Watermelon 5k (and the week leading up to it)

Race #12 of the state Grand Prix is done, whew! Wow, was it hot!!! I also had some issues with my pre-race fueling this morning so it wasn't the race I would have liked.

If you read my previous post "Food for Thought" then you know all about my blood-sugar issues. This morning I didn't get my usual 300-400 calories and tried to make do with a 100 calorie pack of almonds. Well, short story, my body didn't like the calorie deficit and I was having problems even before the race started. During my warm-up run I started feeling kind of weak and was sweating profusely. In fact I was sweating so much more than usual I had a friend comment before race start about it. I then told a couple more friends what was going on so that if I did happen to have any major problems they would know what to tell the race officials if anything happened. I did have to back off the speed and fell right back into my default 5k time, the 25 minute range, today it was 25:10 :-(. Oh well, live and learn.

Had a Wednesday pickup (had to trade with James again) so didn't get back into Arkansas until Friday night. I did make arrangements with another group of friends (thanks Patti and Brice!) to pick me up in Hope so I wouldn't have to drive all the way to N. Little Rock then back down. That saved me time and money! Just slept in the big truck Friday night and while I was out racing I ran the a.p.u. for Elsie so she could have air conditioning in familiar surroundings.

Oh, jeez, this is going to be a convoluted post.........Going to be working my way backwards just like the foreign movies James hates so much, LOL.....Or maybe not, let's start back with the first of the week.

Monday--visit with sis, nephew, neice, and Mike. Planned on a yoga class in Cabot that evening but screwed up the timing on leaving Russellville, driving back to Searcy to change, and driving back to Cabot. A smart person would have packed their workout clothes and bypassed the trip back to Searcy ;). No yoga for me after all.

Tuesday--3 mile run in the middle of the day because I slept in! Did manage to leave out early and would have made it to Mt. Juliet right at 9:30 pm except for this nasty line of storms that was producing 70-80 mph straight lines winds. Shut down earlier than planned, no use in pushing things when I'm that close and have plenty of time. Truck stop filled up within a matter of minutes after I got there. Also did 20 pushups and 30 lunges on Elsie's walk break before the sun went down.

Wednesday--Woke up early for my 6 mile hilly run at Hurricane Mills. Absolutely fantastic run!!!!!!!!! Beautiful morning, perfect temperature, felt AWESOME. When you have that great of a workout, you just know the rest of the day is going to be good. Saw 2 chipmunks, several squirrels, 1 rabbit, and another runner :-). The latter was a first for me there but he wasn't a local, he was staying in the nearby motel. He also didn't venture out on the dirt and gravel road, shoot, that's the best part if you haven't pulled a muscle in your hip the night before, LOL. The trailer I picked up didn't have 10 zillion things wrong (just one!) and it was light, under 6,000 lbs. I was pulling the hills like a large car. Shop foreman at NLR joked with me that I only had 2500 more trailers to go before I had the entire fleet repaired. It's getting to be ridiculous, sometimes I swear James and I are the only two that bother writing things up. BTW, he also worked on my trailer personally and asked about my running/cycling distances. I think he was kind of impressed the day he caught me doing pushups with my feet elevated off the truck step.

Thursday--run rest day +I was trying to get to Laredo as quickly as possible. Was on schedule to get there and dropped before sundown (no backups in Austin or San Antonio) but ran over something between our yard and the customer that was bad enough to cause a flat tire. Sooo, had to turn around and sit in line to get tire replaced. 2.5 hours blown.................

Friday--woke up before dawn to drive to Pearsall for my workout (it's mostly flat) and got out a good solid 5.75 miles. Not a spectacularly great run but it was okay, no issues. Later in the day I did 50 pushups (broke down into 3 sets) and 50 lunges. Traffic was good through Austin again which is surprising since it was Friday). I even made it to Hope before the sun went down, yay. Except for the tire the night before, this week has gone amazingly well.

I am sooo very tired though, 3 races in a row and only the first one had enough time to give me a rest day between driving and racing. It's wearing on me both emotionally and physically. This coming week I'm picking up on Tuesday so if everything goes well I may be able to do the duathlon that's in Lake DeGray on Saturday. I haven't pre-registered for it because of the messed up work schedule and it's not a g.p. race so it's not a must-do for me, just a would like to do.

My LBS bike mechanic invited me to ride with him and his friends in the morning but I have a 12 mile run to do first thing. Want to get it done before it's sweltering out. If I'm feeling ok in the afternoon may try to get a short ride in. Great thing is that I'm meeting friends so the 12 miles should fly by! I am missing the cycling with my Searcy people though!