Week in review Oct. 22-29: Now two pretty good weeks in a row

Heavy on the running, but solid all around.

It was another “pretty good” week. Not a monster week, but a bit of almost everything and even one rest day.

I was happy that I hit 50 running miles for the month on Sunday, and that Friday after work was clear enough to run for the first time in a while. It’s getting colder every day in Michigan – not sure why we skipped cool fall evenings and landed smack into actual cold – but I have been braving the brisk temperatures with plenty of hats, gloves, and long sleeves. I tend to err on the side of overdressing but I have been making a good effort to dress JUST warm enough for the weather. I don't like being chilled at first but I have been warming up pretty quickly.

I had family in town from Colorado on Tuesday so that was a rest day, although we did walk all over downtown. I should have done more PT or lifted weights on the weekend, but I started reading an actual book on Friday and we had tickets to a dance show Saturday, so I didn’t. I can’t be go-go-go all the time and I enjoyed the rest and relaxation.

I also got my flu shot on Friday after work, intentionally on a Friday as I have had bad reactions before and wanted the option to sleep all day if I needed to. Happily, this year I only got a bit tender in the lymph nodes and was able to carry on as usual, with a long trainer ride on Saturday and a long-ish run on Sunday. Hooray for helping avoid the spread of infectious diseases!

By the numbers, my training last week was:

Run/Walk: Three times, all on the road, for 15.9 miles in about 2:52. I’m pretty sure this is my highest volume week since I started building back, although not by much. My left hamstring and hip was a bit grumpy on Sunday so I have been doing some stretching and foam rolling.

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 32.25 fake trainer miles (one hour-long session and one hour-and-a-half-ish-long session) in about 2:37. I re-tested my FTP on Thursday by doing that stupid ramp test and increased it by 30 points. I’m going to regret that this week, but I was absolutely dead by the end and am confident I went as hard as I could.

PT/Rehab: Twice, both solo rehab sessions, for about 1:15. I should have done more, but I had to budget my time.

Weights: One video for about 1:05.

Yoga: One 25-minute self-guided session, including a lot of stretching of the aforementioned grumpy hip and hamstring.

Total: 9 sessions in about 8:14.

Nothing out of the park, but still a solid week with a few minor successes. I'll take it.

50 miles running again!

It's a gloomy, chilly, drizzly day here and I had made peace with the fact that I might not run at all today. Until I got home from running errands and saw there was a break in the rain.

I threw on my shoes, grabbed a hat, and as quickly as I could headed out. 6.2 walking and running miles later, I've hit 50 for the month again. Hooray!

I know there are still three running days left in the month, so I might squeeze out another 5 or so, but this way I'm not cramming before passing out candy on Wednesday.

50 miles for the third month in a row! I am thrilled my knee is cooperating and seemingly getting better.

50 miles again, hooray!

It was FINALLY clear on a Friday evening...

... so I got out and ran!

For the last two Fridays in a row it was sunny and clear right up until the time I left work. I'm happy to run in a light rain, but not a heavy, cold rain. So it was easy to snuggle under the blankets and watch a movie instead.

Not tonight! Rain is moving in but it isn't here yet so I was happy to lace up and head out.

It was dry over my running route, which was good enough for me.

I was able to run my 4 x running intervals as hard as I thought I could sustain for the full 8 minutes. It wasn't easy, but I felt OK except for some hip tightness. And when I finished I had this alert from my Garmin:

Fastest mile since my knee injury in November.

So overall, it was a good run and a good evening.

Week in review Oct. 15-21: Not a monster but not bad

A nice variety.

Tuesday night already, eeek! I had family in town today so I spent all evening yesterday tidying up and just got home from a wonderful day with them today. I'm late but it was well worth it.

Anyway. I knew that last week wouldn’t be as good for training as the week before. I had a harder time starting the week on a strong note, and then for the SECOND week in a row, it started raining Friday afternoon when I had plans for an after-work speed run. I can do wet and I can do cold, but not both. Blech. So I did the logical thing and stayed inside, watched a movie (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, finally, which I loved), and ordered in barbecue.

It was also a frustrating week for health issues. I had an abnormal pap smear a few weeks ago so had to go back last week for additional tests (ladies, if you are overdue for your pap, call your doc right now, seriously) and then somehow one of my thyroid medications went missing somewhere between my doctor’s office and my pharmacy. ????? GRRRRR! So that was annoyance and stress I really didn’t need.

Throughout all that, I still had a decent week. I made it to the pool! Hooray! And did a bit of everything else except weights for some reason. I couldn’t squeeze in a video or barre class during the week and I was on a tight schedule Saturday so had to pass up my usual heavy/body routine time.

It worked out to be:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 41.75 fake trainer miles in about 3:38. I’m doing all these via Trainer Road, EXCEPT that I keep forgetting to charge my phone beforehand on Saturdays and it keeps dying halfway through the ride. Harumph. I know I need to retest my FTP but... I don't want to.

Run/Walk: Twice, both on the road, for 10.45 miles in about 1:53. Nothing out of the ordinary here, just one easy run and one long-ish run, with one extra run interval. Both days were chilly but otherwise fine.

PT/Rehab: Twice, both solo sessions, for about 1.5 hours. Nothing out of the ordinary here, either.

SWIM! Once in the pool for 1750 yards, all drills, in about 59 minutes. I have been struggling to get to the pool. The pools most convenient to my home and work don't have lap hours until later in the evening, and one has very limited parking, so I haven't been good about going. Last Monday, I went to a third pool that was more out of the way, yards, warm, and kind of dingy, BUT I could park and hop in at 6 p.m. with no problems and only one other person. Sooooo... that's what I did. Of course it was very slow but considering I've been to the pool single-digit times this year, I'll take whatever I can get.

Yoga: One solo session for about 15 minutes.

Total: Nine sessions for about 8.25 hours. Overall, not bad at all!

It wasn't another monster week, but it was still more than a workout a day for more than an hour a day, which is about what I consider a "good" week these days. Hopefully I can use this to have a slightly more "good" week this week.

Week in review Oct. 8-14: A monster week inspired by Kona and boring-ness

A great week.

Last week was my best week for training in a while. I made it work by having ZERO after-work commitments, being boring and having no social plans, and having chilly weather on Saturday that coincided with Kona coverage, leaving me perfectly happy to train indoors all day while watching various Facebook streams.

I was feeling pretty burnt out by the end of the day Friday and it was starting to drizzle cold rain, so my thoughts for a speed-ish run went quickly and easily out the window in place of getting cozy under the covers only to emerge to go out to dinner. That, and not making it to the pool, were my only real misses of the week. I made my PT a priority and even squeezed in some yoga last (Sunday) night to round out the week.

By the numbers, it was:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 41.5 trainer miles in about 3:35. My return to Trainer Road is going as well as can be expected. Except for my phone dying during my “long” ride on Saturday, I feel I’m building back up to challenging rides with no real knee pain.

Run/walk: Three times, all on the road, for 15.5 miles in about 2:50. Even though I skipped my speed-ish run Friday, I ran long-ish on Monday to make up for missing last week’s Sunday long-ish run. I was also able to bump up my run intervals to 8 minutes, keeping the 1-minute walk recovery, with no problems.

PT: Four sessions for about 2:45 total. I made this a priority to do after two workouts during the week and both weekend workouts.

Weights: Twice, one video and one heavy/body routine, for about 2:05 total. I like going to barre, don’t get me wrong, but I need to work Jillian Michaels back into my life so she can properly kick my butt once or twice a month. I was sore for days. And I’m sore again today because I had been neglecting pullups until Saturday.

Yoga: One 20-minute session of mostly bends and pigeons.

Total: A monster 13 sessions in about 11:35. My biggest week in a while and only the second week this year that I’ve gone longer than 11 hours.

So, the secret seems to be, be boring. Have no social commitments after work (fine by me), eat leftovers at least once (also fine), and have an endurance event on TV all day Saturday so you can do something active the entire time. Also, the weather needs to be nice enough to run a few times per week, but not TOO nice, so you don’t get distracted and want to go for a walk or something when you should be doing a weights video. Ha!

This coming week will most likely be a bit easier, but that’s fine – I think I deserve a break. A nice, boring break.

A goal for the end of the year

After my duathlon last month, and now that I am feeling better about my knee cooperating with my return to running and riding, I started thinking about some new goals.

I wrote a few weeks ago about running-specific goals: Log a sub-27:00 5K on my new Garmin and train for my first real attempt at an open half marathon at 1:59:59 or better this spring. But I do want to continue to improve on the bike, and get back to swimming.

So I am going to try to work out 100 times between October 1 and December 31. This counts yoga, PT, and anything else that I log in my training spreadsheet and Daily Mile. I don't have any hard and fast rules; workouts don't need to be X minutes or anything. I'm already off to a good start with 13 sessions since Oct. 1. If I average 7-8 sessions per week I'll be doing great.

I also really want to get back into the pool. Something fun I've noticed people doing this year is a birthday triathlon, doing the number of years they're turning as minutes swimming, biking, and running. My birthday is on a Tuesday this year but I think I can do it! It will be a good goal to keep me motivated until then.

So, here's to keeping a workout routine through the end of the year. It won't hurt to have the habit going strong to counteract all the turkey and Christmas cookies sure to be consumed.

Goals for the remainder of 2018!

Week in review Oct. 1-7: A bit of a reprieve

I finally feel like I can breathe again… a little bit. Last week was still busy, but I actually had a minute or two of downtime, if you can imagine that.

Lately, I have been starting the weeks off strong and then slowly fading. Part of that is because I food prep on Sunday, usually making salads for the next three days and prepping or planning leftovers for dinner Monday. So on Monday and some Tuesday nights, I don’t have to do much in the kitchen, and can do PT after my main workout. And it’s awesome! But by the time Wednesday night comes around, I need to do another round of lunch prep (salads don’t keep for five days in my experience), and I’m starting to get tired, and doing that extra workout falls by the wayside.

I actually didn’t do badly this week with a workout every day after work until Friday, when I knew I had to work late so I did my run in the morning. I was at a college football game and all the festivities alllllllllllllll day with no time to work out on Saturday, and wasn’t feeling great yesterday, although I did do some yoga before bed so I could say I did something (and because I needed it). So, while I did fizzle out, a strong start and being pretty consistent paid off overall.

Not too bad, considering.

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 23.25 trainer miles in about 2:02.

So, I re-started my Trainer Road account last week. My knee has been feeling mostly fine during trainer rides so I decided to bring it back as a test of knee fitness and also because I do want to improve. I really had good intentions to ease back into it, but that all went out the window once I saw that FTP line. I would have stopped had I felt actual pain, don’t worry. I had a few twinges of discomfort but nothing that crossed that line. I’ll continue to ride semi-cautiously and build slowly.

Run/Walk: Twice, both on the road, for 8.35 miles in about 1:34. Both of these runs were tough; one was after an extremely emotional day Wednesday, both low and high, and one was my first truly chilly morning run before work Friday. I wasn’t feeling great yesterday and figured a day focusing on rest and food prep would be better for me than stressing about squeezing in a long-ish run.

PT/Rehab: Two solo sessions for about 1:15 total. My pattern for the last month has been to neglect my PT except for some combination of Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. Prime example of how I fizzle out at the week wears on. Maybe I need to do something like move my Thursday workout to before work and do Therapy Thursdays after work? I’m open to ideas.

Weights: One barre class for about an hour.

Yoga: One solo session for about 15 minutes.

Total: Eight sessions in about 6:07. I would have liked to log a few more hours, but I’m pleased that I did eight sessions, especially considering I took one rest day and one yoga-only day.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad week and wasn’t a bad start to the month, either. Here’s hoping I can hold off that fizzle for as long as possible.

(Finally) September in review: Some running, a bit of biking, barre

First off, good luck to everyone running Chicago tomorrow! I have randomly been in Chicago twice over marathon weekend but have never run it. I will one of these days. Detroit is always a week or two afterward and I prefer to sleep in my own bed when possible. =)

OK, back to business. I was looking forward to life calming down a bit this past week so I could catch up on things like blogging and housework, but, alas, those areas are still neglected. So, of course, I'm wrapping up September rather than vacuum.

I really neglected PT in September and didn't make to the pool (again) at all, but other than that, it was a decent month training-wise considering how busy I was at work for the last few weeks. Outside of training and the office, I did manage a few fun things: My first duathlon over Labor Day weekend, hanging out and barbecuing with friends, going to a college football game, spending time with my sister-in-law when she was in town, and doing a lot of food prep. I did cook some fun things, like peach crisp and tomato sauce.

Even with all that excitement, it wasn't an easy month. I'm trying to make some big changes in my life and man, I know why people get complacent. Change is hard and it can suck. I am hoping to come out better and stronger, and hopefully with a schedule that allows for more regular training. I was too emotionally exhausted to work out or cook dinner on more than one occasion. But I've decided I can't accept things to continue the way they are, so there's nothing left to do but put my head down and keep trying. I'm being vague on purpose, but stay tuned.

Anyway. By the numbers, September included:

Run: 12 times, all on the road and 2 of those races (both runs of the duathlon), for 50 miles in about 9:12. I REALLY wanted another 50-mile month so I may have run/walked a little longer than I should have last Sunday, but my knee felt fine so I think it was OK.

August and September were both 50-mile months, but I did it more efficiently in September.

One thing I noticed: I ran 50-mile months the last two months, but I did it in a LOT less time in September — more than an hour less! This tells me that I am slowly improving as my knee gets better, successfully adding more running time and decreasing walking time. Slowly, slowly, slowly.

Bike: 9 times, 2 on the road (one race, the duathlon) and 7 trainer rides, for 35.88 road miles and 70 trainer miles in about 8:22. As the month went on I did fewer and fewer rides, and it was a significant decrease last month, so I'm chalking this up to a busy month.

PT/Rehab: Sigh. I only did PT 6 times in September for about 3:45 — terrible. This should be at least double. The more I do, the healthier my knee will be. But making the time is so, so hard.

Weights: 3 barre classes of about an hour each and ... that's it. That was what I could make work this month so that's what I did. At least I was somewhat consistent.

Yoga: I actually did some yoga! Just 2 sessions for 35 minutes total, but it was something.

Total: I did 32 sessions over the month for just less than 25 hours. It was still more than one per day, so I guess I can't be too mad.

Pretty much a third run/walk, a third bike, and a third other.

Looking back at the casual goals I made for myself at the beginning of the year, I can actually cross one off: Work through my health issues and re-start a training schedule that gets me back to racing. Working through my health issues will likely be a lifelong effort, but I did race in September. It was a tiny race but I still felt every bit of the exhilaration, fear, excitement, elation, and all the other emotions that make an appearance during a race. It was wonderful to be reminded why I love it so much.

October is already off to a great start. I'm looking forward to coming back in a month and sharing another successful monthly wrap-up.

Week in review Sept. 24-30: I survived!

Considering my week, I'm happy with anything.

My week from h-e-double hockey sticks is finally over! Woo hoo!

I had to work late Thursday, early and late Friday and allllllll day Saturday, and I wasn’t feeling great Tuesday, so training was very limited last week. I considered anything a victory. So this minor victory was completing two run/walks and two trainer rides:

Run/walk: Twice, both on the road, for 10.44 miles in almost 2 hours.

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 20 fake miles in about 1:45

Total: Four sessions in about 3:42.

I'll do a proper September wrap-up, but the week did include my longest run (well, run/walk) since last November so I could hit 50 miles running for the month again. My knee felt a little tight and catchy after the fact, but it was fine during.

I'm bummed I didn't do any PT at all, but I just plum couldn't make it work with the additional, well, work, this week. But I'm committed to starting strong today and for October... and hopefully through the end of the year.

This'll be short and sweet because my workouts were short and sweet, but I'm hoping next week will be back to normal.