Sunday, May 15, 2016

Weekly Workouts 5/9-5/15

Monday: This was not a good day. By the time I got to work, I was already cranky. There was no discernible reason - I was just in a bad mood. And it kept getting worse.
Some dance-cardio helped a little, and I was glad that I didn't just go home and lay on the couch like I wanted.

Tuesday: I was in a slightly better mood, but it seemed by Tuesday that this was just going to be one of those weeks that was hard every day. Elizabeth and I changed up our routine and ran bridge repeats. The local Fit2Run was doing their speed work group run on the bridge, so our plan to fully run it four times changed; we ran it fully once (two ascents, two descents) and then just ran up to the top and back down a couple more times. Our paces were solid (in the mid-9s), and our warmup and cool down were appropriately moderate. Overall, this was a good run that left me feeling exhausted in a good way!
After we got back to the car, we did a little upper body to cap it off.

Wednesday: I created a core circuit based on different exercises I've seen floating around Instagram. We did each move for 30 seconds and the circuit was a perfect 5-minute flow. We repeated it four times and I was surprised that I was literally dripping sweat! I guess good core work is a good full-body workout, too!
Our circuit consisted of 4 plank variations, 5 leg-raise type exercises, and jumping jacks.
Thursday: Rest. I was in the office all day working with our CRT Elisa, and that meant a lot of speed-walking around campus. My calves were really sore afterward!

Friday: 5.25 miles with Elizabeth in my new shoes. For the first couple miles my calves were like rocks; they warmed up eventually, but my legs were heavy and sore the entire time. I was impressed with our paces considering all that, and that we went over our planned distance despite it. I guess Thursday's office activities are to blame for my legs...and the fact that this whole week was just kind of blah.
Saturday: Much-needed rest. My left calf was absolutely killing me. I foam-rolled and had Matt massage it, but it was still sore all day.

Sunday: We set out for 8-10 miles and did 7.6. Although my calf warmed up and felt good by mile 2 (after we detoured into some construction to use the porta-potty), it was just so humid and hot that we decided to call it early. Neither of us is training for anything so we have the freedom to make our long runs fit our mood, and Sunday was one of those days that needed to be cut short.
After a nap, I met Matt and his paddling friends for brunch and refueled with ceviche and a Bloody Mary.
Next week is going to be weird. I'm tapering for a 5k (because I actually want to race it, and after this business with my calf I want to have very fresh legs) and we have some after-school things that will interfere with our plans. That's good, though. It gives us a chance to have a cutback week!

ABK

14 comments:

  1. Sorry you had a blah week. You did a good job on your circuit workouts.

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  2. That core circuit sounds right up my alley! I love hard workouts like that. Cute picture of cardio dance! I agree that the nice thing about not training is you get to cut runs short if you want.

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    1. The cardio dancing pictures made me laugh when I flipped through them...they caught a lot of awkward action!

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  3. I am glad you are doing weekly workout recaps! I do like to see what my friends are up to!

    Sorry your week was blah. :( I didn't have a very good work week either and I am absolutely DREADING tomorrow. I am actually dreading every single school day left (13.5)... yes, I'm counting.

    What is up with your calf? Any idea why it revolted??

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    1. I have a guess. I was in the office on Thursday walking all day in non-supportive shoes - more than I do in the classroom - and I think that started it. I also buy my shoes 1.5 sizes large but the new Kayanos have a longer toe-box and I think the distribution of the weight/extra space caused some strain. I'm returning them for half a size down, so hopefully that'll nix the problem. I'm glad my calf was feeling better by early on Sunday's run!

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  4. Ouch! I hope your calf is feeling better soon!

    I don't eat seafood, but that ceviche looks really good!!

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    1. I actually couldn't decide on what to eat and texted a friend, "should I have a lobster-stuffed pepper or ceviche?" and she goes "they both sound gross!" I forgot she hates fish!

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  5. My Monday was absolutely awful as well... the rest of the week was better but not easy. I heard something about a number of planets being in retrograde... I don't follow astrology but that might be why so many people were having a hard time!

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    1. I don't follow astrology either but sometimes I think the moon does control my students, so I can buy into it once in awhile. I hope you're feeling better!

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  6. Awesome job Ali!!!Try and enjoy your taper week!

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  7. When I'm not training for anything I rarely do a long run over 5-6 miles.

    I'm not quite sure what is happening right now. I'm not actually signed up for the next race (I hate that!), and I thought it would be Oct, but there's a possibility of a race in July -- we gotta decide because if I do a half in July I gotta keep up with the long runs! Otherwise I'm dropping my mileage back down for a while.

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    1. I like to keep my "not training" long runs around 8-10 miles so that it's really easy to build back up when a race comes up, but I love having the freedom to cut a run short if I'm not feeling it!

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