10x10: Week 1

Week-beginning Thoughts:

• Oh, Monday. Hi. I thought we'd agreed not to see each other anymore? :P 

Monday

Did: Jericho's Half and Half (incl. 10min of abs)

After all last week's mileage (and not having a rest day since my mile PR), I decided to take today as a rest-from-running day. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do a cardio session on Beachbody-on-Demand or yoga, so I found this cool half-and-half workout. It took me 90min to complete it (it was only 45min long) thanks to all the kiddo-related interruptions (even at 5am), but it happened. Also did 10min of abs in the evening. 

Tuesday

Did: 10KTuesday @ 10:10/mi avg, Great Abs with Tony Horton

Slow and easy 10KTuesday in this GORGEOUS weather plus afternoon abs.

Wednesday

Did: Jericho's Half and Half- Harder (incl. 10min of abs) plus 3.11mi double stroller run @ 9:28/mi avg

Did another Half and Half this morning and enjoyed it. I do miss lifting, so I'll probably try to get back to doing that at least 1-2x a week in the near future. I'd planned on a lunch walk with a friend, but life got in the way of that. Instead of running then, I opted to wait until the afternoon, because my kid's been asking to run after school for the past week. 

...but then thunderstorms were in the forecast, and nothing makes me angrier than not getting my workout in.

Fortunately, I decided to suck it up and try anyways, and, while we got rained on, the thunder never came. 

Thursday

Did: Chalene Extreme Abs, ~5K of walking through the neighborhood

OMG, I'm going CRAZY without running this week, and hormones have been eating crap, and ALL OF IT. I'm trying to let myself rest a bit before we launch into our 10x10 challenge, but, MAN, it is HARD. 

when I say "neighborhood walk", I suppose I really mean "neighborhood hike"

Also, I ate about 1000 calories more than I was supposed to today... It's really hard for me to just shrug that off. For the past fifteen years, I've only had success managing my weight when I count calories. Some people can just do that "oh, I only eat when I'm hungry and my body evens it out". Some people, like my husband, can eat whatever crap they want, whenever they want, and however much they want, and still maintain, without any strength training, less than 5% body fat. I don't have those genes. It's been a challenge today to combat the "you're 1000 calories over-- better go burn those off RIGHT NOW" thoughts, but I'm trying to remind myself that:

1) This is ONE day. If I'd go out and eat a full meal at a restaurant, it'd easily be the same caloric intake, and doing that once in awhile should not sabotage me. 

2) A pound is ~3500 calories. I didn't even over eat enough to gain a single pound.

3) I'm about to run ten miles a day for the next ten days. "Carb loading" probably isn't the worst thing. 

Friday

Did: 10.11mi @ 9:35/mi avg, Big 5, 10min Barre Blend abs

I've been mentally stressing about today for the past few days. This 10x10 thing is a big deal. In just a few days, I'm going to have a three-day peak of 70mi/last 7 days. The highest 7-day volume I've had before was in 2016, during Chicago training, with 69mi/week. I'm a little nervous, TBH. 

This morning kind of felt like a race morning. Nerves. Adrenaline. Excitement. I'm so glad I've got a teammate to do this "with". We're not running every day together, but plan on doing about half of the runs at the same place/time. The rest of the days, we'll probably run around the same time, but at different locations ,and just check in with each other later. 

We started off much faster than I wanted to go, and I had to remind myself not to keep up with my teammate. After all, this is the first day of a ten day endurance event. No point in burning out early. That said, we still finished a bit faster than I'd planned. I felt good enough during the run, but can definitely see this is going to be challenging. 

Day 1! Let's do this!

Saturday

Did: 10.01mi @ 9:45/mi avg with family, Big 5, 10min plank series

Day 2 felt far less intimidating than Day 1, probably because running 10mi is "just a normal Saturday" for me, and I had my family along for the ride (though, real talk: my husband always does all the stroller pushing when we run together, because pushing 100+ lbs is the only way our paces are remotely comparable). 

I had a few pics of soreness on different parts of my legs and ankles throughout the run, but they faded as quickly as they'd crept up. Still, a good sign that I need to be diligent about stretching and rehab throughout the next eight days. 

There were three separate areas of flooding across the greenway, some about 6" deep, so we had fun running through those :) 

Sunday

Did: 10mi @ 9:33/mi avg, 10min plank series

Woo, Day 3! I woke up feeling great and ready to run. Rather than deal with complex logistics, my teammate and I agreed to just meet at the river and knock out all ten miles together, with our youngest kiddos in the single strollers. It felt good to have a new route, especially since it was familiar, flat, and full of company. I had another series of random pains/sorenesses/aches in various parts of my lower appendages, but, again, they all came and went throughout the run. 

This stroller has GOT to have over 3000mi on it by now .and it's still AMAZING.

Total Weekly Mileage: 39.4

Week-ending Thoughts:

• I'm really glad I lightened up my mileage earlier in the week.
• I feel like such a bada--- doing this challenge. It's hard enough that it's definitely a challenge, but not so out reach as to be demoralizing. 
• PEOP is mid-way through Ohio! http://trackleaders.com/greatamerican20i.php?name=Pink_Elephants_on_Parade
• Oh, and I'm officially over 1000mi/year :D