Weekly Rundown- Putting It All Together

Well, I can tell December is going to be one crazy month- as always.  This week had shopping, decorating, band concerts, baking, and of course plenty of workouts.  Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown.  Let’s get right into it! Sunday This was the day my son went back to school, on a 6 am flight.  My husband took him to the airport, but I was up with them at 4 am to make his breakfast and say goodbye (sniff, sniff… it never gets easier.) Then I went back to bed and slept fitfully until 6:00, when I got up for a 10 mile run. There were all sorts of things wrong with this run from the beginning.  I hadn’t slept well (obviously.) I meant to eat something before I started but I forgot (ARG!!!) And, my legs felt heavy, which was a mystery until I remembered that I did a Caroline Girvan full body strength workout the day before, which included squats and lunges (note to self: don’t do that again.) But you know what?  It was fine!  After the first few miles I settled into it and started to feel better.  Towards the end it was getting hot, but I just told myself “The sun gives me energy” over and over again.  I was tired at the end, but overall felt better than when I started. Monday Day off. Tuesday I guess the universe heard my incessant complaining about the heat, because it got down to 66 degrees.  It was a cold front! (Oh no, I’m falling for DeSantis’s little plot!.)  This 4 mile run felt pretty good. Wednesday Gym day!  This was the day where I had my free session with the trainer, and it was worth every penny.  Seriously, I’m getting a lot of pushback when I tell people I want to lift heavier weights- my son is also opposed to this idea, because he thinks I’ll increase my risk of injury.  Fine!  I’ll do it on my own. The training session was actually a great warmup, so after I extricated myself from that I did squats with the bar (okay, no snickering, all you heavy lifters!) and benchpress, where I was able to put 10 pounds on the bar.  The other thing I would like to do is deadlifts, but for that I agree I might need some instruction.  Like… if I’m not putting heavy plates on the bar, how do I get it elevated enough off the ground… I’ll have to consult Coach Google on this one. I rounded out this workout with some dumbbell rows, and hamstring curls.  For those, I’m glad to use the machine.  I do one leg at a time, and I think it will help me rehab this achy hamstring that’s been nagging me since the summer. Thursday I thought I might be sore from the gym, but the only thing that was sore were my forearms (?) Another 4 mile run… humidity was back and temps back up to the 70s. Friday I started the day with Day #23 of Caroline Girvan’s Iron Series, which was glutes and hamstrings.  Those hip thrusts are hard. After work I ran 3 miles.  I really, really didn’t want to.  I wanted to take a nap.  But, I want to switch my day off back to Saturday, so I told myself to run today, and sleep in tomorrow.  I was happy I did it! Saturday Day off, and was able to sleep in till 7:30 before going to work.  Hooray! Sunday On tap… 12 mile run.  The last couple weeks I got a little sidetracked from my regular long runs, but I have to get back on it.  For one thing, I’m apparently running a half marathon in February with Darlene (although I haven’t registered yet, must do that!) and also, well, I have a lot of work to do if I’m going to run a 50K in April.  I have time, but I have to get serious about it. One last thing… I had to stop doing plyometrics because they were hurting my foot.  BUMMER.  I would love to not have plantar fasciitis for the rest of my life, but I’m not sure at this point how to proceed.  I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on a treatment that’s iffy (I’ve already done that) and no treatments are guaranteed to work.  When my clients are dealing with frustrating issues I always tell them “There’s a solution to this- you just haven’t found it yet.”  So… I’m temporarily baffled, but there must be a solution out there, somewhere. Do you have naysayers in your life?- I don’t know why, but people love to tell me I can’t do things. Hrumph. If you lift weights, do you have trouble fitting it in with your running? – I feel like I’m fitting together pieces of a puzzle, trying to figure out when to run and when to go to the gym.