Reboot: Week 3

Week-beginning Thoughts:
1. I can't wait for summer track meets.
2. I really want a vacation where I just take a week off of work and get everything done around the house. 
3. My right IT band is definitely sore from foam rolling, but I think I've finally gotten the hang of this foam rolling thing because it's a good sore, I can run on it without any soreness/hurt/ache, and the knots I found Saturday night are gone.
4. It boggles my mind that, in order to earn a $200 "wellness initiative reward" from my health insurance company, I have to spend time talking to health counselors about the "next steps" for me to "get healthy", or waste my time doing online activities to learn about why I should shop the perimeter of the grocery store or eat out less. Um, hello. I don't eat out. I track everything I put into my body. I run six days a week. I strength train twice a week. I stretch. I get sufficient sleep. I have healthy metrics. I don't really need to change anything I'm doing. You should really be rewarding me for doing exactly what I'm doing... not having me sit through a 20min online webinar on "how to make goals" or "keeping an accountability journal". *eye roll*



Monday:
Did: 2mi @ 9:10/mi, Big 5, bootcamp with ~mile of running
Another 2am wake-up for the kiddo = I've been up since 2am. It would have been easy to bail on the run in favor of an attempt at more sleep, and I seriously considered it. The only thing that stopped me was that, the last time I missed a Monday workout, I lamented that decision for the rest of the day and half of the week. Better to get up tired and "deal with it". 

Had to run solo, but enjoyed the time to focus on form instead of conversation. Last week, on the treadmill, I had experimented with holding my arms out in front of me to watch how much I twist and found that I can control a bit of it if I consciously try to keep my arms steady, which forces me to engage my obliques. I did that a few times on this run and was definitely feeling it in my obliques by the end, so maybe that'll help? IDK. 

Not very thrilled with today's workout. Felt like a lot of the same exercises we did the one time I came last week, and I don't particularly enjoy any of them. 

The finisher (which I didn't snap a photo of) made up for it, though:
2x through: 30 touchdowns, 30 chest-to-ground push-ups (I did almost ALL of these on my knees-- oooof), 30 sit-ups

Definitely feeling those push-ups today, and it's only 3pm... 


Tuesday:
Did: 6.32mi ONB (30:03 out, 26:41 back), 
After a few weekends where I've been conversational on my teammate's 8:30/mi miles, I decided it was time to admit that I'm faster than I've been running and actually get back into some workouts. Today's goal was simple: run the first half easy, and the second half focused. No pace goals, just that the second half be faster than the first. 

well, that looks like more of a progression run than an ONB... 

Splits:
10:07
9:13
9:09

8:42
8:28
8:16

Good things:

• second half was definitely faster
• I was able to carry on full conversation during the back half, meaning this pace is definitely something I should be doing more regularly than I am

Things to improve:

• I suck at ONBs. They always end up being more like progression runs. I really need to work on keeping a consistent pace for the first half, and then stepping up to a faster, but consistent, pace for the back half. 
• doing Big 5 when it's cold outside and husband needs help with the kiddo...

in other news, this week was the third anniversary of #10KTuesday :D
#itsstillathing

Wednesday:
Did: 2mi @ 9:24/mi avg, Big 5, bootcamp
Right IT band trouble has expanded to my glute... man, I hate that everything is connected. I'll have to bring my foam roller when I travel this weekend, because there aren't any appointments at GSM or MotionStretch during my limited availability this week. I feel nothing when I run (or after) beyond a bit of tightness, but I also know this is the sort of thing that could turn nasty if not resolved. 

This workout was a LOT harder than it looked. Going from hand-release push-ups into side planks exhausted my arms. Going from sprints and burpees into flutter kicks killed my abs. 

...and then came the finisher.

I subbed mason twists for the loop runs, but still found this incredibly challenging. :P 


Finished the day with a LOT of pointed stretching, foam rolling, and sticking. 



Thursday:
Did: 10.11 @ 9:16/mi avg, Big 5
I'm out of town for work on Saturday, and wanted to get my LSD in with friends. B is the best training partner ever and met me at 4:15am to get miles in before work. We mentally tricked ourselves into thinking we were running less by tackling a 4mi loop and then rolling straight into the 10KTuesday route. We felt tired and sluggish on the 10KT route, but, mentally, it seemed like we were "only doing a 10K". 

Lots of stretching afterwards, and still done before 6am. 

...and those paces. WHAT?
You'd never know the back half of the run was harder than the front for us. 

Friday:
Did: 4.52mi run @ 9:06/mi avg, Big 5, 2.5mi walking
Traveling for work this week(end). Got in a nice solo run pre-dawn around campus, and probably went a bit faster than usual because it was just a liiiiiiiiittle creepy to be solo through some of the isolated, dark patches. 

Walked a ton to/from places and really enjoyed the pedestrian side of campus life. :) 

Bonus: whatever was going on with my IT band and glute has worked itself out. Hooray for effective sticking/foam-rolling!

Saturday:
Did: 1mi treadmill warm-up @ 9:03/mi, weights, 1mi walk
Didn't feel like going straight into weights this morning, so I did an easy mile on the hotel gym treadmill to wake up/warm up, and then went into lifting mode:

Set sets of:
15lb rows, overhead press x 12
10lb bicep curls x 10
15lb triceps extension x10
5lb x 10 kickbacks, 20,jackknives 
10lb Russian twist x 20, side plank with hip drop x 20
5lb arm runs x 1min, 10 donkey kick/fire hydrant
kimura sit-ups x 20, push-up x 10


Sunday:
Did: 4.34mi @ 8:38/mi avg, Big 5
Met up with one of my other running mama friends for some mid-afternoon miles... during some of the hardest rain of the entire day. Woo for friends. We ended up running quite a bit faster than planned thanks to conversation topics and rain adding to our adrenaline outputs... Oops? lol

We couldn't have waited an hour? lol

Total Weekly Mileage: 31.24mi run, probably like 5mi walked? 

Week-ending Thoughts:

• really love keeping solid 30 miles in a week and feeling like it's easy to do... especially when I think back to how, when I first started running, the idea of hitting 30 miles in a month was a lofty goal
• I feel like I'm ready to commit to a training plan. Just need to decide what my goal is going to be: a fast mile at All-Comers in a few weeks or Peachtree