Some weeks are like that.

Ughhh ok so now it's Saturday and I'm starting the week's blog.... let's just say it's not been that great of a week for exercise.

Monday
Did: nada

Tuesday
Did: track #10kTuesday
I put forth the workout for today and we ended up doing 3x3x400 in a progression of 10k, 5k, and 1M pace. I've done this on the treadmill before but never on a track. It's a great way to test out your own gauge of pace!

10k 400s (target 1:55) - 1:52, 1:54, 1:59 (not bad!)
5k 400s (target 1:45) - 1:50, 1:46, 1:47 (eh, slow)
1M 400s (target 1:35) - 1:39, 1:41, 1:35 (finally hit it on the last one!)

Overall 6.21 mi @ 8:05/mi avg.

Wednesday
Did: nothing

Thursday
Did: 4.1 mi @ 8:47/mi avg
Ran early around the neighborhood because, if this week confirms anything for me, it's that things just WON'T happen if I don't get them done before work. So early I go. And it just sets the rest of the day in a better rhythm.

Friday
Did: zip

Saturday
Did: 10.04 mi @ 9:05/mi avg
Stroller run on the swamp rabbit trail today with my little dude. Loved the long miles and lack of pressure for any schedule or speed. We ran from Furman to the Swamp Rabbit Cafe - stopped for a scone ("bixit" according to D) and some playtime before the return trip. I was definitely faster on the first half vs. the return trip...

5 there: 8:45, 8:38, 8:27, 8:25, 8:41
5 back: 9:27, 9:01, 8:43, 9:37, 10:27

Yup, totally pooped out at the end, but it was getting late and hot. /excuses
Still really happy with those first 5 miles though!

Strollin' with my homie 😎

Sunday
Did: 19.1 mi mountain biking
Did the early Sunday morning #dirtchurch ride with some good folks - Waylon, his friend Alex, and John & Brandy. Started off with meeting up at Sunrift to caravan up to Dupont.

Sunrise at Sunrift

Started out at Fawn Lake Access with the lovely climb up Mine Mountain (oof), some fun things including Hilltop, Locust Hill, and Ridgeline, then we climbed up Lake Imaging Road (not fun) before proceeding on the gravel roads to Lake Julia to get to Reasonover Creek Trail.

John always gets some sweet pics on Ridgeline

I got out ahead of the crew during the ~2-3 mile climb on Reasonover, so I stopped just as the downhill started at the intersection with Turkey Knob.

Quiet trails

As I was thinking to myself, 'My, it's so peaceful and quiet out here' I noticed movement just a bit down Turkey Knob, and I figured it was another biker coming up the trail. To my surprise, it was a BEAR. 🐻 It was a small black bear, older than a new baby, but definitely a young cub. It noticed me and turned to look curiously, then continued on its way across the trail and into the woods. I looked around me frantically for mama bear, who was thankfully nowhere nearby (that I saw, at least). I anxiously awaited the arrival of the others, and considered just going on down the trail by myself just to get away from the area, but figured I didn't really want to go anywhere too far without others near me. Yikes!

Excitement behind us, we all made it back to the car uneventfully from that point.


Week-ending thoughts: It's time to make some plans. I keep saying I need to train for something or have some goal, it's time to do it. Enough excuses.

Work travel week

Week beginning thoughts:
This one is going to be a busy hectic week. Scott's gone Sun-Wed, I'm gone Wed-Fri, there's a hurricane barreling towards us, and there's about a dozen other things I need to do/take care of/think about/finish.

Monday
Did: strength
Got a good workout in today. Went immediately after my morning meeting so I wouldn't get caught up in other stuff at my desk, and that was a good call. The rest of the day is slammed with meetings anyway.

4 sets now.

Worked out for over an hour which was great. Had to drop down weight on a few things since I guess it's been a hot minute since I've done a serious lift. Need to get back at it because I feel so much better when I do.

Tuesday
Did: 6.23 mi @ 8:45/mi
I haven't "just run" a 10k in a while, so I was pleased to see a sub-9 pace! Felt good, didn't really push, just ran comfortably and got it done. I still prefer my pre-dawn track workout, but this wasn't too terrible.

Wednesday - Friday
Did: zip, zilch, nada
At a work conference, didn't even pack exercise clothing knowing what my schedule would entail (lots of socializing, not enough sleep).

Saturday
Did: 6.7 mi stroller run @ 10:13/mi
Got super D out in the stroller for a nice little run in the increasing windy-ness ahead of Hurricane Florence. Not at all a fast run, but nice to get out and do something.

Sunday
Did: nothing
Rained all day but not much else, so it was a day to stay indoors.

Week ending thoughts: Ughhhh what a lazy week.

Well then.

So, it's already Thursday... 😐

Monday (Labor Day)
Did: nothing
Well, I did yardwork and walked around the zoo with D. Happy Labor Day holiday?

Tuesday
Did: 6.21 mi @ 10:02/mi
This run almost didn't happen at all. With Scott traveling, there was no early morning group run since I had to get D to daycare. Was going to do my run first thing at work, but after a holiday weekend, I felt like I needed to get into the office and do some work first thing. So I think, ok, I'll run at lunch. Then at 10:15 I get an email from daycare saying they had to close at noon to have the building fumigated and all kids had to be picked up. UGH. So I pick him up and plan to run with him in the stroller... then I had a conference call, so I did that and planned to run after... then I had another conference call and planned to run at the end of the day (~4:30) at which time I noticed it was raining.

Nope.

So I got together an early dinner and when we finished around 6:30 it had stopped raining so DARN IT WE WENT RUNNING.

YAY

Wednesday
Did: 40 mins bike trainer
Ahhhh getting the workout done early. Did my usual intervals routine and as usual, was happy to have it finished to start off the day.

Thursday
Did: nada
Was going to run loops close to the house early in the morning with D still asleep at home, and planned to stop every loop to check the baby monitor. I didn't feel great about this to begin with, but the 3 ENORMOUS spiders & spiderwebs stretching across the entire front entrance of the house when I opened the door were the final straw. I said nope and went back inside. I'll run later.
ETA: Did not run later.

Friday
Did: 4.89 mi @ 9:16/mi
Since Thursday's run got spider'd, and Scott is back in town but taking the day off from work, I jumped on the opportunity to join the early downtown crew for their Friday Five run. Small group but got to see a few people I haven't seen in probably several months, so it was great catching up and made the miles tick by. This run felt harder than it should have for a 9:16/mi pace but I'll chalk it up to too many early mornings and the fact that zomg it's finally Friday. 🎉

Saturday
Did: 9.28 mi @ 10:20/mi
This run was, again, harder than it should have been. I'd left my car downtown last night (intentionally) so I could run to it this morning with D in the stroller. We all slept in this morning (yay, needed) and got rolling around 8:45am. I thought it was comfortable, but turned out it was not so much. Definitely sweating by the time we got downtown. Did a bit of walking at the start & end of the run which affected pace a bit. The ~6-7 miles in the middle were all sub-10 pace with one sub-9, so I don't feel like this was a total crap run. Ended up with a nice stroll around the downtown market!

Sunday
Did: 11.4 mi mountain biking
Yay #dirtchurch with friends at Dupont. This is becoming a routine, and I'm liking it a whole lot. Met up with John & Brandy, and their friend (Josh?) for a nice morning in the forest. Scott & D did a gravel ride then rode the kid's bike trail which D is 1) awesome at and 2) loves. SO FUN. I rode with the "grown ups" and enjoyed a nice loop which included both of Dupont's finest downhills (Rocky Ridge & Ridgeline Trails). John even captured a sweet pic of me coming down Ridgeline:

Looks like I even know what I'm doing...

Week-ending thoughts: 😄

Better week?

Week beginning thoughts: This will be a better week.

Monday
Did: strength
Did a short session (30-mins) but forgot to bring shoes, so I wore my toe shoes and for some reason I don't feel comfortable using the gym equipment or heavy weights when I wear toe shoes. It's not like running shoes provide that much protection from the droppage of a 40+lb weight, but still... mental thing, I guess. Plusalso I didn't really feel like lifting anyway, so it was an excuse. Did mostly body weight exercises, all of my core PT, and other random stuff.

Tuesday
Did: #10kTuesday track workout
Ahhh yes, track Tuesdays are a thing! Met up with a small crew this morning (4 of us) to do a ladder workout at the track. This was HARD. I do not like running a 1200. Newp. But got it done and of course felt awesome when it was finished. I didn't have a lot of speed today, probably due to not eating food before I ran... just didn't feel like having my PB oat bar today.

1.1 WU @ 9:14/mi

2x400/200 recovery - 1:37, 1:40 (already slowwwww)
800/400 - 3:25 for the 800 (slowwww again)
1200/400 - 5:23 (that's like a 5k pace... zzzzzz)
800/400 - 3:45 (lololol)
2x400/200 - 1:43, 1:40

1.1 CD @ 8:45/mi

Out of the 4 of us, I was the slowest when usually I'm one of the fastest. Oh well, can't win 'em all. I still finished only about 200m behind the person out front, so at least I didn't get lapped. Felt good to get in the 10k in a solid 50 minutes!

Wednesday
Did: 39 min trainer ride
Another early morning on the trainer, and another day that I'm glad I did. Did the same interval routine as before but during the 10-min cooldown, I did a little hard 30-sec push every 2 minutes, which was an ice way to break up the "long" 10 steady minutes.

Thursday
Did: 4.2 mi @ 8:41/mi 
Lunch run in the heat of the day but still not too bad on pace. This was just a "junk miles" run but still was good to get out and do it.

Friday
Did: rest

Saturday
Did: 13.1 mi mountain biking
Went up to Pisgah with some mountain biking friends and had a lovely morning/day. It wasn't quite the ride we planned originally due to some mechanical issues on one of the bikes in our group, but it was still a great day in the forest on 2 wheels.

A good day, indeed.

Sunday
Did: 6.4 mi run/walk w/ stroller
Started out running and not sure if it was dehydration, poor sleep, hot sunshine, or what... but I was NOT feeling it, mentally or physically, so it turned into a stroller walk through the neighborhood. Whatever!

Week ending thoughts: um. idk. Still a better week, but man, rough ending!

...

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.

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: ... ?

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.