Weekly Rundown- Ups and Downs
Oh, the drama! Anyone who has a senior in high school at this time of year knows what I mean. It was a stressful week, but all will be resolved soon! Meanwhile, I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Rundown. Let’s get to it! Monday Day off. I love my day off. Tuesday 5 mile trail run. I preceded this run with squats and deadlifts- not my preferred order, but that’s just the way my schedule works. Weirdly, doing lower body strength before a run has been working pretty well for me. I wouldn’t do it before speedwork or a long run, but for a shorter run like this it seems to work just fine. Oh, on this trail run I saw another runner with a hydration pack…*foreshadowing- this would have been nice to have on my Sunday run* Wednesday 3 mile run, followed by pull-ups. As I mentioned earlier this week, I had to get this all done early because I had a mammogram scheduled. Luckily the mammogram (and ultrasound) showed that everything is fine, so I can forget about my breasts completely for another year- er, I MEAN I can start doing monthly self-exams. Yes, that’s what I meant. Thursday Day off of running. I did some bodyweight lower body strength and the “ten down” pushup workout. I mentioned this on my birthday, but today I did it in a much more structured way. First off, I did all tricep pushups. I call them that, but my son informs me that it’s really just pushups with correct form. None of this placing your hands wide! That would be too easy. You start with a set of ten and work your way down- set of nine, set of eight, etc. with one minute rest between sets. On the last one I went extremely slowly and held the down position for a count of ten. Well, that doesn’t sound so hard does it? HA! I was so sore the next day. My shoulders were sore, my arms were sore, and the muscles all around my ribs were sore. As a matter of fact, three days later I still have some lingering soreness. My son said “now you can do eleven down!” What??? Can’t I just stick with ten down for now??? Sheesh. Friday 3 mile run. None of this grueling and ridiculous strength work- just an easy, pleasant run. Saturday A 3 mile run followed by Runner’s Touch exercise.. This was also a pretty easy day, and it was a good thing considering what was coming up the next day… Sunday Ah, a nice ten mile trail run. OR SO I THOUGHT. This run was another adventure. First off, right near the beginning I saw a deer! Maybe that doesn’t sound too exciting, but it’s the first time I’ve seen one in this area. Then… I got lost. I’ve had really good luck with exploring these trails and always coming out in a familiar place, and today my luck ran out. I took a chance on a trail that, after a couple miles, became un-runnable… I had to turn around and it added several miles onto my run. To be honest, there was a brief couple of moments where I wasn’t sure exactly where I was, and I also tripped over a root and FELL. Luckily just had a few scrapes. So… it was hot. I was thirsty. My wounds were stinging. And I realized I was going to run about 13 miles instead of 10. But you know what? It was awesome!!! Maybe I didn’t feel awesome every step of the way, and at the end I had to pull out some mental tricks to get me through it. Here’s where having some water would have been nice! But it was an experience, and luckily my foot held up well. To be clear, I had hidden a water bottle the night before around the five-mile point. So I didn’t run with NO water- that would be crazy! It was 81 degrees when I finished (why did it feel like 101?) A few gulps of water at five miles didn’t quite cut it for this run. But I survived and am hydrating happily now. Ever inadvertently run way farther than you intended? –I guess three miles isn’t really that much. It could have been worse! Hope everyone had a great week!