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Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Let me tell you, this past week was extremely exhausting for me. Work was really busy the entire week since I was loaded with several new assignments. And of course, I’ve been doing my 10 mile Cherry Blossom training and all my other workouts, which I’ll tell you all about in a minute!
On top of that, as I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been spending a lot of time eating out since I didn’t do my meal planning for the week. It’s crazy how going off-track for a few days can quickly have consequences. I’ve been really drained and tired…just not feeling my best self. I had quite a few blog posts and blog strategizing that I planned to work on that I put off since I just didn’t have the mental energy.
With all that said, let me tell you how I fared during Week 2 of Cherry Blossom training!
Monday 2/2: I ran 2 miles at an average pace of 11:35 after work. The wind was ridiculous, but thankfully it pushed me along to get this done (I was so tempted to bail).
Tuesday 2/3: Boot Camp Class. Ronnie really pushed us…lots of pushups, bicycle abs, deadlifts, squats, tons of upper body. I’m happy to still be able to handle 10 pound weights…I guess this is the new normal!
Wednesday 2/4: This was an extremely active day. Cardio Kickboxing at lunch, which was fun as always. I’m still working on keeping it lower intensity. Then after work I had my 4-mile hill run. Last week I did 30-second repeats, but this week I had to do 3 sets of 60-second hill sprints….it was hard, and on the third run I ran out of gas after 40 seconds. My overall pace for the run was 12 minutes/mile. And then after that, I had a practice Stair Climb for the American Lung Association. I finished around 13 minutes. It would have been faster if we didn’t start out crowded but at the same time…I had just finished a 4-mile run, so I’m very happy considering I have more than 6 weeks until the main event!
Thursday 2/5: I had a 2-mile run, followed by strides, which ended up taking me to 3.1 miles. It was another cold day but I really love doing strides…makes me feel like a little kid! I’m signed up to Laura of Mommy Run Fast’s 5 By the 5th Challenge! You have to run 5 miles or a 5K by the 5th of each month from February to May, and there are tons of prizes along the way. With my scatterbrained self, I almost completely forgot I signed up…but thankfully my strides were able to take me the distance!
Friday 2/6: At this point my body was really feeling all of the effects of an extremely active week. I was going to go to Cardio Kickboxing at lunch, but my body told me, no! So I listened. My knees and shins were bothering me too…so I was happy to give my body some rest.
Saturday 2/7: I had my 6-mile long run, average pace of 12:17. The first mile was really rough because we started running an icy trail that was impassable, so I had to walk a bit to prevent busting my butt! We ended up going a completely different route, so it was really nice to have a change of scenery. About halfway in my knees made themselves known, but I was able to finish. I know I need to get back into my hip strengthening exercises and make sure my form isn’t getting too sloppy on my long runs. The rest of the day I relaxed as much as possible and iced my knees for the first time in quite a while.
Sunday 2/8:
This week was really tough on my body and it was pretty much self-inflicted.
I’m glad that I was able to complete all of my training runs, but I did way too much, as you can see! I have to cut back on my Cardio Kickboxing, and maybe even eliminate it while training for this race. The jumping around, on top of everything else, is definitely taking its toll.
I also know that I need to focus on strengthening my hips and glutes…I have done so many of these exercises over the years but I can never commit to them. I need to treat these exercises like I do everything else, and really make them routine.
I’ve added a few more links to helpful exercises to my Injury Prevention for Runners Pinterest Board to make sure that I do what I need to do – definitely check it out! I need to add more links to work on my glutes…if only I could learn to activate them while running!
So for Week 2, even though I completed all of my runs, I did WAY too much. I give myself a B- this week. Moving forward I need to make sure I do all my post-run strengthening, stretching, and foam rolling…no excuses!
4 runs and 50 flights of steps....a very active training week! via @Janelle_RWNR #CUCB2015 #sweatpink #PYBCYE Click To TweetWhat are your favorite exercises for hips and glutes? If you’re training for a race, how has it been going so far?
