Monday, August 27, 2018

...

Week beginning thoughts: 
That's all I got.
Monday
Did: strength
File today's session under "ways to deal with stress".
 

Tuesday
Did: #10kTuesday at the track
Wheeeeee Track Tuesday with the run group! I almost thought this wouldn't happen because I woke up to a bunch of people saying they weren't going to join... thankfully a few still showed up, so we headed to the track and got some work done.
4x100 / 100
4x200 / 100
2x400 / 200
1x800 / 200
... then some more casual laps, then run back to the car.

4x100: 20s, 19s, 20s, 21s (consistency!)
4x200: 49s, 49s, 47s, 48s (more consistency!)
2x400: 1:43, 1:40 (tired!)
1x800: 3:38 (lol phoned it in)

So... I went out too fast on the short ones because zomg short! Paid for it on the longer intervals. But still... felt good and enjoyed the workout.

Wednesday
Did: 37 mins on the bike trainer
Did the same trainer workout I did last week, felt good to get it done. I need to google some good trainer routines so I don't get bored (which is easy on the trainer). Maybe once the weather cools and work calms down (hah) I'll get back to doing real bike rides. What a concept!

Thursday
Did: 5.18 mi @ 8:16/mi
Originally planned to do my pre-dawn run but a night of not-so-good sleep made the extra hour of rest this morning necessary. Also knowing that it wasn't going to be disgustingly hot made the idea of a lunchtime run less unappealing. Turned out to be a great idea to get out and get some sunshine, and I had a meeting leading up to lunch hour which meant I wasn't going to be stuck in the middle of something and accidentally work through lunch. YAY. Sunshine was good, cooler temps were amazing, and my pace showed it!! Great mood-boosting run.

Friday
Did: rest
We had a lunch "event" at work today to celebrate 1 year of "safe days" in the research labs. I don't even work in the labs anymore, but I won't turn down a free lunch! :P We did take a nice family walk in the evening after dinner because it's SO nice outside!

Saturday
Did: 10.56 mi @ 8:52/mi avg
Tonight is 'Freak Bike' i.e. biking from TR to downtown, enjoying dinner & beverages, then the adventurous ones bike back late at night. I'll be departing in the car with D after dinner, so I drove to downtown and dropped off a car for us, then ran home via the swamp rabbit trail. It was a gloriously fall-like morning (hello, low 60s!) and I enjoyed the long solo miles. It's move-in weekend at Furman, so I took a loop through campus to indulge in some nostalgia.
That blue sky, though. 😍

Freak Bike: 12.1 mi bike ride
We had a fun ride down the swamp rabbit - a pretty raucous and rowdy crew of ~2 dozen riders, ending at Compadre's downtown.

Sunday
Did: 12.1 mi mountain biking
Met up with some friends at Dupont for a nice easy ride. Enjoyed the "usual" loop and Scott pulled D in the trailer for some of it. D complained that it was "too bumpy" but once he got out on the gravel roads it was better. He enjoyed the waterfalls and even got to ride some on his own bike! A lovely morning in the woods on 2 wheels for all.

Week ending thoughts:
A week of consistent workouts = much better mood. Kind of getting the itch to train for something but also enjoying the freedom of just doing what I feel like.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Busy week

Week beginning thoughts: Uhhh it's Wednesday already... this week and next week I've got a big work project that has me occupied pretty much all day. So I'm doing what I can to get in my workouts so I don't go crazy.

Monday
Did: strength
Had an 8am meeting (ugh) so I got to work and did a quick 30-min lift before starting the day. Can't remember what I did but it was decent for the short time I was there.

Tuesday
Did: #10kTrackTuesday - 200s, 300s, and 400s
I love that the early downtown group has made Tuesdays a track workout day. It lets me feel the push and encouragement of a group run but without the pressure of "keeping up" on days when I'm not feeling it. We run together to the track (about a mile) and then do our own thing - one guy basically acts as our "coach" and decides the workout for the day, then we just go do it and have a set ending time so we can all run back together. It's awesome.

Today was 200/300/400 with 200 rest between each, repeat as many times as you can. I got in 4 sets! I didn't have an exact goal for each, but just tried to keep a solid push. I got tired by the end (as can be seen) but I was happy at least were all below 7:00/mi. I still don't understand how avg vs. moving avg. is so different.


Wednesday
Did: 37 mins bike trainer
Again, I'm tired of missing my lunchtime bike rides due to work crap, so I got up early and rode my bike on the trainer in the basement. I don't have a bike computer so I don't know how far I rode (probably not far) but I was sweating 5 mins into it and felt like I gave a good effort. I did a 10 minute warmup, then 1/2/3/3/2/1-minute "hard" effort with 1 minute recovery in between each, finished with 10 min cooldown.
Had to add the fan for comfort.
Not the most exciting workout but really happy to have gotten this done. I might make this a regular thing until work calms down (if that ever happens).

Thursday
Did: 4.0 mi @ 9:14/mi
Woke up early to get this done in the neighborhood. Didn't have any plan - distance, pace, speedwork? hills? tempo? No clue. Just went out and started running (after dodging the HUGE spiderweb that was built across the front walkway overnight). Decided this was a "just run" day and did some loops up and down streets through the neighborhood. Felt nice and peaceful to run in the quiet darkness before the world wakes up. It was more humid today than I would have liked, but not unbearable.

Friday
Did: yoga
Finally made it to yoga class at lunch!

Saturday
Did: 11.41 mi @ 9:12/mi
Pretty great run today, which was surprising since I headed out right about when I should have been eating lunch. Timing and other stuff just didn't work out for a stroller run this morning, so I opted to wait until Scott got home and went out solo. It was humid and hot, but I felt strangely good and just chugged away at the miles. I changed my intended route about a dozen times throughout the run, but ended up with a nice path, some decent hills, and nothing that felt too routine.

Sunday
Did: 22.9 mi road bike ride
Had planned to ride with the early Sunday mountain bike group, but rain muddied the trails yesterday and made it a road ride day. We opted for a family bike ride down the trail to the zoo to meet some friends, then went to lunch afterwards before biking home.

Week ending thoughts: ... ?

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Back on track

Week beginning thoughts:
Vacation was great, but I'm always (mostly) happy to return to a routine. I just feel better!

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength
3 rounds of everything
Late afternoon lift at the gym, which usually ends up in a "meh" workout, but today wasn't that bad. Didn't go all-out on the lifts like I've been doing since I haven't lifted in, um, 2 weeks? Maybe 3? Oh dear. I'll be sore tomorrow, for sure. (yay)

Tuesday
Planned: #10kTuesday
Did: 6.21 @ 9:34/mi
For one thing, had to do this in the middle of the day. UGH. It's HOT. I could have done t'mill, but decided nope, tough it out. I thought two loops of the 5k cross-country course would be a nice change of pace, but by the end of the first 5k I said nope to that too. I meandered around the campus roads to hit 10k and boy was I doneeeee by the end of it. Ugh.
But at least it's pretty.
Wednesday
Planned: bike?
Did: nothing
Work computer stuff, meetings, weather... just ugh.

Thursday
Planned: run
Did: 4.04 mi @ 8:21/mi
Ran with Scott this morning at work - really nice weather and always a good push of the pace when we run together.

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: nothing

Saturday
Planned: ?
Did: 22.5 mi bike ride
Got in a solo ride on the road bike in the early afternoon, but was on the edge of some thunderstorms that made me a bit nervous so I didn't go as far as I wanted. Still, happy to get over 20 miles and I avoided the rain.

Sunday
Planned: ?
Did: 10.04 mi @ 9:08/mi avg w/ stroller
Man, I needed this run today. Headed out with little man in the stroller (parked at Furman) on the Swamp rabbit, went up for 3, back for 3, then spent the next 4 looping through campus. My overall average doesn't show it, but I was clocking sub-9s for almost every mile up to the last 2 where I walked a few times (hills, etc.) and was getting tired / needed food. Fastest mile was a 8:20, and had a couple of others in the 8:20-8:40 range. I felt it, but it felt good.


Week ending thoughts: Well, not as much of a "back on track" as I had hoped, but still an ok week. Work is just so chaotic these days that my chances of getting my lunch workout in is questionable at best. I love the early morning workouts so that I don't have to worry about it later on, but those just aren't always feasible. Like bike riding... I won't do that before the sun comes up. Anyway, we'll see what the next week holds. I still have nothing on the training calendar, which is a little de-motivating, but I know I feel better with consistency, so that in itself provides some motivation.