This past week of training for the Rock ‘n Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon wasn’t a home run, but I’m still optimistic about the work I’ve been putting in as October 14 approaches!
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! Sara from Sara Runs This Town is this week’s guest host!
I’m also joining Courtney for her Weekly Training Linkup! Check it out and see all of the races fellow bloggers are training for this fall!
How was your week of working out? Join in the #weeklywrap! Click To TweetThis past week I was very fortunate to finally get some good self-care on the schedule! My sister had a guest pass for Massage Envy that she let me use so I made an appointment for a 50-minute massage on Thursday evening. It was my first time going to Massage Envy, and I have to admit that their “system” is a little bit different from what I’m used to. I filled out a form checking off the areas that I wanted to focus on – neck, shoulders, lower body, glutes. But when I met the therapist she said there wasn’t enough time to get everything I wanted, so I had to sort of pick and choose my priority areas. I’ve had plenty of massages where 50 minutes was enough time to do the whole body, so that really threw me off. And the therapist only does light to medium pressure massages. This time, I made sure to communicate that I wanted it as firm as possible. In any event, while the conditions weren’t perfect, I ended up having a pretty nice massage – my upper back had a few knots that she knocked out, and I did get some decent work on my calves and feet, though the glutes were skipped. I will definitely look at getting a membership at a different massage studio as soon as I can so that I can make it a monthly routine to make time for myself!
Friday night was a lot of fun. One of my local blogger friends, Chrystina, hosted a Badass Babes dinner with about 10 or 12 people. This was my second time attending one of her monthly dinners and we had delicious tacos, plenty of wine, and Ben & Jerry’s for dessert! We had a great time introducing ourselves, talking about anything and everything, and sharing with the group one thing that we’re working on. The conversations varied from silly to very serious. It was great to hang out with a group of really interesting, career-driven women, and to talk about things that all can relate to. Being terrible, I have no photos from the event (it was nice to be unplugged!), but believe me, it was a wonderful time! I also had 2 “adventures” getting into Center City from home on Uber Pool…can someone remind me to never sign up for that again, even if it does save a few bucks?
Monday 9/4: Rest day!
Tuesday 9/5: Fartlek run: 10 minutes warm up then 4 x 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy at a 9 out of 10 effort. It was warm and very humid, but I pushed as hard as I could! After the second interval I was really beat, but did my best to finish strong before cooling down to 4 miles.
Wednesday 9/6: A little strength training – some squats, bridges, and clamshells.
Thursday 9/7: Since I gave blood in the morning, I didn’t think it was a good idea to go for a run!
Friday 9/8: No workouts…my hair appointment took up most of my day!
Saturday 9/9: Another 10-mile long run, but this time with a twist: 4 miles at warmup, then 2 x 2 miles at 9:30-9:35 pace with 3 minutes easy, then finishing with a slow 2 miles. This was a really hard run for me, unfortunately. Apparently my goal half marathon pace isn’t as within reach as I thought because once I finished my first 2 mile interval, it was impossible for me to get under a 10-minute pace. But hey, I did my best!
Sunday 9/10: 4 recovery miles in the evening around the neighborhood. My hamstrings and calves were feeling tight and again, the knees weren’t too happy with me either. When I got home I did my Runner’s Knee prevention exercises including clamshells, side planks, and bridges.
This felt like a bit of an odd week. My runs didn’t feel as good as they did the previous week, even though the weather has been much cooler. I wonder if donating blood on Thursday sapped some of my energy over the weekend, but in any case, I’m glad that I challenged myself with the long run workout and didn’t give up! I wish I was able to go to yoga, but I just couldn’t squeeze in the time. And I should have done more strength training earlier in the week. But I don’t want to be hard on myself since it’s not really productive…so I’ll give Week 7 a B. I know that I’ll do a much better job this coming week! It’s my last full weekend before the Rock ‘n Roll Montreal Half Marathon, which is crazy! I can’t wait to see how that goes and of course share all the details!
What’s the last bit of self-care you’ve done for yourself? Have you ever taken Uber Pool?