Weekly Rundown- A Full House!
Well, it was quite a week! I ran a race, did some speed work, and lost my home gym for the summer but gained a son. I’m linking up as always with Kim and Deborah for this weekly rundown. Let’s just see how it all went… Sunday Mother’s Day 5 mile race- race recap is here. The official photos from the race are all terrible. Let’s take a look at this one: First of all, what in the world am I doing with my ARM? I’ve been working hard to stop my arms from crossing over my midline, so this was an epic fail. I guess I was giving it one last push over the finish line, so I wasn’t focusing on form. And let’s look at the guy behind me. It was super hot that day… is he wearing JEANS??? I can see by his bib that he was an official runner, but he did the 5K option. So I guess wearing jeans for a hot 5K seemed like a good idea. All six pictures of me were taken as I was approaching and crossing the finish line, so he’s in every one. It was definitely the day of the weird photo bomb. Monday My quads were a little sore so I decided to do a nice, easy yoga class. Except that I accidentally chose a power yoga class, arg! I didn’t feel like stopping it and finding another class, so I just did it. All my yoga classes are on Peloton with Denis Morton. Some of his power yoga classes are harder than others, and luckily this was an easier one. Tuesday Started the day with a 3 mile run, and then did a core class with Ben Alldis. After the inferno that was our race on Sunday, the temps dropped a little bit, and we had some pleasant mornings! Wednesday Ah, a dilemma. I knew I wanted to do speed work this week, but I also wanted to do a harder lower body strength class. If I do strength today and speed work tomorrow, my legs will be sore for the speed work. If I do speed work today and strength tomorrow, it would be hard to fit another strength day into the week without getting too close to my long run on Sunday. Decisions, decisions… There was no perfect solution here, so I just did the strength class- Matty Maggiacomo’s 30 minute glutes and leg strength, and followed it with one of his core classes. AND, I did pull-ups. Good workout! Later in the morning I got a massage and did my best to relax for the rest of the day. Thursday Speed work! Yes, my legs were sore and it wasn’t ideal. But it’s not like I’m training for the Olympics. I haven’t done speed work in a very long time and just wanted to ease into it and see what happens. Back in the old days, I did my speed work on a track, but now I don’t have one that’s convenient. Instead, I use a stretch of sidewalk that’s almost exactly 1/4 mile between cross streets. I did a mile warm up, and then did 4 repeats of the 1/4 mile, walking for a minute between each one. And then I did a one mile cool down. As you can see, I kept it short and easy- baby steps! The hard part was running the intervals at my CURRENT 5K pace, as opposed to what I wish my 5K pace was. The first two were too fast, but I calmed down for the second two. Oh, and for the record- I only felt the soreness in my legs (from the strength class the day before) during the warm up and cool down- I didn’t notice it during the faster intervals. Go figure. After this I did another core class. I’ve been choosing my core classes at random (all on Peloton) and this was the only one I didn’t like- it was with Adrian Williams. I never thought I would say this, but I missed the crunches. Friday I did a short, easy 2 mile run to help my legs recover from the last two days. Since I was disappointed with Adrian’s core class, I chose one that I knew would be a killer- Rebecca Kennedy’s. Ouch. And, I did pull-ups again. As soon as I finished my workout, I moved my yoga mat, blocks, and weights to convert my “home gym” back into my son’s bedroom. In the evening he arrived home from his first year of college! I’m not exactly sure where I’ll be doing my workouts for the next month, but that’s okay. Having my son home makes everything okay! Saturday Well, I stayed up way too late on Friday night, so I just decided to sleep as late as possible this morning, which meant 7:30 am (I work at 9 am on Saturdays.) It felt so weird to just get up and start making breakfast- I actually felt all stiff and groggy. I’ll remember this next time I’m tempted to skip a workout! And guess what… I never did fit in that second lower body strength session this week. Before every run I do banded side steps, squats and lunges- all without weights, just to get my muscles warmed up and activated. Still, I would like to get in two days of heavier strength for lower body- I just have to figure out how to schedule it. Sunday On tap for today- a 10 mile trail run! I can’t wait- I missed my trail run last Sunday because of the race. I’m ready to get back out there. How’s your weather? – I hear it got pretty hot up north! Do you have trouble scheduling strength work with harder runs during the week?