Week in review May 21-27: More vacation hikes and wogs

It wasn't a great week training-wise, but I can't be mad at myself for doing a few active things on vacation. My husband and I went for one more long hike, in Point Reyes National Seashore, and I went for two wogs (walk/jogs) around my sister-in-law's neighborhood.

Considering this was vacation, I'll take it.

I have been to the San Francisco Bay area a handful of times but when we had the opportunity to use our brother-in-law's car for the day (he works nights), we decided to go somewhere an easy-ish drive away, but far enough out of the way that it would be worth our while making the trip out there. The Point Reyes National Seashore (over the Golden Gate Bridge and northwest) did not disappoint:

Pano of the first vista. That's the Pacific stretching into infinity.

It was so foggy, yet so beautiful. 

I was mildly obsessed with the wildflowers. 

(More wildflowers.) 

We hiked all the way to a lake vista and turned around. 

Before we headed back to the car, we walked down to the ocean. 

Ugh, so beautiful.

We also saw a coyote (!!!) and a deer, but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough for those.

My sister-in-law's neighborhood is near a marsh with a path around it, and walking to the marsh, doing my 4 x 2:00 repeats around it, and walking back was almost a perfect 5K. I did this once with my husband and once solo, and it was just as beautiful the second time.

Hard to believe this was only a few miles from downtown. 

I only worked out those three days, but I did a decent amount of walking around the city Tuesday and Saturday, and walking around wine country Friday. All in all, we packed a lot of fun stuff and family time into this vacation.

And I got to meet my new nephew!

I brought him a toy from Detroit, of course.

By the numbers, it was:

Other: One almost-3-hour hike in the National Seashore for 7.15 miles. There were a couple of legitimately challenging, technical parts of the trail but most of it was an easy stroll in packed dirt.

Run/walk: Twice, both walking on the road to run intervals on a hard dirt trail, for 6.4 miles total in about 1:38. I would have liked do to one more but on vacation with other people you take what you can get.

Total: Three workouts in about 4 hours, 33 minutes, not counting walking around time.

The one thing I didn't do this week was any PT homework. I brought my straps and such with me, I just didn't make the time to do it among family time and our other activities. That is my real regret from this trip.

However, I got to run and hike in some new-to-me places, and I had an awesome time, so that's a win overall.

Week in review May 14-20: Vacation hiking!

I knew I wouldn't get a whole lot of training in last week as I was leaving for vacation Thursday morning. Still, I got some workouts in Monday and Tuesday, and did some hiking around beautiful Lake Tahoe both Saturday and Sunday, so it was nowhere near a wash.

Monday and Tuesday were normal work days followed by a bike and PT (Monday) and a run/walk and PT (Tuesday). I have really lucked out so far with all my return-to-running run/walks falling on perfect running days. Wednesday was for errands, cleaning, laundry, etc.; Thursday was for travel to California and celebrating 10 years of marriage (!!!), and Friday was for travel to Lake Tahoe and settling into our lovely AirBnB cabin.

Saturday, the five of us — me, my husband, his sister, her husband, and their dog — all hiked 4 miles out and 4 miles back of the Tahoe Rim Trail, a gorgeous and at times challenging trail that circles Lake Tahoe. The whole thing goes for 156 miles so we did a very small part of it, but it was beautiful scenery and perfect hiking weather. Their dog also did great, and he got to play in his very first snow! It took us almost 4 hours (including a snack break at the top of the vista) and was definitely a workout. We did not see any bears.

The trail goes around the entire lake...

But we only did this little bitty part of the northwest side, just west of Nevada.

The view was incredible! It better be after 2.5 hours of hiking. 

I loved these rocks!

Sunday we (minus the dog) went on a much less strenuous "hike" in the southwest portion of Lake Tahoe, from the main road down to the shore of Emerald Bay and back up again. The steep walk down wasn't a problem, but coming back up was challenging! I'm still counting that as a workout, too; it took us more than an hour and 20 minutes and was about 2.75 miles total, according to my Garmin. Bonus: It was another beautiful day.

We started all the way up here...

And hiked alllllllllll the way down here.

Another day of beautiful views!

So, while it wasn't a typical training week, it was still a good mix of PT, running, cycling, and fun. I should have done more PT, but it's so hard when you are traveling and out of your routine. By the numbers, it was:

Hike: Twice, for 10.75 miles in about 5 hours, 10 minutes total.

PT: Two homework sessions for about 1:15.

Run/Walk: Once for 3.1 miles (totally unplanned) in about 46 minutes.

Bike: One trainer ride for 5 fake trainer miles in about 36 minutes.

Total: Six sessions in about 7:46. Not bad, considering! All that hiking helped round out the weekend.

We are back in the city now and I am hoping to get in another run/walk in the morning, followed by some walking around San Francisco in the afternoon. I may not get in many traditional workouts, but I am planning on being active and getting in lots of steps. Probably lots of Philz coffee, too — gotta fuel those workouts somehow.

Week in review May 7-13: Work, wogging, and mothers

I wish the bars were higher, but I'll take whatever I can get.

I took my laptop to work yesterday because I needed to edit a video, and left it at work overnight! So I’m a day behind.

Anyway, last week wasn’t a great week for training, but I knew it wouldn’t be. My work had its biggest event of the year Saturday so the vast majority of that day was spent standing on hard concrete and putting out fires, following up with having a well-deserved drink with my coworkers. I could have rushed home and squeezed in a workout, but my feet hurt and I just wanted to relax for a bit. I ended up falling asleep on the couch.

Friday after work I did all the errands I usually do Sunday so I could spend a chunk of Sunday at brunch with my mom and mother-in-law. It was a good time and I was glad to see everyone, don’t get me wrong. But before I knew it, it was 4 p.m. and I hadn’t done any food prep, bill paying, cleaning, etc. I did all that, but I DID squeeze in a run/walk first.

Or should I say wog, aka walk/jog. The highlight of my week was going for not one, but TWO of those. Both were beautiful nights, and I didn't have to stop to walk either time, so I consider both a huge success.

By the numbers, it was:

Pre-hab: Twice, one homework session and one in-person session, for about 1:45 total. Yikes! This is not enough.

Run/walk: Twice, both on the road, for 5.56 total miles in about 1.5 hours. I was just happy to be out there!

Weights: Once, a barre class, for about an hour.

Bike: Once, on the trainer, for 5 fake trainer miles in about 34 minutes.

Total: 6 sessions in a 4:48.

Not great, but considering I lost a Saturday to work another day to exhaustion and errands, I'll take it.

I'm looking forward to more wogging this week and Thursday morning I leave for vacation. I probably won't be doing much official exercise, but there will be plenty of walking around, and I'll bring my running shoes just in case.

I hope your walks, runs, jogs, and wogs go well, whatever the pace!

It was slow, and it wasn't pretty, but it was a run

I went for my first run tonight in six months, one week. Not like I care enough to keep track, or anything.

My therapist cleared me yesterday to try a return-to-running plan. My first assignment was run 2 minutes, walk 3 minutes, repeat three times. Honestly, I was pretty nervous. I had some catching in my knee earlier in the day — for the first time in a long time, of course — and I really did NOT want to get my hopes up just to bail.

But I put on my shoes, dusted off my run clothes, and figured out how to set run/walk intervals in my new Garmin Forerunner 35. I walked about 3/4 mile to a place that would make for easy laps and a quick call home if I got into trouble. But I managed all four repeats of 2 minutes of running, for 8 minutes total, on a beautiful, sunny day. I enjoyed a nice, long walk back home.

Since this was my first run with my new Garmin, I also set a couple of hilarious "records," which I look forward to smashing in the coming weeks:

I MAY have done longer or faster runs in the past.

I still have a long way to go and I won't get ahead of myself, but even a super easy run tonight felt wonderful. I'll try again in a few days and see how it goes.

Return to running

I got the all clear from my physical therapist tonight to try to run again.

!

It's going to painfully slow going but I don't even care. I just hope my knee holds out.

I'm going to go out tomorrow after work so I have something to look forward to at the end of the day. Stay tuned.

Week in review April 30-May 6: Double-ups and days off

I wish the bars were higher and more numerous. Oh well.

It’s my job’s most stressful week of the year and I’ve already issued one decree of “too bad, so sad” earlier today. This week will be all about keeping my head down and my mouth shut (as much as I can), getting done what I can before the days are over, not beating myself up for what can’t be done, and trying to get a functional amount of sleep.

So, that’s why I’m already a day behind for the week. Plus, my husband was down with a stomach bug or something Sunday night and yesterday, which also kept ME up for part of the night both nights, although since he is feeling better today he made up for it by doing dishes and cleaning.

Anyway, last week wasn’t terrible, but I only did any activity on four days of the week. Three of those days I doubled up with PT homework, and I tripled up on Saturday. So even though I played hooky on Tuesday, ran errands on Friday, and traded training for some cleaning and organizing on Sunday, it was still a not-terrible showing. I’m not going to complain when my Friday night activity consists of ordering in barbecue and catching up on Westworld.

By the numbers, last week was:

Physical therapy/rehab: Four homework sessions for about 2:45 total. We deliberately skipped a clinic week for the first time since I started physical therapy.

Bike: Three easy trainer rides of 5 fake trainer miles each in about 1:52. Sadly, although the perfect-for-biking road closed to traffic on Saturdays starting last week, I won’t be able to make it out until at least June. It’s probably for the better to give my knee an extra month to get stronger.

Other: One boxing session at home for about 45 minutes. This is just whatever combination moves I could invent on the fly.

Weights: One heavy/body session of upper and abs for about 35 minutes. My new goal is to do three hanging chin-ups in a row and one complete hanging pullup.

Total: Nine sessions in almost 6 hours. Like every week, I struggle with finding hours in the day and balancing them with errands, making sure my house doesn’t get condemned, staying married, and paying some attention to my mutts.

I’m not sure how much I will accomplish this coming week with work being hectic, but I think shooting for 7 hours, an average of 1 hour per day, is reasonable. I do have plans with my mom and mother-in-law for Sunday, Mother’s Day, but I don’t think we’ll be going late since 3 out of 5 of us (everyone who’s not retired, haha) have to get up early the next day. Until then, it’ll be work, some kind of activity, PT, not enough sleep, repeat.

Six months, three days...

Since my last run, but who's counting?

It was a beautiful sunset before my knee died on me.

I took this picture that evening because it was a beautiful night and the last Friday before Daylight Savings ended. I was a little bummed because of the weird knee pain that ended my run early, because until then I was feeling great. I had been feeling so great I allowed myself to think about a spring marathon. Sadly, those hopes were pretty quickly squashed with doctor's appointments, an MRI, and lots of physical therapy.

I have a PT appointment Wednesday at which my therapist told me we could start to discuss a back to running plan. My fingers, toes and everything else are crossed that I can get back on the road again soon.

To be continued.

April in review: PT, bike, box

May training by minutes.

I’m so glad it’s May so I can stop seeing that stupid Justin Timberlake meme every time I turn around. I don’t remember it being so omnipresent in previous years; maybe I just blocked it out of my memory.

ANYWAY. The beginning of the month means a look back at the previous month. April had its ups and downs: I did a lot of PT, I dusted off my boxing bag, I did some weight training, and I finally did some yoga. I also had to cut my bike workouts way short and way easy to stop irritating my knee, didn’t make it to the pool at all, and still can’t run.

I logged about 13 hours of PT in 19 sessions, 4 at the clinic and 15 at home. This is up from March, so that’s good! (Although I was on vacation for a week in March, which skewed my totals a bit.) My therapist says she sees improvement in my muscle strength, and I have knee pain less often, so I am going to keep plugging away.

I had to cut biking way back because my hour-long rides with low-to-medium levels of resistance were still inflaming my patella, so I only rode a total of 65 fake trainer miles in 9 sessions over 7 hours, 13 minutes. Blech. I mean, I guess it’s a metric century? This was way down from last month. Honestly, these rides are so boring, every other day for 5 fake miles (about 35 minutes with the resistance way down) is about all I can handle.

I lifted weights 6 times, which included 3 full rounds of heavy/body moves split up into 5 sessions, and 1 barre class for the first time in a while. This was also up from last month. The good part of not being able to ride very long is having a bit of extra time to do half a weights workout afterward.

I also randomly did 2 sessions with my boxing bag for 45 minutes each and 1 yoga session for 15 minutes. I thought I was doing OK with stretching since I do a lot of it as part of my PT, but NOPE, my hips are locked up as tight as Ford Knox. Gotta work on getting this back into the rotation.

Overall, April was 37 sessions in about 24.5 hours. That’s more than a session per day, so I’m not going to complain.

Let's also take a look at how my loose goals for 2018 shook out for the month of April:

Work through my health issues and re-start a training schedule that gets me back to racing. Still in progress. I am hoping to be able to do the fun 5K I have done for the last few Julys.

Run some cool places, maybe another marathon. Still in progress. “Run cool places” might just be my neighborhood, at this point, but I’ll take what I can get.

Work on whole-body health, incorporating things like yoga and pre-hab. Still in progress. Like, very slight progress, but still progress.

Keep a healthy work-life-training-family-friends-other balance. I hung out with family a bunch of times, including Easter and celebrating my mom’s birthday and an award for my father-in-law. I went out to brunch with friends a few times, and hung out with other friends I hadn’t seen in months. I visited the velodrome again and attended a first aid/AED training. Of course I never, never, think there are enough hours in the day, but I think I did OK with balancing things in April.

Have fun. There was a bunch of that, too. It wasn’t EXCITING, but I still had some good times.

On to May. Hopefully I will have lots of good stuff to report a month from now.