Week in review Aug. 12-18: Run, ride, be a hermit

Lots of trainer riding and some other stuff, too.

Last week I had the luxury of almost nothing going on other than work. Yes, I enjoy it when family comes to town, and I enjoy doing the occasional 5K, but I also enjoy not having to run around in the evenings and attend family commitments on the weekends.

The end result was I got a bit more training in than usual, including at least one thing every day. The weekend still had a bit of dog-related drama – one is terrified of storms that came through overnight Friday, and the other one ate something that required several early morning trips outside on Sunday. A big regional event Saturday caused some traffic problems, which caused us to get to brunch late, which caused me to not make it to my outdoor ride in time. Annoying, but I was able to regroup and knock out a long trainer ride and some PT before going out to a nice dinner with my parents later that evening. I was in a bad mood for a while but not all was lost.

Another minor victory was that I ran more than 10 miles and longer than 2 hours in a week for the first time since the end of February. It’s been a while since I was excited about 10 miles but I’m taking every victory I can at this point running-wise.

By the numbers, it was:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer for 54 fake miles in about 3:48. This included an FTP test on Monday where I gained four more watts, and a longer-than-usual ride on Saturday trying to make the best of not getting outside in time

Run: Three times, all on the road, for 12.25 miles in about 2:05. Since my 5K last weekend, I decided to try to only take walk breaks as needed, rather than the regular run/walk intervals I had been doing. All is going well so far, considering. I can tell my fitness is NOT where it used to be, and I really have to focus on good form, but nothing hurts (knock on wood). These three runs included an easy-ish run on a hot day, something resembling speed work where I tried to run a half mile at a time a bit faster, and something resembling a long run where I went out for 4.5 total miles instead of my usual 3-4-ish.

Weights: I only did one video this week for a bit longer than an hour, plus some rolling of my calves and quads afterward.

PT: Two sessions of my latest homework exercises, focusing on hips, glutes, and the muscles in my arches, plus a bit more rolling.

Yoga: I did make time for some yoga Sunday night, about 15 minutes solo. My hips are amazingly tight and as I tell myself every time, I need to do this more often than once every 4-6 weeks.

Total: 10 sessions in about 8:22. I probably could have done one more PT session while catching up on Stranger Things Sunday, but I felt this was a good week of something every day, a bit of progress on both the bike and the run, and the other supplemental stuff that gets neglected too often.

I do have a couple events scheduled this week so I may actually have to leave the house and interact with people (ugh) a bit more, but the weather is looking good for some outdoor runs, at least. I am hoping summer can hold on just a bit longer so I can enjoy a few more weeks outside. 

I hope your week is off to a great start!