Week in review July 22-28: Hot and hermit-ing

Not a bad mix of activities.

Last week was pretty good. I did a nice round of my typical training plus a few extras, spent some time relaxing at the pool and eating barbecue with friends, and otherwise quietly flew under the radar for the week. I had my usual work and not-enough-sleep stressors, but making sure I had a decent training week really helped to alleviate some of that extra tension.

I did a couple of fun things, like try a new Trainer Road ride (I need to do this more often instead of rotating my three favorites), go to barre class, ride outside, and sneak out of work early Friday for a speedy-ish run. My Saturday outdoor ride was windy and hot, but at least that kept the little kids and most of the casual riders off the route.

I didn’t get to do anything beyond a long-ish run yesterday (Sunday), but lounging away part of a summer afternoon and eating too many ribs counts as rest and recovery, right? And my running seems to be coming along: I haven’t had any hamstring pain in a while, knock on wood, and have progressed with my “slightly faster than normal” and “slightly longer than normal” runs.

All in all, not spectacular, but a decently solid week. By the numbers:

Bike: Three times, twice on the trainer and once on the road, for 31.25 fake trainer miles and 25.25 road miles in about 3:44. The trainer rides were a new, fun one and later an old reliable when I was exhausted and didn’t want to think too much, and the road ride was shorter than I would have liked but it still felt good to get outside in the fresh air on two wheels.

PT: Twice, both home exercise sessions, for about 2 hours. This included one day of everything for my knee and hamstrings, and one day for just my hamstrings.

Run/Walk: Three times, all on the road, for one easy, one speed-ish (slightly faster run intervals), and one long-ish (one extra running interval) for 9.8 miles in about 1:53. Never did I think I would be excited to run almost 10 miles in one week (haha) but I feel like I’m getting there, slowly but surely. I was able to maintain somewhere between 5K and 10K pace on the speedy intervals and Sunday was my fastest “long run” pace for the month, even with the heat and humidity, so I’ll take that as a win.

Weights: One barre class for about an hour.

Total: 9 sessions for about 8:37. Sneaking out of work early on Friday definitely helped, as did having no plans until Sunday afternoon. I do much better with squeezing in training when I can live life like a hermit, haha.

This week, we are supposed to have much milder temperatures, so the runs should be a little less brutal. It’s also looking like my week is light on the evening plans, so I am hoping for a good amount of training, hermiting, healthy eating and food prep, and some quiet time before bed. It’s only Monday, so there are plenty of chances for things to go awry, but I have high hopes for another pretty good week.

Things I forget for running

Amazingly ugly socks I bought when I forgot mine.

I try to run immediately after work twice or so per week: I get out there before motivation wanes, there is a nice trail by my office, and I skip any rush hour traffic. Because I pack a running bag in the morning, it’s always a crapshoot whether or not I’m going to remember everything I need.

The other day, I was trying to psych myself up all day to go for a run even though my rational brain was not having it. Me: “You’ll feel so much better if you do!” Also me: “I’m tired.” Me: “You are fortunate to be able to run at all, get out there and have a great time!” Also me: “I don’t want to.” Repeat.

I was in the middle of something else, not even thinking about running at all, when I suddenly realized that I hadn’t packed socks that day. I checked my running “go bag” and nope – not a sock to be found. Between that and the rain that had been falling all day, I took it as a sign that my rational brain was actually correct in this case, and enjoyed a rest day.

It’s not the first time I’ve forgotten socks. In fact, I have an amazingly ugly pair of flowered and striped socks that I bought from a local tri shop’s bargain bin the last time I forgot. (Sadly, that tri shop is no longer.) I should keep a couple of extra pairs in my car, but I find that laundry gremlins tend to steal them.

There was also a stretch of a couple of weeks where I could not remember a sports bra for the life of me. Luckily, I can manage a run with a regular bra, but every time seemed to happen right after I had done laundry. I have also forgotten underpants for after a morning workout and since then keep an extra pair in my gym bag – I don’t want to forget an item that essential ever again!

And, of course, I’ve forgotten the odd hat, earbuds, water bottle, etc. and had to make do. I once forgot my iPod for my last 20+ miler before a marathon and almost turned around to get it (this was in the age of the dinosaurs before we had music on our phones) – but ended up having a lovely long run filled with nature sounds instead.

What will I forget next time?

Week in review July 15-21: The bare minimum for what ended up being a not-great week

Eh.

It was a rough week on many levels. I never felt I was ahead of the game, the temperature got hotter and hotter and/or it rained, and I was tired and crabby for most of the week for a variety of reasons.

I got the week off to a good start with a trainer ride and a healthy dinner. after work on Monday. Tuesday it was raining to the point that roads were flooding and it was difficult to get home from work. I was pretty much over it by the time I got home so we went out to dinner and I did the minimum required amount of adulting that evening. Does that count as self care?

My husband was out of town Wednesday which meant extra dog duty for me, but at least I could plan for it. It was also ridiculously hot, so I stayed in the air conditioning to do a weights video until the sun started to go down, and then went for an easy wog. Not ideal, but I made it work. I usually have morning dog duty so Thursday was pretty normal and I got the entire French press to myself! Mwa ha ha! I needed it because it was a long, exhausting day at work and I came home tired … again. Ugh.

The heat got worse so I caved and went to the gym for a nice, air-conditioned wog after work on Friday, even though I REALLY wanted to go home and be a blob. I was pretty proud of myself for rallying, and I even had decent speedy-ish run intervals. I’ll take it. Saturday was the worst of the weather and I didn’t even want to attempt an outdoor ride.

But I had another setback on Saturday. I have thyroid issues and as a result my blood sugar can get wonky. (Yes, I’ve been tested for diabetes.) After my normal 1.5-ish hour Saturday ride, a few hours after a decent brunch with plentiful carbs, and WHILE I was eating a snack, I started to get that familiar nausea + shakiness + headache and had to go lie down for an hour or so. Maybe because it was hotter than normal I was more sensitive? I was especially bummed because we had wanted to go hang out at our outdoor pool and we totally missed the window. On the plus side, we also missed the storm that blew in later, and ended up meeting up with a friend afterward to make it an enjoyable Saturday evening.

I had plans to salvage some of my weekend training plans yesterday, but family drama took over some time budgeted for a weights workout and PT. I did get my long-ish wog done, and I did spend some time in the garden, and I did do some food prep and make dinner, so not all was lost.

TL,DR: Heat + crabbiness + work stress + other drama = not a good week for training. It ended up being:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 54.26 fake trainer miles in about 3:36. I tried to shake it up a bit with some new Trainer Road workouts, which was fun. I tend to do the same three or four workouts in rotation and I’d like to spice it up a bit more.

Run/Walk: Three times, twice on the road and once on the treadmill, for 9.3 total miles in about 1:54. Everything felt … unremarkable. I’m doing well building up the run intervals, I am concentrating on good form, and nothing really hurts (except my pride that I’m not as fast as I used to be). I feel good about my progress here.

Weights: One video for about 1:05. I feel like I’m doing the bare minimum with “other” stuff but at least I did something.

Total: Seven sessions in 6:35. Eh, I’ve done worse and it was a stressful week, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it.

There are going to be many, many weeks that will be less than awesome and last week was one of them. I still got in some solid training so let’s consider it a moderate success. Now, to build on last week for an even better week this week.

It's hot.

It's hot in the Midwest. The "feels like" temperatures reached more than 100 today, meteorologists are commenting that they've never seen dew points so high — and it's only going to get worse tomorrow.

Eeeeek.

I really, really wanted to be a blob on the couch today in the air conditioning, but I rallied and went to the gym for an air conditioned run — a compromise, I guess. It felt good and I'm glad I went.

I don't think I'm going to make it outside for a bike ride tomorrow. It looks like trainer time, fans, and A/C for me.

... but I'd still rather be dealing with this than snow and negative temperatures.

Week in review June 8-14: Summer holidays are over but the heat is on

Not my best week, but I had some decent rides and decent runs.

Happy Monday, everyone. I tried to write something mid-week so this space is more than just a rehash of what I did the week before, but I got busy. And then there was Thursday night when I used up every iota of mental energy to do a weights video before becoming a human blob and eating nothing but ordered-in pulled pork for dinner. You know how it goes.

I worked a regular Monday-Friday week so I didn’t do any extra training on any holiday days off work, I’m sad to say. I did do three bike rides, including one outside, and three runs, including one a smidge faster than usual. There was one session of PT and the aforementioned weights video, but that was it for the week.

On the plus side, the only time I didn’t cook dinner was for that barbecue on Thursday; I even cooked dinner Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday. And I worked in the garden for a bit yesterday and picked lettuce, zucchini, and squash for dinner yesterday evening, which was amazing. Having super fresh veg all summer long definitely helps keep me on the eating a healthy dinner wagon. Yay veggies!

The workouts I did were:

Bike: Twice on the trainer for 30.25 fake trainer miles and once on the road for 25 miles for about 3:44 all together. Trainer rides were my usuals and I didn't get out to the closed-to-traffic bike route until late, so I called it at 25 rather than risk getting hit, which was disappointing. BUT, at least I got to get outside on a nice day.

Run/Walk: Three times, all on the road, for 9.65 miles in about 1:56. This actually was a great week for running: I successfully bumped up my intervals to 3:30 running/1:30 walking, I did something resembling speed work on a very hot Friday, and I kept that one extra interval on Sunday to make a "long" run. Except for the heat I had good weather all three days, which I was very happy for.

Weights: One 55-minute video. This was really difficult to work in my week this time around.

PT: One 30-minute session for hamstrings only. Same.

Total: 8 sessions in about 7:05. This still an average of an hour a day so I can't be too upset about that, although I wish I'd fit in more.

Something kind of funny happened with my weights video Thursday: My legs killed me for days afterward. They felt heavy on my run Friday, I didn't have any speed for my ride Saturday, and they were STILL a bit sore on Sunday. I said I wasn't sure if that was because of A. Being out of racing shape, B. The video, C. Getting old, or D. All of the above. Sadly it was probably D. But, I was still out there even with sore legs, getting it done as much as I could. Yay!

Week in review July 1-7: Shocker – when I have time off work, I train more

Decent trainer riding and not-too-shabby other stuff.

I wanted to pop over here and write something mid-week, but I was too busy over a long Independence Day weekend relaxing, lazing around, and taking care of some of the little things that pile up (all over the house…). I didn’t do anything big and didn’t travel anywhere, but I got to hang out with out-of-town family, see friends I haven’t seen in months, splash in a pool, eat WAY too many hot dogs, enjoy a few sunsets, and other shenanigans that come with a summer holiday. I DID get some decent training in as well.

We got sent home early Wednesday (my boss was ready to peace out before we were, lol) which gave me plenty of time for an extra-long trainer ride before a family dinner. I marked the actual Fourth of July holiday with a double of a barre class and a very hot wog, which was followed by lazing around, reading, spending too much time on Instagram, drinking by the pool, etc. One highlight of the weekend was 6.5 pounds of pork roast that had spent 16 hours in the slow cooker and was much enjoyed by my husband and me for the next few days.

I wore one red and one blue sock to barre but I don't think anyone noticed. =(

We did make it to the pool to splash around, but no real swimming was done.

Friday was an easy day of making a strawberry rhubarb crisp with rhubarb from my mom’s garden, doing all my PT, and a barbecue at our friends’ house, where I ate WAY too many of the aforementioned hot dogs. In hindsight, I did a lot of lazing around this day and could have squeezed in a pool swim, but there’s something to be said for taking a day once in a while to not change out of your pajama pants until 3 p.m.

We were pretty much back to our routine by Saturday. I would have liked to get in a long outdoor ride but the weather was being finicky and it ended up storming during my riding window, so I was happy I was on the trainer inside. And I did my usual “long” run yesterday during my usual food prep routine. Nothing special there.

I would have liked to lift yesterday and even optimistically kept my workout clothes on after my run, but alas, by the time I was at a good stopping point it was already getting late. I’ll try to get back into a routine of a video or barre during the week and heavy lifting on the weekend.

Anyway, it all worked out to be:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 57 fake trainer miles in about 3:55. Not too shabby, but I wish the weather would have cooperated on Saturday. Oh well, it is supposed to be nice this weekend so fingers crossed I can get in a good ride then.

PT: Three homework sessions for about 2:30. Hey, not bad on this one! And I got in one hamstring session after work early in the week!

Run/Walk: Three times, all easy run/walks on the road, for 8.65 miles in about 1:50. Slowly, slowly, slowly building up. I was happy to get outside all three times even if I had to dodge storms one day and deal with the humidity another day. Other than the weather everything felt pretty good. I’m still having a bit of uncomfortableness in my left hamstring if I let my form lapse, but concentrating on running smartly seems to do the trick.

Weights: One barre class for about an hour.

Yoga: One solo session of mostly bends, pigeons, twists, etc. for about 15 minutes.

Total: 11 sessions in about 9.5 hours. Not bad at all!

There are always going to be things I wish I could have accomplished during a few days off, but I’m pretty happy with the mix of training, household to-dos, lazing around, and spending time with friends and family. Now, it’s back to that pesky “work” thing, but I’m hoping to keep the momentum going as long as I can.

June: Some time on two wheels and even some time on two feet

I love it when I add up my totals for the month and I’m pleasantly surprised. June ended up being a pretty good month for training.

In no small part this was because it was a boring month: I didn’t go anywhere, and I had one 20-day stretch during which I did at least one workout every day! Taking a couple of days off work and doing doubles on those days helped, too.

I slowly built up my running mileage from “very easy” to “easy,” and I rode my bike outside twice – not nearly enough, but it was nice to get outside for the first time since last summer (!). I did a good amount of PT, lifted some weights, and even stretched it out a bit with some yoga. I didn’t make it to the pool or do any other workouts, but I’m still happy with how everything shook out.
I love it when I add up my totals for the month and I’m pleasantly surprised. June ended up being a pretty good month for training.

In no small part this was because it was a boring month: I didn’t go anywhere, and I had one 20-day stretch during which I did at least one workout every day! Taking a couple of days off work and doing doubles on those days helped, too.

I slowly built up my running mileage from “very easy” to “easy,” and I rode my bike outside twice – not nearly enough, but it was nice to get outside for the first time since last summer (!). I did a good amount of PT, lifted some weights, and even stretched it out a bit with some yoga. I didn’t make it to the pool or do any other workouts, but I’m still happy with how everything shook out.

Bike mileage by month for the past 11 months.

Bike: 12 times, 10 on the trainer for 169.26 fake trainer miles and 2 on the road for 71.65 road miles, in about 16 hours, 17 minutes. This is the most time I’ve spent in the saddle in a long, long time, probably years, mostly due to those two long road rides. Except for last week when exhaustion just overcame me, I stayed in a steady three-times-per-week routine and even increased my FTP last month, and I am proud of both.

PT: 8 times, all homework for about 8 hours. This may not seem like much, but keeping a twice-ish-per-week average when I’m not even going to the clinic anymore is a big victory for me. I am really making an effort to do my glute prehab exercises from last year as well as my hamstring exercises from this time around. I had an alarming amount of soreness after I had done them for the first time in a while, which makes me think I cannot neglect the glutes! I want to keep running forever, not in six-month increments because I keep getting injured.

Running mileage, not counting all the walking warmups and cooldowns for May and June.

Run/Walk: 13 times, all on the road, for 34 miles in about 7 hours, 38 minutes. I started the month running only in a super slow shuffle and I ended the month doing legit running three minutes at a time for 4 or 5 intervals, so, progress? I have found I really have to concentrate on good form or my hamstring will hurt again. I think the next step to keeping myself running in good health is to see a physiotherapist or running-specific physical therapist to do some more work on strengthening exercises and correcting any imbalances.

Weights: 4 times including 2 barre classes, 1 video, and 1 heavy/body session, in about 4:20. Once a week isn’t terrible, so I’ll take it, but I would really like to lift twice a week with some regularity.

Yoga: Hey, I did some yoga! Just 2 easy sessions for about 30 minutes total, nothing outstanding, but enough that my body appreciated it.

About half my time spent biking, which sounds about right.

Total: 39 sessions in about 36 hours, 45 minutes.

And a revisit of my loose goals for the year:

Rebuild running smartly: I have made some good progress this month.

Make PT as much of a priority as running: Well, I spent more time PT'ing than running, so I'm counting this as a success.

Keep cycling on the trainer: Success!

Get back in the pool: Nope.

Continue a lifting routine that works: Didn't do too badly this month. Mild Success!

Yoga: Mild success!

Sprint triathlon and/or half marathon: This is still up in the air. Right now I'll be happy to do my usual summer 5K and maybe the sprint duathlon I did last summer.

I also feel better about "phrase of the year": ARRIVE, DRIVE, STRIVE, THRIVE, ALIVE. I have been showing up, I have been working, I have been improving, I am in a better mental place. Maybe it's because summer finally came?

Whatever the reason, I was very happy looking at my June numbers. I hope you also had a great month training and doing other fun stuff.

Week in review June 24-30: A strong start but a sleep-deprived finish

Less biking, but a more even spread overall.

Last week started out great. I had taken off work Monday and Tuesday so I could skip town and avoid the International Freedom Festival fireworks between Detroit and Windsor, sparing my dog the terror of the scary booms from the sky. But by the end of the week, I was exhausted and needed a couple days completely off training to recover.

I was able to do a long-ish trainer ride and even go through my heavy/bodyweight lifting routine before heading out of town on Monday, so I was feeling good. We slept horribly Monday night but were back early enough on Tuesday that I could grocery shop, go for a run, and get through a full round of my PT moves while food prepping for the week. I even did a bit of yoga before bed. I was powering through and feeling great!

Unfortunately it was back to reality on Wednesday and the only thing I could muster after work was a trainer ride before ordering in dinner and doing nothing else for the evening. I rallied for a run after work Thursday and enough food prep to make sure I had healthy things to eat on Friday. Friday ended up being a 14-hour day of my regular work before heading out to an evening event, capped off with a 55 pounds of fluff panting in my face at about 3 a.m. when a storm rolled through. Even though we left to avoid the fireworks, we couldn’t escape the scary thunder. Poor thing.

I had high hopes for an outdoor ride on Saturday, but we were running behind after recovering from a scared dog keeping us awake, and got to the market and brunch so late that became unfeasible pretty quickly. I could have rallied for a trainer ride but lying down for 20 minutes turned into a full-fledged nap and there was no turning the ship around after that. I chalked it up to a very necessary rest day. I did manage a nice run yesterday (Sunday) although my body still felt tired.

I really didn’t get enough sleep Saturday night or last night, either. I don’t let myself sleep in too late on Sundays, since I’ll never get up for work at 5:45 a.m. on Mondays if I do, but sadly that didn’t help the tossing and turning last night. That alarm came early.

So I guess my takeaway from last week is that I didn’t get nearly enough sleep. But I did get in a few workouts:

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 33.75 fake miles in about 2:18. I did a few minutes longer on my day off Monday, but I didn’t make that Saturday ride happen.

Run/walk: Three times, all on the road, for 8.85 miles in about 1:53. I was able to bump up my run intervals to 3 minutes with 2 minutes walking, with no problems.

PT: One homework session of all my exercises, for hamstrings and glutes, in about 1:30.

Weights: One heavy/body session in about 1:15.

Yoga: One self-guided session for about 15 minutes.

Total: Eight sessions in about 7:11. Eh, it’s still more than a sessions a day for more than an hour a day on average, so I can’t be too mad overall. But man, I crashed and burned by Saturday.

Here’s to a few days without storms, fireworks, or tossing and turning at night. And happy Canada Day to my neighbors.

I haven't included pics of my girls in a while, so here's my big baby...

... and my "ferocious" pibble, doing what she does best: Snoozing.