(G): Extreme fatigue, Mud, duct tape, home surgery, and suffering. Those are the low-lights of my week.

The sleep monsters were chasing me in the early part of the week. I was exhausted early on and finally on Tuesday I found myself changing my distance plan mid-way through because I was too tired. I ended that day with a 9 pm bed time.

Wednesday morning my mojo was back and I cranked out 10 miles and taught a yoga class. Run Om! The week continued on with more miles and zen stylings of yoga.

Then came the mud, tape, and um, suffering.. not necessarily in that order.

Saturday was touted to be a gorgeous 50-degree day, with a slight chance of rain.

Well I got the gorgeous and the 50 degrees. But also got mud from the recent snow melt and when I say MUD, I mean the serious, sole- and soul-sucking kind. The first 10 of 26 on Saturday were character-testers or character-builders. Not sure which yet.
Thankfully, Johnny Armani agreed to roll in at mile 9 and do the remaining 17 with me.

After all the water and mud, halfway through I realized I was getting some pretty impressive blisters. I hadn’t planned on it being so wet so I hadn’t brought extra socks. I didn’t have band-aids so you do what you need to in those moments. Duct tape your feet. You know what they say, if you can’t duct it…

Shortly after the suffering began. There really wasn’t one cause but instead a recipe of fatigue, hunger, and sheer amount of time exercising all were contributing their special suffering flavors.

By day’s end it was raining and it quickly cooled off to 37 degrees. So imagine you’re dressed for 50 degrees, and now you’ve been rained on and the wind is picking up. What do you do? You put on your husband’s golf shirt from the back of his car. While on normal occasions I would question its state of cleanliness, in this moment it was the best thing ever. Although as you can see a fashion statement it was not.

We got through the 26 and took our tired souls home.

Sunday, after the mix of time change and 26 miles of muscle soreness,  I dragged myself out of bed and contemplated my planned 10-miler. But first there was a little matter of home surgery on my blisters. I bandaged up my war-wounds and headed out. It didn’t take long for me to come to the realization that I had suffered enough. It took about 6 miles for me to throw in the towel. Blistered, burned out and near bonked was the crushing trifecta.

52 miles this week, good enough!

(L) I seriously do not know what I can add after that very torturous report!  I didn’t run nearly the distance that G did and I certainly do not have it in me to run 10 miles in that kind of mud.

I managed all of my runs outside this week which was a huge improvement.  My week culminated in a 6.2 run on Saturday and then 16 on Sunday.  Sunday was warm, sunny and slightly muddy.  I ran the first 3 beside the trail and then it fortunately dried out.

Did I mention it was really sunny?  Like not a cloud in the sky.  The reason I mention it again is because in my excitement about the warmth and sunshine I forgot my sunscreen!   I always wear sunscreen.  I wear sunscreen on my face everyday!  I didn’t even realize my mistake until about 8:00pm on Sunday when I noticed my legs.

To quote my daughter, “your chest looks like it belongs on the color wheel!”  Yep, I’m fried.  Needless to say, I wont’ be making that mistake again.

And my 16 miles?  Let’s just say I didn’t have anything left!

7 weeks and counting….

Sunshine & Sarcasm,

Lowi & G

Tuesday’s weekly Torture Report is designed to keep all of you posted on the insanity of training for a race to celebrate G’s 40th birthday. The goal is 50 miles but we’ll see how it goes. To find out more on how this plan was set in motion, check out Lowi’s blog. If you missed the last Torture Report, check it out here.