showered. It's about a 7 hour drive when we pull the camper (6 without) and of course it rained the last 2 hours, and the entire time we were setting up. Hurray. Generally when we make this trip we drive one vehicle, but we ended up bringing a bunch of camping gear for the girls team and I drove our suburban (plus, it would have been a very tight fit in DH's work truck with 5 people and 2 dogs.) That meant I didn't get to scroll or read during the trip. Boooo!

Thursday we drove back to Marquette for the XC meet. Due to a coaching change, the meet had a last minute schedule change from the original plan to run on Friday. That meant that several other downstate teams didn't make the trip and it was all UP teams plus ours. Our boys team took 2nd and the girls 3rd.

Friday we drove East to the Munising/Pictured Rocks area and did several waterfall hikes, and a walk in part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. My legs were definitely protesting the stairs at a few stops.

Saturday we drove West and did several other waterfall hikes. (pics from those to come later, after I get DH to airdrop the pics he took.) The UP is such a wild place; it's hard to believe that the trees will seemingly just grow directly out of the rocks.

Sunday it was time to pack up and drive back home. DH's back seized up when he was hooking up the trailer, and he's still hobbling a little bit today (Monday.) We didn't get home until dinner time, and pretty much only took the essentials out of the camper and truck before calling it a night.

Today (Monday) we are still unpacking and cleaning up. We are working out a menu and grocery list for the week since the kids start school tomorrow and this week includes only 1 soccer game, 1 XC meet, and 2 nights of DH refereeing football; a light schedule. I start work making pies on Thursday (for about a month before they close for the season.)

I'm going to start lifting this week (maybe today if I can sneak down to the basement for a little bit) and see if I can make that somewhat of a habit. I definitely have some training plans to get worked out soon in preparation for January.

 

[The Expert]

Sounds like a great active recovery week! I hope DH's back is better soon. I can't imagine driving 7 hours after doing that.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Yes. This is Michigan. US-2 along the southern edge of the Upper Peninsula, the northern edge of Lake Michigan.


Freighter at the ore dock in Marquette. These are super cool (and LOUD) when they load them. Full train cars (at the top) dump into the triangle-y things that hinge down to the ship and dump into the ship.


View from the beach of Lake Michigamme at Van Riper state campground.


Laughing Whitefish Falls


Wagner Falls


Beach view of Pictured Rocks


Miners Falls

 

[Herding_Cats]

Canyon Falls--this includes part of the North Country Trail (quite a few of these hikes did, actually!) but this was the only one with the trail marker.



This was the largest, fall, but there were several other smaller ones as well.


There's one part, between a couple of small falls where people (mostly college kids) jump into the river from about 30ft up on the canyon wall. They even have a rope tied to a tree so they can hoist themselves back up. Last year when the XC team did this hike there were a group of kids our jumping in and some of the dads were inquiring how deep the water was there and the response was "Well we've never touched the bottom so we don't know."

The trees just growing on top of those slabs of rock.



Getting down to these falls (Agate Falls) required me to take a couple of breaks while climbing/scrambling back up.



The boys climbed up the cliff...also some perspective on how tall this one was!


We saved the best for last: Bond Falls. These are downstream from the dam, and there's a main fall, but further upstream are several more small ones.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Limited out on pics, more from Bond Falls





Gratuitous puppy picture! She was up for anything on these hikes, but when she got tired, she would repeatedly swerve in front of DH and look up at him until he carried her. Our other dog did great too, but he's more skittish so we didn't get many decent pics of him.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Time to look forward!

I just counted weeks, and on Saturday we will be 18wks out from the HM (Goofy for me) of MW. How is it so soon?!

That means I'm also about 8 weeks away from basketball season starting. Probably a little less than that with pre-season stuff. Middle school games start the first week of November, and varsity games start around the last week of November.

I was *hoping* to work on speed some, and focus on lifting, but looking at this timing I'm not sure if that's going to be the prudent choice. However, I also know that running *during* basketball season (especially since I'm planning on working part time) is going to be even harder to fit in. I'll either have to get up at like 5am to treadmill, or do what I did last year and just count my time chasing teenagers up and down the floor as a run.

This leaves me with a few of choices:

-Stick with my original plan of starting a strength plan (probably something 5 days/wk) and plug in some speedwork 2x a week. Speedwork being something like 400m repeats or hill strides, with a mile each WU and CD. I'm pretty sure all of the strength plans I've looked at on Bodi are 8-10 weeks long, which means I should get through it before high school basketball season starts, which is where we get more of a workout. THEN, I could change over to fewer lifting days and more running days somewhere between 8 and 10 weeks before MW.

-Pick a 10k training plan that's only like 8-10 weeks. Something like a Higdon 10k intermediate plan (5 runs/week, 1 rest day, longest long run is 8mi.) He lists "strength" in addition to a run 2x a week and a 60min cross training session on the weekends, and those could all easily be lifting days. I'd have to do some looking for a program that would fit those parameters better because I don't want to just stretch out a plan intended for 5x/week. Again, that would take me to the beginning of basketball season, and then I could either continue on with that, OR lift more, run 3x week with longer long runs on the weekends.

-Just pick a marathon plan AND a lifting plan and go whole hog until my body tells me I need to pull back when basketball starts. This will absolutely require 5am wakeups because I'm pretty sure between the kids' team schedules and DH's football ref schedule, someone is gone to a sports event every weeknight for the next 2 months.

-Something else. _______?


I have no time goals for MW. I just want to finish and be functional. I'm trying to emphasize speedwork because I feel like I need it to be a better official for basketball season. I know how to get through the races on not-great/minimal training. I am a little concerned with burning out like I did in August for my trail run.

 

[accm]

How is MW in only 18 weeks???

For training - what would *you* rather do? I know personally, I suck at following a lifting plan, so that wouldn't work for me. But do you think after all the training for your ultra that you'd rather take a break from running? Or would you rather keep following a running training plan, but with less of a time commitment? I wouldn't pick option 3 though, since it sounds like it's just setting you up for more burnout

 

[Herding_Cats]

How is MW in only 18 weeks???

For training - what would *you* rather do? I know personally, I suck at following a lifting plan, so that wouldn't work for me. But do you think after all the training for your ultra that you'd rather take a break from running? Or would you rather keep following a running training plan, but with less of a time commitment? I wouldn't pick option 3 though, since it sounds like it's just setting you up for more burnout

I do sort of want to take a break from running, but with MW kind of looming I know I can't completely put it on the back burner. And I'm starting to teeter on the whole edge of "I've taken too many days off and am now OK with doing nothing."

During the 50k SIL and I talked a little bit about next summer and I think we both might take a break from running and joked that 2026 will be the summer we get ripped. Although, I think she turns 40 next year, so I'm pretty sure she'll do another marathon for her birthday since a local one is usually very close to the same date.....kind of like me and MW.

 

[michigandergirl]

I just saw that North Country's medal next year is going to be stained glass!! That might just be the incentive I need to finally try a 50K.