Weekly Rundown- Is It Progress?
Hello there! Thanks for stopping by for the Weekly Rundown, and thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting. It was another hot, steamy week, but that’s to be expected for Florida in July. I also had some discouraging moments, but it was all good in the end. Let’s just see how it all went down… Sunday 6 mile run on a nearby cross country trail. It’s a very well-maintained, grassy trail. I was happy to be out there running, but it was HOT. Luckily I had my water bottle. Monday Leg day at the gym! For some reason this turned into a squat extravaganza. I did regular squats, Bulgarian split squats, and then finished off with some sets on the hack squat machine. As always, I did calves and abs as well. I have to admit I got discouraged during this workout. Every single time I’m working at the power rack, someone comes to the rack next to me and squats a tremendous amount of weight. I mean, literally every time. And I’m talking about women! I thought, “I’ve been doing this for long enough- shouldn’t I be able to put more weight on the bar? Maybe I’m doing something wrong. Maybe I just can’t get strong. Maybe my frame is too small.” I know- shut up, brain. I figured I can either give up, or keep working at it. If I keep working, I’ll have to see progress eventually…right??? Tuesday 4 mile run! I’m not really sure what I was thinking this morning- I started off wearing a full-length tank top. By the last mile I was SO HOT, I had to take my shirt off and tuck it into the back of my shorts. That helped a lot, but I still came home and gulped down a huge glass of ice water with LMNT- that felt good. Wednesday I really wanted to run on the treadmill today, but I’ve been noticing a nagging pain in one of my adductor muscles on the left side. I couldn’t put my finger on any moment where I hurt it- but if I had to guess, I’d say it started the day I went to the gym with my son and did the adductor and abductor machines. I felt it on my run yesterday, so I opted for an upper body day at the gym. Bench press, rows, lat pulldown, overhead shoulder press…. and of course calves and abs. Thursday Another 4 mile run. This one felt much better- look at those beautiful clouds! Clouds help a lot. Friday Back to the gym for leg day! Because I’m trying not to stress that adductor in any way, I focused on the back of my body- deadlifts, Runner’s Touch, calf raises (of course) and abs. Saturday 5 mile run! It was a hot day (obviously) but this run felt good! Sunday Off! I planned this day as a rest day so I could sleep in. Remember how I said I was going to start tracking my sleep? Well, Garmin tells me I got an average of 6 hours, 40 minutes per night for this last week. Yep, I tried- but I had some rough nights. I figured I could make up for the lost sleep by sleeping late today (that’s how it works, right?) Overall I felt a little frustrated this week. The pain in my adductor kept me from doing any speed work (for the second week in a row) and also prevented me from doing squats on Friday- I feel like it’s always two steps forward and one and 99/100ths of a step back for me. But… I got to run or go to the gym every single day. I’m not injured (just trying to prevent an injury.) If I keep putting together those 1/100ths of a step, I’ll get there eventually- forward is a pace (and patience is a virtue!) How was your week? Overall would you say you were encouraged or discouraged? How many hours of sleep do you get a night? Do you feel like it’s enough?