Rock ‘N Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon Training Week 1

I hope you had a great weekend!  I had a fun time with a quick getaway to DC, and now my first week of training for the RNR Brooklyn Half marathon is in the books!

Once again, I’m joining Hoho and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap!  It’s such a great linkup where dozens of awesome running and healthy living bloggers participate and share what’s going on in their active lives each week!

I’m also joining Courtney for her Weekly Training Linkup!

Weekly Wrap:  Empty Calorie Challenge Week 3

I did an awful job with the Empty Calorie Challenge this week.  There’s really no excuse that I can provide; I knew that Saturday was going to be an all-out “cheat day” because my sister was having a farewell brunch in DC and we were going to eat, drink and be merry.  But during the week, I was really disorganized and constantly on the verge of quitting the challenge.

Meal planning was too overwhelming and by Tuesday, I stopped writing down my meals altogether.  I didn’t prepare lunch for the week so I had to go for takeout at lunch from Tuesday through Thursday.  I always opted for healthy options, but I was definitely disappointed in myself.  Lunch continues to be hard; I can never come up with a good meal.  Any recommendations for go-to lunch recipes?

I had social events on Wednesday and Thursday evening and I did resist temptations for alcohol and junk food, so that was a win, at least.  But in those moments, I really wondered if being this miserable was worth losing a couple of pounds.  I still wonder if I’ll even have any positive results at the end of the challenge!

Oh, and another win was that I finally made those Superhero Muffins that everyone raves about!  They were really good, but not as sweet as I hoped, lol.  If I didn’t run out of oats, I’d make another batch!

ECC Week 3 Report Card

So what do you think my grade should be?  I’m giving myself a D.  This was a really tough week and I really had to be talked out of NOT quitting the challenge.  Saturday was pretty indulgent and I don’t have any regrets about it, so now that it’s out of my system, I’m determined to finish my final week of the empty calorie challenge strong!  I just need to take things a day at a time and stay focused, not get overwhelmed – it’s always my fallback excuse.  This time next week, I’ll be free again!

Workouts for the Week

Sunday 7/23:  Bret and I went for a morning run in the hood and made our way to the track.  Bret was really excited about running the track for the first time in years.  We ran 2 miles to the track then did a 400 and an 800.  Track work is much easier when you’re running with a group, at least it is for me!  Running the track solo was mentally challenging.  We ended up with a total of 4 miles.

Monday 7/24:  Run to the barre class!  I was the only one who made it to class due to the rain forecast…Megan and I ran the 1.8 mile loop from the studio followed by my own private barre class.  We started out with the longest planks of my life!  Then we had plenty of squats and lunges at the barre.  It was a really good workout for my core and inner thighs…phew!

Tuesday 7/25:   First official training run!  4-mile fartlek run: 10-minute warmup, followed by 5 sets of 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, then cooldown.  It was great to be back at it, even though it was a warm, humid evening!  I really needed the runtherapy!

Wednesday 7/26:  I made it to yoga class!  We spent a lot of time twisting and as always, the class went way too quickly!  It was definitely what I needed.

Thursday 7/27:  Rest day…I was supposed to run 4 easy miles but I had a busy evening after work and figured I could move the run to Friday.   Unfortunately, I ended up with a crazy pain in my left leg near my knee/inner thigh.  It felt like the muscles were bruised.  I iced it overnight…Bret had to help me because I couldn’t move.  It was unreal!

Friday 7/28:  The pain from last night was still pretty uncomfortable…I was worried about running so I only went to barre class.  I made sure to use care and put too much pressure on my inner thighs.  It was a good class and the arm workout was probably the toughest part of the class!  Once I was done with class, I spent the rest of the day icing my leg.

Saturday 7/29:  I finally had my 4-mile run.  Bret and I went out together and took it nice and easy.  Thankfully, I didn’t have any pain while running.  It was another humid morning but I was glad that we didn’t get as much rain as was predicted in our area.

Sunday 7/30:  We moved my long run to Sunday since we were spending the night in Washington, DC.  We were in the Dupont Circle area so we ran past Embassy Row to Rock Creek Park.  I didn’t take any pictures, as I we were moving at a good pace and I was anxious to just finish the run!  The only problem was that my knees did hurt after the run was over.  Doing my runner’s knee prevention exercises are SO important – thankfully, Laura has added them back to my training plan:  bridges, clamshells, side planks, half-squat walks, wall sits.

Glad to knock out 4 humid miles this morning in a quicker than expected pace! Forbidden Drive was so peaceful! Happy Saturday and happy running! #halfmarathontraining #sweatpink #RWNR #run215

A post shared by Janelle (@runwithnoregrets) on Jul 29, 2017 at 6:07am PDT

Week 1 Report Card

That surprise pain in my leg/inner thigh really threw me off my game.  My biggest lesson from my week of training is that I have to get back to prioritizing my runs and not going so hard in my cross-training workouts.  Thankfully, I’m feeling much better – so I’m hoping that that was just a one-time mishap.  My long run looks good from a numbers perspective, but I do wish I had taken it slower so that I didn’t feel like I was dragging the last couple of miles.  With all of that said, I’ll give Week 1 a B.  I can only go up from here, and I’m looking forward to it!

How was your week of working out?  Did you do anything fun this weekend?