Monday, July 28, 2014

week in review; july 21–27


Monday, July 21: 1.52 miles

Tuesday, July 22: 3.56 miles + 1 mile walk

Wednesday, July 23: 1.15 miles

Thursday, July 24: Esprit de She 10K (60th and Final Day of my running streak)

Friday, July 25: 15 minute walk

Saturday, July 26: rest day

Sunday, July 27: 3.02 miles

I made a very tough decision this week, which was to end my running streak. I didn't think it would be as difficult as it was. Originally, I had only planned on running the 40 that the Runner's World Challenge had set up, but it was such a great motivator, I kept it up for 60 days. I figured 60 was a great number, and that in order to prevent burnout and injury, it would be best to stop and have some rest days, especially since Dopey training will get more difficult as the weeks go on. I definitely don't want to hurt myself now and halt my training, which is more important than a streak. Still, not going for a run on Friday made me a little sad... just ask my husband haha. 

Anyway, I've been having a bit of arch pain this past week, which I think is plantar fasciitis. I ordered some heel seats today, which I've heard from a few people have helped alleviate most of the pain. On my run yesterday, I used KT Tape, which worked well on my right foot, but my left was still in pain (perhaps I applied it more accurately on my right than left). The website also has a lot of videos on how to stretch the area out, which I'll be giving a try.

On Thursday night, I ran the Esprit de She 10K, which was a lot of fun. The weather was PERFECT (which is a rare thing for me to say about weather at the end of July). I'll have a recap up at some point, but it was well organized and a great female-based race.

Due to a very late night Thursday (I didn't get home till after midnight), the rest of my week/end was a bit lazy, as I was exhausted and dealing with arch pains. Saturday I was out of the house the entire day and all night, standing for quite a few hours (which I'm sure didn't help my arches), but other than that there wasn't any type of exercising.

Even with Friday and Saturday being lazy/rest days, I did get all of my training runs in, though I cut the run short by 10 minutes Sunday due to my arch pains. The plan was for 2-45 minute runs and a 5.5 mile long run on the weekend. Since I had the 10K Thursday, I switched the Saturday run to Thursday, and the original Thursday to Sunday. The runs went well, and I felt really good during the 10K (minus a small bit of knee pangs).

After Sunday's run, my husband and I decided to go out for some hair of the dog ;) Not to say we were hungover, but it was a nice afternoon, and we wanted to be out of the house, despite the number of chores we were supposed get done. Sometimes, it's more important to spend time together when the chance is there. We also watched 'The Shining' with Jack Nicholson. Anyone ever see this? I was expecting to be horrified and have nightmares, as I had heard it was quite the scary movie, but I mostly just laughed or rolled my eyes, annoyed with some of the acting/story line. We had both just read the book, and found the movie disappointing. While I thoroughly enjoyed Nicholson's performance (he's awesome), that's about all I enjoyed. We're going to watch the miniseries version and see if it's any better (which I am hoping it is, since it was written by Stephen King himself, it may be more accurate to the book, which I found more thrilling than the movie). I know it can be hard to depict certain things in tv/movies, but I just couldn't get on board with the Stanley Kubrick adaptation. Oh well.

Scenes from the week.

I was hoping to get in some strength training this week, but I didn't find the time or energy, but I WILL get two days in this week. I have my first Pure Barre class this week as well, and I am going to try a spin class on Thursday if I can get there on time. Quite the week planned, and this weekend I have a 3-day pass to Lollapalooza. That will certainly include a LOT of walking, as it's a mile from the north end to the south end, and I imagine I'll be doing a lot of running back and forth in order to catch the bands I want to see at the various stages.

It's weird to have two weekends in a row without races, but after the past two weeks having two weekday races and then back-to-back at Rock 'n' Roll the other weekend, it's a nice change of pace, especially since I'm so busy with other things.

What's on your calendar for this week/end? Do you ever have arch pains? What do you do to help alleviate the pain? 

Friday, July 25, 2014

friday five: goals

I am so happy it is Friday! The week went by quickly enough, but I'm pretty tired today after running a 10K last night on the northside of the city, and not getting home until about 12:30. Bed time was much later than I prefer it to be. Whoa is me. This weekend I am hitting up a beerfest, and then hopefully lots of housecleaning on Sunday (I really hope I'm not feeling lazy and end up relaxing on the couch all day haha) along with my long run of 5.5 miles AND, hopefully, finally joining that gym so I can start going to spin classes/swim laps (I guess those are some goals right there haha). 


Like most Fridays, I am linking up with the lovely DC Trifecta for Friday Five: Courtney at Eat Pray Run DCCynthia at You Signed up for What?, and Mar at Mar on the Run. This week's theme is "Goals". Since I do a weekly post about my weekly goals (you can check out this week's here), I am going to look at a more general time frame. It's July now, more than half way through the year (WHAT?!), so here are some goals, life and fitness pertaining to the second half of 2014 that I would like to accomplish...

1. Add spin classes and swimming into my Dopey Challenge training plan. Most of you know that I have already begun training for the Dopey Challenge (I'm using the Galloway plan from the runDisney page), which calls for usually 3 days of running each week (eventually there will be some weeks that call for 4 or 5 days, but there are very few of those). Since I'll be 'resting' the other 4 days of the week, I want to add in cross training. I'll be joining a gym that has a pool so I can start doing laps, and then try some of the classes they offer (mainly looking at trying their cycle and yoga classes). 

2. Continue to eat healthier. I've been doing better with this, though not without some slip ups. I'm obviously not going to eat healthy all of the time, as that's an unrealistic goal for me at this point. Plus, if I'm being honest, I have no desire to completely cut out everything I love (wine, beer, and cheeseburgers to name a few) haha. I'm also logging what I am eating and how I am feeling throughout the day and on my runs to help give me a better sense of what helps fuel me best.

3. Lose 5% body fat. Along with eating healthier, I'd like to lose a few pounds/add on some more muscle. I've been seeing small results from the strength training I've been doing, so hoping if I continue to eat healthy, keep up the strength training, and add in some cross training, I'll be able to meet this goal in a couple months. 

4. Spend more time reading, less time watching tv. This speaks true for this summer so far, and I hope to continue the trend when fall tv starts back up (I don't find summer tv very entertaining, there's only a few I watch, but have plenty of fall shows on the DVR settings). 

5. Be better at blogging. While I keep up with my usual weekly items (Monday, Tuesday, and Friday), I am realllllly bad at being prompt with my race recaps. I'm hoping to catch up soon (that sounds familiar), and then be better about writing my recaps right after and posting either on Wednesdays or Thursdays.



How about you–do you set goals for yourself? Daily, Weekly, Monthly? What type of cross training do you do, if any?

Thanks to CourtneyCynthia, and Mar for hosting! Make sure to check out their "Friday Five" posts (links to the specific posts are at the top of the page) and link up if you are joining in, and then check out some of the other link up posts – they're all great!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

the weekly chase #16


On Tuesdays I link up my Weekly Chase goals with Mindy from Road Runner Girl. Below is a recap from how the goals from last week went over, and my new goals for this week.

Weekly goals for July 14–20; recap

Goal #1 - I'm combining a few goals here that go together, and that I have every week (so want to condense, rather than have 8 goals a week haha). Continue to log all of my calories in My Fitness Pal and stay within my calorie allotment for the day. Eat healthier. Drink 48 oz of water a day.
Overall, this went pretty well. I drank my water and logged all of my calories (to the best of my abilities - if there isn't a barcode to scan, and the item isn't already in there, I sometimes have trouble guessing). In order to be more accurate with my logging, I bought some measuring cups and spoons to keep at work. I think this will be very helpful, as I have a hard time guessing how much I am actually eating of the serving(s). Not all of my meals were healthy, but better than usual.

Goal #2 - 
Hit goal of 10,000 steps/day via Fitbit (friend me here).
BOOYAH! I hit my goal (and then some on most days) this week... even on Monday! Hooray :)

Goal #3 - Continue Dopey training.
Yes, plus I've kept my running streak going. I just finished day 56 yesterday, and my motivation for running is still strong.

Goal #4 – Strength train two days and 30 Day Shred three days.
Well, I might have tried to bite off more than I could chew when I wrote these goals. I managed one strength training session (on Thursday, which left certain muscles quite sore for my races, thanks to the lunges), but didn't do 30 Day Shred at all.

Weekly goals for July 21–27

Goal #1 - Log and stay under calorie goals every day. Drink 48 oz. of water per day. Eat healthier snacks/meals.

Goal #2 - Hit goal of 10,000 steps per day.

Goal #3 - Continue Dopey training.

Goal #4 - Strength train two days. Cross train two days. Is it bad to strength train on days you run?

Thanks for hosting the weekly chase link upMindy

Road Runner Girl

What are your goals for this week?