Week in review Oct. 2-8: Life definitely got in the way

It was an even spread, at least.

It was another poor week, training-wise. All I did was two runs, one trainer ride, and some weight lifting.

It was just a bizarre turn of coincidence that a friend needed help with a (very fun!) thing Tuesday, my in-laws were in town for dinner Wednesday, and I had to work late Friday. I figured I would do what I could Monday, Thursday, and the weekend, and I did. I got solid runs in Monday and Thursday.

I got a call mid-week that a family member had passed away and that visitation was Sunday. Don’t be sad for me, because he was a great man and lived a long, full, amazing life. I really did want to pay my respects, so I hitched a ride with my parents out of town Sunday to spend some time with my extended family. Hilariously, my mom’s cousins kept coming up to me and giving me hugs, and I kept telling them, “I have no idea who you are!” We figured it out eventually, haha.

I made it back home Sunday evening with enough time to prep some food for the week but not to do any activity, and I was OK with that.

By the numbers:

Run: Twice, once on the road and once mostly on the track, for 12.75 miles in a hair longer than 2 hours. I may have only ran twice but I made both count.

Monday’s run was a speedy track workout: I did the 5K program of 800s fast followed by 400 recovery, which is honestly my favorite track workout anyway. I got the very last lap down to a pace that began with a 7 so I consider that a success. That is probably going to be one of the last warm track nights for a while, sad face.

For Thursday’s run I headed out to that dang sledding hill again. I "ran" up the steep side twice, but I concluded that if I can’t even run the dang thing I probably should scale back a bit. So, I moved over to the side that is slightly less steep, yet with a longer incline. Now, THAT I could do. I managed four times up and down without having to stop for a break, ran a half mile to the water fountain and back, and then ran up and down the less-steep side SEVEN times in a row without a break before heading back to the car, for an even, lucky 13 times up and down that stupid hill all together.

Of course, my pace was WAY off – more than a minute per mile slower on average than Monday’s run. But I hope those hill repeats are starting to build strength somewhere in my system. The saddest thing was when I downloaded my Garmin data the elevation doesn’t even show up. Ugh! That’s what I get for living in flat southeast Michigan.

Bike: Just once on the trainer Saturday for a “long” ride of 16.5 “miles” in an hour and a half. I thought about going to the state park but I ended up not being able to fit it into my day before the rain started.

Weights: One good round of my heavy and body weight moves in about 1 hour, 20 minutes taking out all the time slacking off and watching TV between sets. I definitely felt this the next day – I haven’t done pushups and core work in a while.

Overall: Four workouts in about 4 hours, 50 minutes. The long ride and long weights workout gave me a few extra minutes.

This Saturday my husband and I are running the Free Press 5K, part of the festivities that precede the marathon Sunday. I expect to get in a couple easy runs with him, and maybe a trainer ride and a barre class. As of now the week’s schedule is nice and light, so I hope to finally have a decent week of training.