Even though my September goal is about cutting back on my email checking, I’ve really enjoyed sharing my workout log on my blog every week in August, so I’d like to keep doing that. I’m not sure what day of the week this will typically come (Saturdays?) but for now, here’s a midweek update on the last week and a half:
Monday 8/29: This should not have been a rest day, but it mostly was. I did, however, squeeze in a 10 minute biceps workout from Brit. I love how quick and focused Brit’s strength workouts are – they make me really go hard on my muscles, but it helps that I can target specific muscles in preparation for whatever other exercises I may have coming up,
Tuesday 8/30: I used my ClassPass to get “gym time” at One Boulder Fitness so I could do my tempo run on the treadmill. I know that it is kind of cheating to let the treadmill set the pace, but I just don’t trust myself to run as fast as I need to go for my workouts, so the treadmill helps force me. I already wrote about this workout last week – failure of a tempo run as I only did three out of my four planned miles, and I also took a walk break before #3 🙁
Wednesday 8/31: Hiked Mount Sanitas with my BFF Kelly. This is truly the best way ever to catch up with a friend! I am so grateful that I got to work from Colorado last week rather than traveling to Dallas, so that I could get a weekday hike in 🙂
Thursday 9/1: Speed day! This is my favorite treadmill workout ever. Half mile warmup, then 12 repeats of 0.25 mile at 6:15 followed by a 0.05 mile walk. I had done this workout the week before for only ten repeats, but twelve didn’t feel that much harder at all. I love workouts where I get lots of breaks, and this was no exception 🙂
Friday 9/2: Rest day in preparation for…
Saturday 9/3: Race day! Race report here, but the short version is that I PRed but have mixed thoughts on how well I did.
Sunday 9/4: Easy five mile run around the SUNY Albany campus. My parents each live only a block away from SUNY, and as a kid, we used to go for walks around the duck pond all the time. I have a lot of childhood memories of biking the “steep, steep hills” on the far side of the duck pond… but now, the hills didn’t seem so big at all. I attribute some of that to me getting bigger, and some of that to me getting stronger – I felt really powerful at the beginning of this run! However, as I circled around and around to pick up mileage, I could definitely feel myself getting tired by the end. Oddly, I could feel it most in my shoulders tightening up! Maybe I need to work on my form…
Monday 9/5: This week, I needed to do my treadmill runs on Monday and Wednesday, because Tuesday I had morning and evening flights and so wouldn’t have any downtime for a workout. Unfortunately, Monday’s treamdill workout was a bit of a disaster. I was trying to redeem myself for my failed tempo run the week before, and had spent the night before psyching myself up by reading Angela Duckworth’s Grit, which is really inspiring me to work hard and push myself. Unfortunately, I got to the gym at 6:30am (having signed up the night before), only to find that it was opening late for Labor Day and wouldn’t open until 8am! I was pretty mad, but tried to make the best of it by getting my grocery shopping done and baking cupcakes for a friend’s birthday.
When I got back to the gym, my run started out okay. I did 0.5 mile at 8:27, then 0.5 mile at 8:13, then 0.5 mile at 8:00, and 0.5 mile at 7:42. Okay – I had now done as much as I did last time I tried this! I made it another 0.5 mile at 7:30 and 0.5 mile at 7:14, but then was just too tired to convince myself to keep going and speed it up for the last mile. Instead, I took an (unplanned) 0.1 mile walk break, telling myself that I’d then kill it for the last seven minutes. Nope – failed once again. I swapped the final mile out for four quarter mile repeats, with 0.05 walk breaks in between 🙁 I felt incredibly demoralized by this run, and frustrated by my inability to stick with my planned workout. You’ll note that this workout was also the same day I wrote my 5K race report, which is part of why I was so down at the end.
After the treadmill, I went home feeling really defeated. That workout hadn’t even been that hard, and yet I had blown it. To try to salvage something of the day, I did 10 hard minutes on the stationary bike, and then ten minutes of Brit’s Labor Day Legs workout. That is always a burner, and Monday was no exception – my legs have been pretty sore since!
Tuesday 9/6: Fortunately, things got a little bit better here. I woke up at 2:30am unable to sleep, and since my alarm was already set to go off in another hour for me to get to the airport for my weekly commute, I decided to just get up and head down to the gym for that extra hour. I am so glad I did! Doing more than I had planned (for a change) made me feel really powerful, and I was proud to get in 40 minutes of cardio/weights (I focused on biceps, shoulders, and triceps, interspersed with ten minute stints on the gazelle and stationary bike) on a day when I assumed I wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Wednesday 9/7: My flight didn’t get land until 11:30pm ET, and I was exhausted from getting up at 2:30am, but I was still able to get 7.5 hours of sleep and squeeze in a treadmill speed session. These workouts always cheer me up 🙂 Today was once again 0.5 mile warmup, then twelve repeats of 0.25 mile at 6:15 pace, interspersed with 0.05 mile walk. However, it felt so easy compared to last week! I wasn’t really getting too tired at the end of each interval, and while my heart rate went up on the later repeats, overall, it averaged 5 bpm slower than when I did the same workout last week. This is making me feel like maybe I am getting faster, and maybe I am not as bad at training as I think??
We shall see in my Colorado 5K this Saturday…