Week in review Aug. 19-25: A slow start but a good weekend

A good amount of riding.

It was an OK week. I had commitments Monday and Wednesday evenings I had to work/work out around, and had zero mental energy Tuesday evening and didn’t do anything except go out to dinner. But even that slow start was enough to sustain me through the work week so I could rally for a pretty good weekend.

Monday’s trainer ride went pretty well, and Tuesday was beastly hot anyway, so it was a good evening to skip an outside run. It was still pretty hot on Wednesday so my “easy” run became a “short and easy so I don’t die” run. Hey, I survived to run another day, which is important. I was exhausted by Thursday so did a slightly easier trainer ride and felt a million times better afterward, like I almost always do.

I tried to rally for “fast Friday” and it went only OK. I had wanted to do four increasingly faster miles but I struggled with the first two. I walked a bit, and the third went better. I stopped for a drink, and was really able to push that final one. Unfortunately I did have a few twinges in my knee with the chondral fissure, especially on downhills, so I really tried to focus on good form. That makes me a little nervous and I hope it’s just some mild inflammation from a bit of faster running.

Saturday was a great day! I made it out to the closed-to-car-traffic route and rode for a couple of hours. It was beautiful weather, everything felt good, it wasn’t too busy, and I was just happy to be out there. It was a ride that makes you happy to be on two wheels on a summer day. My husband was busy doing other stuff so after I came home and had a snack I went through my entire heavy/body home weight routine and did my running PT homework. I knew doing all the pullups that I would feel every one of them later, and I still am today. =)

After our Sunday errands I was able to rally for a “long” run in the afternoon, which turned out to be 4.5 miles of running with walk breaks as needed, plus a walking warmup and cooldown. My legs felt tired from Friday and Saturday for the first time in FOREVER, which actually made me a little happy. But, I had a few more twinges in my left knee a couple of times. I think I’m going to postpone my next run to Wednesday to give my knee an extra day to calm down, and take it easy until then. I did manage another round of PT homework later in the evening.

I really want to add another easy run day to my week, but I’m going to hold off until I can run a little faster and/or a little farther without getting these twinges. The jury is still out on whether that will even happen. My orthopedist did bring up the possibility of chicken cartilage injections if the pain doesn’t go away. So for right now, I’m in a holding pattern of watch, wait, strengthen, and increase speed and distance slowly. We’ll see if a couple of days of rest helps at all.

Numbers-wise, it was:

Bike: Three times, twice on the trainer for 31 fake miles and once on the road for 32 real miles, for about 4:09 all together.

Run: Three times, all on the road, for 13.25 miles in about 2:20. I’m going to have to be happy with slow progress for a while.

Weights: One round of my heavy/bodyweight routine for about 1:15.

PT: Two running-specific homework sessions followed by stick rolling out my quads and calves for about 1:10 all together.

Total: 9 sessions in about 8:54. I can’t be disappointed with averaging more than once per day and more than an hour per day, especially with a rest day in there.

This week is going to be busy and I have commitments several evenings already, but I am hoping I can shuffle some workouts to the morning. Next Monday is also a holiday (Labor Day) in the U.S., so I will have a bit of leeway on Sunday for extra relaxation and maybe even an extra workout. It’s looking to be nice weather for the last unofficial weekend of summer, which I can’t believe is here already. =(

I hope you had a great week last week and have a great week this week!