Another successful week, although writing this right now I am quite sore! But lots of recovery planned to get myself through week 9! This week was my school vacation, and although I have more time on my hands, in many ways Vacations tend to be the hardest for me to fit in a run. Even if I don't go anywhere (which, I never do....) I fall off my schedule and that makes it a little easier to get a bit lazy. Also, Matt planned his work trips around my vacations because we work really hard to have the kids with one of us as much as possible. As a result, when I have a stretch of days off, he has to make up for work he didn't get done because he was home with the girls. It's nice that one of us has a flexible schedule! I surprised myself a lot this week... I can't believe how much I'm progressing with still only 4 days per week. Next week will be a real test as I we will be adding a run into the week. Hopefully I am able to stay in one piece.
Monday: Matt was home today as he is most Mondays. I think he met someone for something in the morning and when he came home I did 45 minutes on the bike. After that I spent most of the afternoon being lazy with the girls. I love our lazy days! They still love to snuggle and so do I! Especially the day after a 16 miler! Later on I met my friend Chrissy for yoga at Metrowest. This yoga class is really helping me. It is becoming more apparent to me that a lot of my pain is related to alignment because I feel significantly better after yoga. When I got home we all ate and then Matt and I tag teamed bed time. I took an Epsom Salt bath after.
Tuesday 8 Miles: Matt had a meeting for work that went longer than it was supposed to. I had PT at 1:30 but I had planned on running before PT so I could be evaluated on fatigued muscles (it takes about an hour for my leg to really start bothering me) but unfortunately I wasn't able to do my run before. It was mid 60's today so I was really itching to get out! PT eval went well. I had a lot of really obvious weaknesses... I just hope it works! (Note: I've had a lot of requests to share my PT exercises. I'm hoping to make a video soon, but I'm very busy! I'll do my best to get to it! I just simply don't have time today since I'm returning to work tomorrow. I will post on my instagram story and profile when it is done) When I finished at Physical Therapy, I headed right over to my favorite place to run! The West Boylston Railtrail! I knew there was a good chance there was still some ice and snow on it, but I thought it was worth the risk! It wasn't horrible, but definitely enough to slow me down. I had an 8 mile run and it took forever. I was also bonking pretty bad since I wasn't planning to run after PT and didn't have enough to eat. I thought a lot about how lucky I am to have Matt. I was away from the kids for 3 consecutive hours between the PT and the run, and it doesn't phase him at all. Sometimes I feel guilty, like I should have no free time to myself, but I think my girls are very lucky to have equal relationship with their mother and their father. We truly are a team and we truly share roles and each have 100% involvement in the decisions for the girls and in their lives. (Although, I do have the added responsibility of breastfeeding and pumping, Matt takes care of the diaper genie 100% of the time to make up for it!)
Wednesday: Workout: 2 (4x800) 10 miles total. My prescribed pace was 7:00 and dropping to 6:30 the fastest... Well I did this on a track without proper markings so I couldn't tell what pace I was going and I hit 6:30 pace right out of the gate with a 3:15 800. Oops. So I tried slowing down the next time. Fail: 3:13. These were feeling really easy. At this point I had a sense of the track and slowed down to a 3:22. Now I was back on pace for what I was supposed to do for that interval. 3:19 for the last repeat of the first set. The second set I was supposed to get progressively faster. I was naturally so far ahead of pace that for these next 4 I ran conservatively but made sure to get faster with each interval. 3:14, 3:12, 3:09. 3:06... This was easy. I was surprised it was so easy. 10 miles total with Warm up and Cool down. Matt left for Colorado when I arrived home. I took the girls out in the yard for some fresh air and did some raking. It was so warm!
Thursday: 60 minutes on the bike. This was a crazy day. Especially after a crazy night (see text message with husband below.... Lots of typos, it was late and I was frazzled!)
It was a long night of cleaning the bathroom and trying to convince Maebel that it was still bedtime even though Raea was up earlier. I was tired the next morning, my sister lives about 1:40 from me, and my mom and I planned to visit her and my 5 month old Neice. I spent all morning packing Raea and Maebel up and getting them ready to go (I thought they'd sleep in because of the late night.... #fail). Just as I head out the door we notice it's icing out. It's also supposed to snow.... We cancel our plans with Mary but I still had to go to the bank because I needed a temporary card. My debit card had some fraudulent charges (they were returned) I needed to get some food! Since Matt was gone I had to take both girls to the bank, this was not easy! But they waited so nicely! Then we visited my mom for lunch and headed home. I stopped at the chiropractor and brought the girls in with me for the first time. Maebel is in the carseat still so she's easy, but Raea I worried about. She sat so nicely and just waited! Knowing I can easily get through an appointment with the two of them ensures I can continue to get adjusted 2 x per week even if Matt is gone. We had a nice dinner and then I got on the bike once they were sleeping.
Friday: Operation visit Mary part 2, 4 miles. My mom said she would watch the girls for an hour before we headed to visit my sister Mary since there was no snow today. My mother goes to church with my Grandmother every Friday so at the last minute she changed plans and wanted to bring my Grandmother up to New Hampshire, this meant I had to put off my run until after the visit. When you need help getting your run in, you have to be willing to be flexible around everyone else's schedule. We had a lot of fun visiting Mary, and on my way home it started raining and so I thought I should check the weather for my long run on Sunday. Freezing rain. Two weeks ago I really struggled with the freezing rain and Saturday looked so warm I texted my coach to switch days. Since I hadn't run yet, he shortened my run to 4 miles instead of 8 and agreed a Saturday long run was better. I was actually excited to have a (short) run in the rain so I could try out my new On running jacket. Yes, my husband works for the company, but bias aside, this is the best hood I've ever worn. You really need to check it out!
Saturday: 18 miles with alternating 1, 2, 3 minute pickups at the start of each mile from 6-18. This was crazy. I was supposed to meet a friend but probably better she wasn't feeling well and couldn't come. It took some of the pressure off with the logistics. I planned to run the Boston course on Sunday after Matt was home but switching to Saturday made more sense with the weather but not necessarily more sense with Matts schedule. Here's how it went down:
8:30-Matts flight lands in Boson, ma, I begin getting girls ready and myself ready to go. 9:30-Sunglass on, Girls and I leave and head for Ashland, Matt picks me up gel at a store in Boston and heads for Ashland 10:45-Matt and I meet at a playground just next to the course in Ashland. I get my fuel ready in my brand new Nathan belt for myself and hydration stuff ready for him while he lets Raea play. We vaguely plan out what parts of the course he should stop for me. 11:15-I pump and prep bottles for Maebel. Raea continues to play (she will be in the car for most of my run so we wanted her to get lots of play time in) 11:30-Start run 12:00- (Mile 4ish of my run) Matt give me my first water 12:30- (Mile 8ish) Matt give me my second water and reminds me to stay on Rt 16 in Wellesley. Totally would have screwed that up! Matt goes to Whole Foods in Wellesley with Raea and Maebel for lunch. It's right on the course. 1:20ish?-Matt makes sure I don't miss the turn at the Fire station in Newton (I may be dumb, but that is the one part of the course I felt confident about...) But I was really happy to see him drive by when I was crossing highways... I was a bit concerned I missed something. Wellesley was so packed I could have lost. A little later... I have no concept of time at this point: Matt attempts to take a picture of me at the top of heartbreak hill... but my phone was wet under the case so #fail. A little later, I make it to BC! After I finished Matt picked me up and brought me right over to Brookline Marathon Sports. I was able to Roll out and he could make sure the store didn't need anything for him and check in to see how the shoes are doing there etc. (that's basically what is job is, visit specialty running stores and talk about shoes) I fed Maebel while there. Right next to the store is a vegan smoothie place so Matt got me some food and we drove back to Ashland. From Ashland we drove in separate cars home. I stopped to pick up a couple bags of ice and pints of ice cream. Pulled into the driveway at 5:00pm. Long day, Long Run, #worthit
Sunday: OFF
I have lots to do for school today. I plan to take an Epsom Salt bath and do some yoga at home. Maybe 30 minutes or so.... I also plan to eat a LOT of food! Thanks for your Support! Especially on my most recent Instagram post for my long run! <3 If you'd like to support my blog you can purchase a T-shirt from my store or buy anything you might need from the Amazon Links posted at the bottom of each blogpost. I include items that I personally use and recommend! 
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Hello!Welcome to my blog! I've been blogging for a long time on various platforms. My intention has never been to reach the masses, but rather to give myself a chance to reflect and journal. I feel it at least challenges me to be somewhat coherent, however you can expect ramblings and grammatical incorrectness here!
I've recently been diagnosed with CECS and fPAES and had it treated with BOTOX of all things... So I suspect to see more and more people looking for answers with that in the future and hope to continue blogging so there will be easy to access follow-ups as that was helpful for me. NOTE: Apologies that some of the pictures incorrectly load sometimes. I try to keep up with the glitches, but can't always! Hope it doesn't impact the blog experience for all the PAES visitors. 
My Past
November 2023
The Beginning |
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