Friday – Shoulder PT + 90 minutes of Freestyle Friday at Unleashed
Saturday – 6.75 mile hike
Sunday – Yard work, moving furniture and cleaning around house for a few hours
Monday – Packing and moving
Tuesday – Shoulder PT + 30 minutes yoga, 4 mile ruck and 45 minutes lifting
Wednesday – Shoulder PT + Rhode Runner Blackstone Blvd 5K
Thursday – 1 hr kickboxing
This week was kind of a blur, what with Memorial Day and all. It was also a short week for me because I have today off to head up to VT with friends to run Infinitus.
The moving and packing was to help Tara’s parents out. They are moving, along with her brother, to VA in about a week, so we had some extra furniture we no longer wanted that they are taking and then helped them pack up their POD with their own stuff as well. All that on Sunday and Monday was plenty of a workout for me so I didn’t do anything additional. I also hurt my back at Freestyle Friday trying to dump a 60 lb sandbag off my ruck, but it caught and basically snapped my spine backwards…so yeah – OUCH.
With my knee still tweaking a bit and my back not 100% recovered, I’m not running the race tomorrow. I’ll be bringing my ruck instead and hiking it. I found a couple of friends who also aren’t running so I won’t be alone, which is nice. My other friends are doing the 88k (I’m doing 8k) so I’ll be hanging by myself a lot of the time in the tent I’m sure.
I’m excited to spend the weekend in the woods. From what I’ve heard, there may not be any cell service up there, which could be kind of nice. We’ll see. I think it will be nice to disconnect a bit.
This week’s song is in honor of the mountain I will be climbing tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
Friday – 30 min yoga + office workout (shoulder PT + no ruck: 200 squats, 100 push-ups, 50 4-count flutter kicks)
Saturday – Abington Police 5K
Sunday – 30 min yoga
Monday – Rest (Technically a rest day. I did walk a couple of miles with a friend but didn’t track it-probably about 2 miles. I also did shoulder PT.)
Tuesday – 3 miles + 1 hr lifting + office workout (shoulder PT + no ruck: 100 squats)
Wednesday – 30 min yoga + did 1 hr yard work w/ ruck on + office workout (shoulder PT + with ruck: 150 squats, 50 push-ups)
Thursday – 30 min yoga + shoulder PT
This week’s training to me was just meh. I worked as hard as I could, but I should have run yesterday and didn’t because my body is being mean. I’m in pain 24/7 regardless of whether or not I’m working out. Moving around and being active does help, but still…it gets old. I have a virtual race tomorrow that I’m doing with some friends at Fells Reservation in MA for Racing 4 Valor. I get overexcited and inspired by them and I signed up for the half marathon distance, but didn’t take into account that it’s on trails, not road, and I haven’t properly trained for the distance like I did for my first half last year. I’m pretty sure I’ll be dropping down to the 10K, but I’m OK with that (mostly).
Outside of that, we’ll be spending some time with Tara’s family this weekend. They’re moving to VA in a couple of weeks so she’s trying to see them as much as possible while they’re here. I’ll grill, we’ll have a nice fire, even some s’mores. It should be a nice weekend.
While it’s nice to have a long weekend and everything, please remember what Memorial Day is about – those who made the ultimate sacrifice, for us.
I don’t really have a whole lot to say today, so here’s your song for the week.
Yesterday, I ran the Abington Police Community Partners 5K in my hometown of Abington, MA. Since I started running 3 years ago, this is only one of two races that I have run all 3 of those years. Not only do I love running it because it’s in my hometown, but they made a beautiful little course out of it.
Tara and I did what we typically do and stayed at Julie and Dan’s house on Friday night. They only like about 10-15 minutes away from Abington so it’s really nice to be able to sleep in a bit before heading to the race. Unfortunately, we didn’t get in until around 8:30 Friday night so I missed the early bib pick-up. This meant leaving around 7:00 to get my bib when they started giving them out at 7:15. In hindsight, I could have left a little later, but it worked out fine.
Once I got my bib, we just hung out in the car for a while to stay warm. It wasn’t super cold out, around 60ish degrees, but very cloudy so it wasn’t super warm either. The rain held off, so I was happy about that.
I had two goals going into this race: 1. Not to walk at all and 2. Keep a steady pace.
#1 shouldn’t have been an issue, but there is one hill on Centre Ave that always forced me to walk it. #2 was a general rule because I tend to get swept up in the pace of those around me and if I start out too fast, I never get into a proper rhythm.
The course starts out in front of the police station, loops by the junior high, through the cemetery, back out to the police station right around the halfway mark then loops around Island Grove back to finish at the station.
I am very pleased to say that not only did I meet both of my goals, but I set ANOTHER new 5K PR. I had told you I just set a new one a few weeks ago at a different 5K, but I now have a new one again! I’m super excited!
That is the face of a very happy Courtney right there. I refused to look at my watch the entire time I ran because I didn’t want to get thrown off by it at all. I maintained a comfortable, but pushing, pace and figured I’d let the chips fall where they may. Not only did I set my new 5K PR, but I also beat my best time at this race by almost 2 1/2 minutes! And at the end, they had cupcakes with glitter on them. Glitter!
I’m still riding the high off of this race since yesterday. I know that I can push myself out of my comfort zone and even though some days I don’t feel like I’m doing enough, I know everything I’m doing is helping make me better.
Friday – 2 hours of getting my ass kicked at Freestyle Friday
Saturday – Rest
Sunday – 5 mile run + 3 mile ruck
Monday – 30 min yoga + office workout (shoulder PT, 50 push-ups, 50 squats)
Tuesday – 3 miles + 1 hr lifting + office workout (w/ 35 lb ruck: 50 push-ups, 100 squats, 30 lunges + shoulder PT)
Wednesday – 30 min yoga + 1 hr yard work w/ 35 lb ruck + office workout (shoulder PT, Without ruck: 50 4-count flutter kicks, 50 russian twists w/ 30 lb plate, 50 leg pull-ins. With ruck: 100 squats)
Thursday – 30 min yoga + 5 miles + office workout (shoulder PT and 50 push-ups)
I’m really turning up the training intensity now. I only have a couple more weeks until my GORUCK Challenge and I want to be more ready than I was for the last one. Most of these workouts are split into morning and evening and I really like getting in some extra stuff in my cubicle at work as time allows. Usually, the stuff I do at work, is in sets of maybe 10 or 25 in between phone calls and orders so it’s not like a straight workout. Every little bit helps, right?
I feel like I’m not in a very “write-y” place today and don’t have much to say. I have a race tomorrow in my hometown (1 of only a few races I’ve never missed since I started running) and am looking forward to it. I think on Sunday I’m going to try to de-clutter/spring clean the house. Closets seem fuller and I need more organization in my life. We’ll see how that goes. I want to purge whatever possible out of the house.
I just randomly heard this song while looking through the new releases on Spotify and liked the lyrics. Hope you enjoy – have a great weekend!
This week felt like a horror show in terms of training. Saturday, I volunteered to work the Unleashed tent at BoldrDash on the Beach – an OCR that I ran last year. I was there from 8am until around 2:30ish and planned on doing my run for the weekend when I got home. Let’s just say it turned into a rough afternoon. While I still got out there and did 5 miles, it was a shit show. I had to walk A LOT and nothing felt right. I couldn’t get my breathing and my hips were bothering me tons.
Sunday I traveled to Amherst, MA to cheer on my friends as they ran the 7 Sisters Trail Race. So while it was technically a rest day, we were standing/walking around quite a bit. It was beautiful up there and I think I’m putting it on my list for next year, even though I watched people cringing as they crossed the finish line.
Monday, I ran after work. Just an easy 3 miles. Well, it was anything but easy. That annoying twinge in my hips from Saturday turned into actual pain in my bad (right) hip that has been bothering me all week now. This is the same hip I strained when I first started running that sidelined me for months. I’m much more careful about listening to my body now, so I just stretched and rolled on Tuesday.
Wednesday, I had a pity party. The day went to hell and I’m started to get PMS-y (sorry if TMI) so I said screw it and just hung out in bed for the night. Thursday, I got back into things and did the kickboxing class. Oh the fun we had!! Our trainer is getting married tomorrow so I made a playlist just for this class with fast paced, wedding-themed songs. It was SUCH a good time!
Tonight, I’m going to hit up Unleashed for Freestyle Friday. We’re going to put together some GORUCK training since we now have less then one month (!!!!) until the event. I got my new steel plate on Tuesday, so it should make it easier to carry instead of bricks. I also ordered an actual GORUCK ruck that I hope gets here soon so I have time to break that in as well.
Not much to say about this week’s song choice. I just really like the song. Enjoy it and have a great weekend!!
I had a GREAT week of workouts. I’m pretty psyched about that. Like I mentioned in this post, last Friday I had a new PR on the weighted sled push. That night, my friend Amy and I planned to run the next morning. I usually run on Sunday mornings, but I like having the company so we arranged to run early before the plans that both of us had on Saturday. It was a beautiful day for a run!
Afterwards, Tara’s parents came over to celebrate her dad’s birthday. We went for a short hike and then I grilled us up some burgers for lunch. We had a nice visit.
Sunday I barely moved because I was so sore from Friday and Saturday. It was definitely a well deserved rest day. Monday, I still wasn’t feeling it, so I just did some yoga to work things out and loosen up. Now let’s talk about those Tuesday and Wednesday runs!
Tuesday was just a regular 3-miler, nothing fancy. I didn’t know when I set out, but I felt pretty strong and ended up running faster than I thought and set a new 3 mile PR. Wednesday I met up with some teammates to run the free 5K put on monthly during the warmer months by Rhode Runner in Providence. It was a beautiful night for it. I came straight from work and just enough time to find a parking spot, run to the tent to get my bib, meet up with my friends and ended up stretching once we lined up to start! Not how I like to start a race.
The race isn’t on a closed course, but essentially doesn’t meet up with much traffic. It is just an out and back along a (mostly) gravel path in the middle of two one way streets. We had to cross a few streets, but not busy ones and it was never an issue as the cars basically had no choice but to yield to the throngs of runners coming at them. I knew I started out WAY too fast and couldn’t get my breathing under control. I tried to slow it up, but it’s been a while since I’ve actually raced and running with other people always makes me go faster.
So what happened? I set a new 5K PR!! My old one has stood for a very, very long time. My new time, 33:14, will be my new standard to go by as I continue to improve. I couldn’t ask for better people to celebrate it with, either.
My hip was a little tweaky on Thursday from back to back running (not to mention faster than normal) so I was a little hesitant to go to kickboxing last night. I decided if the kicking bothered me too much, I’d punch more and just see how it went. My hip actually cooperated for most of it and I didn’t have any issues, except with my shoulder. I couldn’t hold high planks or do burpee punches, so the trainer modified for me. He absolutely smoked us in that class. There were 5 of us and we’d all done the class plenty of times, so he decided since he didn’t have any newbies he’d challenge us. It was awesome!
After kickboxing last night, I met my friend Katie and some of her friends to see the new Avengers movie. I didn’t get to bed until a few hours ago, but it was totally worth the lack of sleep. I would definitely recommend it if you’re into those movies.
Tonight, I’ll probably take it easy and do some more yoga. I’ve got a busy weekend ahead. I’ll be helping out at the Unleashed table at the BoldrDash on the Beach OCR tomorrow and then Sunday I’m tagging along to cheer my friends on that are running the 7 Sister Trail Race. It’s gonna be busy, but fun.
I’m obsessed with this week’s song. Much like I became obsessed with Take Me To Church last year when it was first released, every time this Hozier song comes on I crank it up. I don’t know what it is about that man. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Don't blink. Just run. 