Being home and starting to feel like myself again - just in time to leave

Walking our legs out at Sea World the day after the 50K

It's been 11 days since the 50K.  Recovery is going slower than I'm used to, but still pretty good.  The worst thing has been sleep - or should I say lack of sleep.  I don't usually sleep well the night after I've raced a 50K, and this time was no exception.  The next night I slept decent, however travel home was horrible.  It took us 16 hours to get home, and it was 2:30 AM before we stepped in the door.  I had to get up at a somewhat reasonable hour to try and get the house ready for Katie Smith's training visit.   She was supposed to arrive about noon but was delayed.  This caused me to have time to do my ab work on the floor at the airport.  I'm not sure the TSA people have seen anyone do that before.  At least they looked at me like they'd never seen anyone do ab work before.

Katie after a hard workout where she totally nailed it, going faster than she thought possible.  She was steaming by the time she was done!

(Katie after a hard workout where she killed it!  You can't tell from the photo but she was steaming!)

For the next week I focused on resting, recovery, doing stuff around the house, and working with Katie.  Katie worked so hard while she was here.  If she's able to keep up the awesome training consistently then be prepared to see her smash her PB's this year!  

I kept trying to sleep but various things kept getting in the way; phone calls, texts, (finally figured out how to turn the phone off while leaving the alarm on) someone coming to the door, and nightmares, so sleep seemed elusive.  Finally a few days ago I managed to get in a nap and that really, really, really helped!  I've also been working hard on my diet and making sure my body is getting all the nutrition it needs to recover. 

Maybe not the smartest thing, I'm still not sure, was racing a 3,000 six days after the 50K.  It went really well, but I was pretty tired afterwards, more tired than I felt I should've been for a 3K.  My first 2K were strong, but I slowed down a bit my last K.  Still one of my strongest 3K races in a few years!  14:13.92 made me very happy.  I was even happier with how all my athletes did.  They inspire me to work hard and keep pushing.

Another thing I realized about 20 minutes ago is that today is the first time in about 8 weeks that I've been by myself all day!  I had my wonderful hosts while I was in St. George and then I got home and when Dave went to work Katie was here.  I guess it makes sense why I'm a little lonely today. 

Looking forward, I have a 50K to do!!! March 19th is the day, down in South Carolina.  Ian and Susan at Caminata Training Center are organizing a race for us, which is amazing.  Weather should be way, way, way better, it'll be on a track, so no problems with surface.  Since it's on a track getting aid will be easy and we'll be able to get whatever we need whenever we need it. 

That being the case, the race is in 15 days!!! Holy cow!!!!!!!  I'm traveling down to South Carolina on Wednesday, so I'll have to leave again soon.  We decided to send me down early so I can get all the travel out of my legs and get used to the climate.  That and the ticket prices got stupid expensive if I left after that.

apparently our bird feeder is a great place to roost for the night!

It's been great being home, getting caught up on some stuff, and sleeping in my own bed. And most importantly being with Dave!  I hate being away from him.  It's been great seeing my kitties, but the saddest thing of Joe passing away while I was gone has left quite a hole.  I keep expecting him to be around the corner, or jump on the bed at night.  I think my other cats notice his absence as well.

The turkeys are comfortable on the front porch too.

Now to the weirdest thing.  Some of you may remember my blog post on the case of the mysterious white rooster:  http://erintaylortalcott.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-case-of-mysterious-white-rooster.html   Apparently we are a welcome center for wayward fowl.  Four turkeys have adopted us.  They even went into the chicken coop to munch on some corn.  They hang out on our back porch.  It freaks my cats out when they go outside.  They try to run out the backdoor but stop up short when they see four turkeys right there.  It's kind of amusing actually.  The only thing that's not funny is the amount they poop!  Holy cow!  I thought sweeping chicken poop of the porch was annoying!  Boy oh boy can turkeys poop!

Athlete #2 comes tonight for a weekend of training.  I've got some fun stuff ready for him :)  And some good workouts for us to do.  Then Monday I head to Albany with Dave for his training, and leave Wednesday for South Carolina.  

I'm resting, training, eating well, stretching, doing everything I can think of so that I'll be ready on March 19th.  I've got goals and a belief in myself that I can achieve them.  Now I just need to get out there and do it!


Thank you Honey Stinger for supporting me on my journey!

Happy training :)