Weekly Rundown- Never a Dull Moment
Oof, what a week. My foot gave me some new drama, and I’m spicing things up with a new strength app (I’ll write about it in more detail later this month.) Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s just see how it all went wrong… er, DOWN. How it all went down… Monday I started the day with a lower body strength session at home- squats, Bulgarian split squats, Knees Over Toes exercises (lots of lower leg and ankle strength) and finished it off with the Caroline Girvan deadbug workout.. After work I got out for a run. My race in May is going to be HOT, so I’m trying to run once a week during the hottest part of the day. Our mornings are still pleasant right now- low 60s- and I want to make sure I’m heat acclimated. In theory this is a great plan- unfortunately this run felt HORRIBLE! My legs just didn’t want to move, and the worst part was, my foot hurt. The foot with the ankle sprain, but it hurt in a new and different place. What the?… I have no idea why- I can only surmise that I was too aggressive with some of the exercises in the morning? It was a mystery. Tuesday Moving on. I’m trying a new strength program! I got Sally McRae’s app, and did one of her upper body workouts, followed by Caroline Girvan deadbug workout once again. Wednesday Sigh. The way my foot hurt on Monday’s run scared me enough to get back on the stairmaster instead of running today. 30 long minutes on the stairmaster, and then 30 minutes on the treadmill- the 3-12-30 workout (3 miles per hour, 12% incline, for 30 minutes.) Good workout- except I wished I was outside running. Thursday Another workout from Sally’s app- the Glute and Core Power Routine. Wow, hard workout. It had a lot of single leg moves that were very difficult on my left side- which means I need it, right? Followed by 100 deadbugs for a little extra core. Friday The moment of truth! All week long I was worried about my foot, and now it was time to try running again. GULP. It was okay! Something still feels a little “off”- I can’t explain it- but it didn’t hurt like it did on Monday. 4 happy miles! As a celebration, I gave myself a break from deadbugs and did some planking instead. I know- I really know how to live it up! Saturday OFF! A glorious morning of sleeping in till 7:00, before heading off to work. Sunday On tap- 7 mile run ON THE TRAIL. I’m looking forward to this! I’ve missed the trail so, so much. And I’ve missed doing long runs. Seven miles isn’t LONG, but it’s long-ish and I’ll take it. I’m heading to a very easy part of the trail- it’s dirt and gravel, no roots, no deep ruts, nothing my foot can’t handle. Hopefully. I have a great podcast cued up (the latest Choose Strong with Sally McRae) and I’m psyched. Let’s all say a little prayer to the foot gods for this run. How was your week? Any mysterious aches or pains? How was your weather? – Ours has been really nice- lulling us into a false sense of security before hurricane season begins! Top photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash
Friday Coffee Date
Good morning! Time to grab a delicious hot beverage- I’m back to my regular Earl Grey tea- and have a little chat. The first thing I would ask you, if we were having coffee (tea) together, is, how was the eclipse for you? I saw several people posting about their experiences. I have to admit it was a non-event for me. We were only at 50% totality, and I had to work. BUT! My son had a great time. On Sunday afternoon he went to a concert by the Waco Symphony, where they played all space-themed pieces, like Star Wars, Star Trek and Theme from ET. Then at night he went to an “eclipse party” which I suspect was just a regular college party, pretending to be eclipse-related. On Monday, it started our cloudy in Waco, but luckily the clouds cleared by afternoon, and they experienced almost four minutes of totality. He said it was very cool but hard to get good pictures. I realized I’m 58 years old and I’ve NEVER experienced a total eclipse! Apparently I’ll have to wait until 2045, and the good news is that Florida will be in the path of totality! The bad news is, we would like to be living elsewhere by then. Sigh. Always in the wrong place, wrong time. Speaking of Waco! This August will be my fourth, and final, road trip to Texas with my son. We started his freshman year at Baylor, and it’s become a tradition for us to drive to school every August. I’m calling this “The Ultimate Waco Adventure.” It won’t be my very last trip- we’ll be going for his graduation of course, but that will probably be a quick flight there and back, because it will be a very busy time of year. That won’t be a trip for sightseeing. I have many thoughts and feelings on this subject (HOW is it possible that he will be graduating in a year???) but I’ll save that for another post. For now, I’m planning my Ultimate Adventure. I took Elisabeth’s advice from this post, and googled “hidden gems in Waco.” Some pretty interesting things came up! My favorite is the Beer Spa: “Pivovar’s unique beer spa experience consists of soaking in a bubbly bath of beer and an herbal beer mixture. The spa takes place in tubs made from copper and is based on bathing in natural extracts that are used in the brewing of Czech Beer- hops, brewers yeast, and malted barley. You are invited to pair your experience with a Pivovar beer flight, Czech wine flight, or a cheese board from our restaurant. Drinking beer during the spa experience will promote mental relaxation.” I actually had to check to make sure this wasn’t a joke. I mean- what?…why?… While simultaneously sipping beer and taking a bath in it sounds intriguing, I’ll probably skip this experience. Mainly because the beers are all Lagers- now, if I could bathe in an IPA, that would be a different story! Have you experienced a total solar eclipse? Have you ever heard of a beer spa???
Reading and Eating
Hello there! I’ve been on a roll with some great books lately! The latest one was this: Birchwood Pie recommended this author, and his books are unique. His writing style is a little dry, kind of technical, and just when you’re thinking “I’m not interested in all these details about boats and guns!” you realize the story is somehow very compelling. This one takes place before, during and after WWII and give a glimpse into the role women played in the lead-up to D-Day. And, there’s a love story intertwined there. I loved this book. Now, for my Q2 reading project. Are you ready? Here it is… Let me explain! Years ago, I had a client who, for some strange reason, loved to talk about quantum physics while he was getting his massage (Um. I know.) He probably thought he was dumbing it down to my level, but I could never understand what he was talking about. I actually dreaded seeing him, because I was always struggling to hold up my end of the conversation while also giving a massage, which was pretty difficult. Anyway, he doesn’t come in anymore (probably because he realized he was getting a sub-par massage) but he left me with the idea that a) there is such a thing as quantum physics, and b) it actually sounds like an interesting subject, if I could only understand it a little better. When I was trying to think of a reading project, I thought “Why not quantum physics?” We’ll just see how “easy” this book is though! I have no idea what the video training is- some kind of bonus. I’ll find out soon enough. Moving on to food. Last week was a new low in food prep. I made a peanut sauce and stretched that for a couple meals, pouring it over rice and vegetables. And I made a stir fry- I have now made the same stir fry so often that every time I heat up my cast iron skillet, it immediately smells like Chinese five spice. However, there was one highlight. My daughter asked if she could make Fettuccini Alfredo, WHAT??? She even looked up the recipe from Nora Cooks. Well… okay! Now, my daughter is an absolute beginner in the kitchen, so I had to help her a lot. But she really wanted to learn, and did as much as she possibly could by herself. The finished product was pretty good! There was one minor problem… this is a cashew-based sauce, and she didn’t blend it up long enough. Alfredo sauce should not be crunchy. But oh well- it still tasted good. The most important this is that SHE liked it, and is talking about making it again on her own. This is an exciting development in our household! Oh- and yes, that IS my Easter tablecloth still on the table. I guess it’s time to put that away! Have you ever read Nevil Shute? – This was the second book of his that I read- the first was A Town Like Alice. If you have kids, do they do any cooking? – My son didn’t, until he went to college. Now he cooks all the time.
Q2 Plans and Goals
In last week’s post I wrote about summer plans. I know how the last quarter of the school year- after spring break- just flies by, and the summer will be here before we know it. Then I realized… I was treating Q2 as if it were just a couple months to get through before I could start my summer. Wait a minute! EVERY DAY COUNTS! In this post, Sarah talks about Q2- she divides the year into quintiles instead of quarters, and now I can see why. Quintile 2 is the time between spring break and the end of the school year. If you have kids, or work in the school system, that is a very distinct period of time- once summer starts, you’re into a whole new schedule (Quintile 3.). But Quintile 2 deserves some attention, too! I realized I don’t have to wait until summer to start a reading project. I ordered a book, which will arrive tomorrow, and am going to start a Q2 reading project right away (more on that in tomorrow’s post.) I was also waiting for summer to start a new strength program. Ugh- my strength workouts really aren’t getting me anywhere. I feel like I’m working just to not get any weaker, but not making any real progress other than that. I need a more organized program, but I thought I would wait to start one after my race, i.e. at the beginning of summer. THIS is why I don’t see real progress- there’s always a reason for not taking strength very seriously. Either I have a race coming up, or I’m recovering from one, or I don’t want to be too sore for my upcoming long run, or I just sprained my ankle (well, okay- that last one was a legitimate reason to back off the strength temporarily.) There’s NO REASON I can’t start a new strength program right now- there’s seven weeks until my race. Yes, in the last week before the race I’ll taper off the strength, but that’s still a while away. I’m going to try out a couple different strength training programs, and to start with I downloaded Sally McRae’s app. I have a free seven-day trial, and then I’ll decide if I want to continue with it or try a different program. Lastly, Q2 will be special and distinctive because, as I’ve mentioned just a few times, I AM training for a race! This race isn’t quite as important to me as Forgotten Florida was in February, but it’s still a big deal. I have to do long runs, I have to plan my fueling, I’ll be traveling and staying overnight, and it will be an adventure. The race is Memorial Day weekend, so will really close out Q2. My motto for the next two months- make Q2 count! Do you divide your year into quarters or quintiles? Or do you not think about it? Do you have any special plans for Q2?