Week in review Aug. 5-11: More family time and a 5K

It was a busy week and I have so much to write about! I haven’t been on here all week because I was spending some time with family in town from out of state. We had a blast hanging out by the pool, eating too much barbecue, and laughing at family stories.

Non-family related, last week I also had a running evaluation and participated in a 5K! More to come on those later, I promise. It has been a busy couple of days.

I got last week off to a good start with a double of a trainer ride plus weights video on Monday, followed by a nice run on Tuesday. Wednesday was my running evaluation, which I’m not counting as a workout since it was less than a mile total, and Thursday was another double of barre class plus a slightly-speedier-than-normal run.

I did take Friday off (hence the double on Thursday evening) ostensibly to spend time with family, but I did sneak out to a local park I haven’t been to in YEARS to ride for a while beforehand. It went just OK. It’s hillier than my usual outdoor ride and I was terrified of the descents and rode my brakes the whole time. I’m usually slower on this route but it wasn’t that long ago that I was bombing down descents with a smile on my face. I’m hoping if I get out there a few more times, I get my confidence back. As bummed as I was about how slow and scared I was, it was a perfect day to be outside on two wheels, and it made me happy.

I DID hang out with family Friday afternoon and the only other exercise I did was lifting sparkling rosé to my mouth and moving my pool chair into the shade. We all got together again Saturday evening for a very fun kayak trip, but except for a few minutes of paddling against the current that was more relaxing than a workout. I was writing off that day as a rest day, anyway.

Kayaking to the sunset.

We were up and at ’em early again on Sunday for a race! We did a very fun 5K for the fourth year in a row and although we weren’t “racing” at all, we still made it an enjoyable morning. And since it was close by, I had the bacon pan going by 10:15 a.m. More details on that later, as well!

A good balance of bike, run, and weights.

The training parts of my week included:

Bike: Twice, once on the trainer and one outdoor ride, for 16 trainer “miles” and 25 road miles in a bit longer than 3 hours. I knew a second trainer ride might have to be sacrificed for my running evaluation, and I was OK with that.

Run/Walk: Three times, two run-walk interval and one easy race, all on the road, for 9.93 miles (so close! The 5K was a touch long) in a bit less than 2 hours. I did not use run/walk intervals for the 5K and nothing hurt afterward, which makes me think I can consider eliminating them again.

Weights: Twice, one video and one barre class, for a bit less than 2 hours. I haven’t done my heavy/body routine in a while and it shows, but at least I am being consistent with something.

PT: It took me a couple days, but I did finally do my newest set of PT exercises from the running evaluation in about a half hour. If you’re keeping track, this is now my third set of PT exercises (knee injury end of 2017, hamstring issue earlier this year) so I am going to concentrate on doing these only for a while so I don’t drive myself nuts. Everything feels good – it’s more hip exercises than I’m used to and some foot and arch work that doesn’t use big movements but still makes me sore in a good way.

Total: 8 sessions in about 7.5 hours. Not too shabby considering I took two days off! Getting those doubles in helped a ton.

Of course I would have liked to do more, but overall I felt last week was a great balance of training, family, and other. AND we had perfect summer weather. It was a great week!