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!
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!
Saturday – Rest – lots happening
Sunday – 8.5 miles
Monday – Rest
Tuesday – 3 miles
Wednesday – 30 min yoga
Thursday – 5 miles
Friday – probably yoga later
Just a quick update today. Last Saturday, there was a lot going on so I never got a workout in, but I wasn’t too worried about it. The rest of the week rounded out OK. I had an eye appt in the morning, then later volunteered at an LLS fundraiser at Unleashed and finally went to a friend’s birthday party that night where I played laser tag for the first time (super fun btw)!
Back to the training, I was a little disappointed in Sunday’s run. It was nice enough to meet up with a friend at City Park for what I had scheduled to be 10 miles. We went out WAY too fast at the beginning (for me anyway). After I finished a loop and was only 8.5 miles in, I didn’t have anything left to go back around for another 1.5. I was happy I got that close – my legs were like lead weights.
Tuesday and Thursday more than made up for that though. Tuesday night I did those 3 miles on the dreadmill, but I’ve noticed my speed is increasing now and it felt comfortable. Thursday was an amazing, amazing run. I decided since the rain was supposed to hold off that I would run outside. I got my head lamp ready and headed out since it would be dark by the time I finished. I made the call in my head I would do at least 3, but aim for 5.
I started out pretty rough. I typically do for the first mile, but I pushed to keep running and not take any breaks. I settled into a good pace and managed to keep it level the entire time! I ran the whole 5 miles and not only that, of the 30 recorded Runkeeper runs I have for “4-6 miles”, it was my fastest ever with an 11:36 average pace! WHAT! Maybe it was the snow (yes, it snowed on me, on April 10th) or the empty bike paths and solitude but it was an amazing run last night and I’m so happy I kept pushing that pace.
I’ve worked out a new marathon training plan that will start in June, so until then I’ll keep up what I’ve been doing to maintain endurance and maybe pick the speed up even a little more. I’m gonna need all the cushion I can muster for MCM so I finish under 6 hours.
This week’s song is a new one, but I’m really into it. The video is weird, so maybe just listen to it instead of watch it…
I’ve begun to wonder if my knee pain isn’t from my hamstring. My IT band generally hurt to the lower left of my knee cap, however this time the pain is more in the back of my knee. I did OK during the Spartan Race because we only ran a little bit of the course through flat woods and walked the majority of it. The true test was Tuesday night when I did my next training run of 5 miles. From the get-go it was still sore, but better, so I decided to just see how I did. The switching from running to walking was tough and it almost hurt more when I would stop running, but it never got bad enough that I felt the need to just walk home. It’s been sore since then, but I’m icing/Advil’ing/stretching/rolling and generally taking it easy. I did OCF class Thursday instead of my second training run for the week so that gives me a sort of extended break until my next long run (6 miles) on Sunday.
This weekend is going to be a crazy one. Tomorrow morning, we have dentist cleanings and then the cats have their annual vet appointment. I have a few hours of down time and then the Carnivores Tour concert that night. I am debating not going to the concert, though, for reasons I’d rather not get into, so we’ll see about that. I do want to see the bands, so it’s a toss-up for me. Sunday, Tara and I might possibly be going on a training ruck/hike with some Unleashed friends to get me started on training for the GORUCK Light I signed up for in October (which I can’t remember if I mentioned before). I’m kind of really excited about that!
In honor of the concert tomorrow, you get a trifecta of videos today. One of my favorites from all 3 of the bands I will possibly be seeing tomorrow. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Tuesday – 1 hr Core Fusion & Stretch class at Unleashed
Wednesday – Rest
Thursday – Rest
Friday – Rest
I’m not gonna lie – this wasn’t a good week. Saturday was a very, very soggy 8 miles in the rain. And I don’t mean like a drizzle. It was pouring on me steadily the majority of the time I was running. I did it though, and only did it that day to rearrange my entire workout week. I had it planned down to a T, then it all kind of fell apart.
Saturday after my run I had a lot of hip soreness (which I always do), but my IT band was also bothering me on the other side (the bad IT band). I had my ice bath when I got home, popped some Advil and did my stretching and rolling right away, but it only seemed to get worse as the afternoon went on. I figured some sleep would help and when I woke up Sunday, it was still sore, but not as bad. I decided to chill out and see how Monday went before deciding on my next run scheduled, which was 5 miles.
Monday was OK so I went for my run after work. Apparently, it wasn’t OK. By the time I got back to my car to stretch, I could barely stand on it. Not cool. I decided then and there that I likely wouldn’t be running again until the Spartan race on Saturday, which was a bummer because I had rearranged my schedule so I could run in the Off Road Conditioning class on Wednesday. I suffered through work on Tuesday in a decent amount of pain anytime I put weight on my leg, but decided I would still go to a new class I wanted to try out Tuesday night because I thought it could be beneficial.
The class on Tuesday was Core Fusion & Stretch. It was basically 1/2 hour of core work and 1/2 hour of stretching – the majority of the hour was basically yoga poses we would hold for about a minute each. I’m not gonna lie, I was sweating my ass off even though we were “just stretching”. It was a very difficult class, for me personally, so I was glad it was only 5 women taking it so there were less people to see me embarrass myself.
It’s really hard for me to do a lot of floor work because of various issues I have and I always feel like people are judging me, like I’m not trying hard enough. The issue is that I know my body and I will NOT push through pain. Toughness, yes, I’ll work through something difficult, but if it hurts me to have my lower back against the floor, I just can’t do it. Do I want to do it, yes. Do I feel like a failure when my body won’t let me, yes. Are people really judging me? I’m sure they’re not – doesn’t change my mindset. Regardless, doing what I could, I still got a kickass workout from Bobby and am still sore two days later.
Aside from workouts, I’ve just felt “off” this week. Maybe it’s because my schedule got messed up and I got injured again. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s why. I’m a planner, and when things don’t happen according to plan, I get easily perturbed. Add into this mix that the air conditioning is broken at work (only in our one corner of the building on the third floor) and it’s been 88* inside for the last two days (and likely today too) and that makes for a cranky Courtney.
Saturday is my second of 3 Spartan Races for the year. I’m more nervous about this one than I was the first one for some reason. Maybe because I’ve actually run one now and know how difficult it can be? Who knows. I have some Battle Buddies ready to run with and am hoping they can help me over the walls like my friend Zak did at the first one. If I have to walk the whole thing because of my hip and knee, I hope they’ll still stick with me, but I’m going to try to run where I can.
Before I move on to the musical selection this week, I have a question for all the runners out there (if you’ve made it this far): if my Spartan Race is almost 5 miles on Saturday, but I’m supposed to do my long run Sunday of 9 miles, what would you do? Would you count the race as your tough workout of the weekend? Would you run the race Saturday and then run 9 on Sunday, or would you run 4 additional on Sunday to make the 9? I’m really torn about how to handle it and welcome any advice.
Now, to cheer me up a little, here’s a perky little number called I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker by Sandi Thom. Have a great weekend!
Social anxiety doesn’t make it easy to make friends. It’s not easy to go to group fitness classes. It’s not easy to go to races. I’ve written about it before, but this will be a different kind of post. This one will be about friendship.
Through my racing, I’ve become a tad bit more outgoing. I line up elbow to elbow with these strangers and you can’t help but talk to them sometimes. This always helps take your mind off the nerves, which I still get for every race.
When I started going to Unleashed, it was because a coworker and I were going to run Tough Mudder together and wanted to train properly for it. Group classes horrify me (and still do, to some extent) but I had this coworker to go with so I’d at least know someone. As time went on, things changed and she stopped coming, so it was either stop going or just suck it up and be brave to continue my training. I chose to keep training because I knew I needed the obstacle specific training they could offer me, unlike Planet Fitness.
As time went on, I got to know some of the “regulars” who I now consider my friends. I’ve been thinking about writing this update of sorts for a few weeks now, but two things happened in the last week that made me want to write it now.
Both of the cookouts we were invited to last weekend were by people from Unleashed. At the first cookout, we were all sitting around talking and I made some comment about not having family or friends in RI. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but it was something in the past that at the time I didn’t have people to do stuff with – not important. One of the women then said “well now you do” or something to that affect. It made me really happy, probably more than she realized at the time.
Yesterday, another friend made a Facebook status in the Unleashed Racing Teams group about how she’s never made so many new friends in her life (again, I’m paraphrasing). I totally agreed with her and told her as much – and I wasn’t the only one.
I’ve lived in RI for 10 years now. I’ve made more friends in the last 7 months than I had in that entire time living here. The anxiety hasn’t gotten much easier, but I’ve learned to deal with it better, and I have these new friends to thank for that.
As I mentioned before, I took last Friday off to spend a day with Tara while she was on vacation that week. We packed as much fun stuff into this weekend as we could. There’s so much, I’ll mostly let the pictures do the talking, but basically it went like this:
Thursday night – went for a run at City Park and Tara came along
Friday – went kayaking, mowed the lawn and then did some swimming before our grocery shopping
Saturday – helped at Unleashed tent at Samurai Sprint Mud Run for 4 hours, then drove up to MA to pick up Julie and head into Boston for Sarah McLachlan concert. We had dinner before the show at Jerry Remy’s and then walked around a bit. I practically had to drag Julie away once we found the tour buses.
Boston Strong!
Sunday – 7 mile run and lots of meal prep, plus we finally finished Orange Is The New Black season 2
Wednesday – 1 hr kettlebell workshop + messed around on obstacles a bit
Thursday – 4 miles
Friday – Kayaking + mowing the lawn planned for today
Busy, busy week! No real rest day to speak of because I decided to mix up my routine a bit and try some of another trainer’s classes at Unleashed. They were AMAZING! Monday was a regularly scheduled class, but Wednesday was a small group class that he put on just for a few ambassadors who had expressed interest in taking one of his classes at the open house, but we really didn’t have time. Totally worth the quad and glute pain I’ve had since Monday! It certainly made my runs on Tuesday and Thursday interesting, to say the least.
As for the runs, half marathon training is going right along by the plan. I was supposed to do 4 miles on Tuesday as well, but between my muscle soreness and the 88% humidity, my body wasn’t having it. I also had some stomach issues with these stupid protein drinks we’re on from the nutritionist. I did tell him we’re not going to be using the powder anymore once it’s gone. It’s just too nasty and too expensive.
So this class on Monday was a sweat fest! Below is a description of the class. The first 2 columns were done 4 times through, 30 seconds on, 12 seconds off. The last 2 columns were done I think 3 times through, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. It was super intense and tough, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Before I can go on, I need to share this video. I know everyone and their mother has posted about her all over social media, but in case you missed it, Kacy Catanzaro became the first woman to ever finish an American Ninja Warrior qualifying round. She then put on this amazing performance and made it through the Finals! She’s going to Mt. Midoriyama!! It’s so exciting to watch! I love this show so much and now have a super chick to root for!
As for an update on the nutritionist plan, well, I hate it. I hated it on day one. I hate it on day 6. I feel like I’m always hungry unless I just literally put food in my mouth 5 minutes ago. I’m really tired in the morning without my coffee and then when it’s bedtime, I (and Tara) have to get up like 2-3 times to pee in the middle of the night, which never used to happen until this week. I also can’t sleep well past 2-4am and then I toss and turn quite a bit. As I mentioned before, when the protein powder is gone, we’ll resort to just eating real food again, which is kind of what I wanted in the first place. The one positive of the week is that I’ve lost 7.5 lb since Sunday. This is not that big of a deal because this has happened with me before when starting a new type of diet. It’s mostly just water weight that comes off in the very beginning. What will be interesting to see is how it progresses over the coming weeks when it levels out, and I introduce more actual food into my diet again. I’ll keep updating, at least weekly here, if not when something else arises.
Tara and I will be going kayaking today. She had all this week off so I took one day to hang out with her and I just happened to pick the right day! The weather should be gorgeous and I can’t wait to hit the water.
I went local with this week’s song pick. This is a Providence band and I just love their sound. This was the first song I ever heard of theirs played on the radio and I still love it to this day. At the time, they were simply “The Rice Cakes”, but now I guess they go by Roz and The Rice Cakes. Who knows. Anyway, enjoy Yellow Fields!
Saturday was the big Unleashed Open House to celebrate their 1-year anniversary. The event went from 7-2 and had free demo classes every ½ hour all day long. It was a great way for people to experience all the different classes the gym has to offer, without committing to anything up front.
Nothing cuter than kids doing burpees
Why climb the rope by itself? Why not add a ruck filled with bricks?
Even the mayor came by!
There was a great turnout and the gym was buzzing all day. It was so busy that most of the ambassadors opted not to take any classes so we could continue to help out where needed, so I didn’t get to try anything out.
I got there around 6:15 to help set up and then they asked us to split up the volunteer duties for the day, so I said I’d start out with parking duty. The gym is in kind of a tricky location with multiple businesses in the area, so we needed to direct people to the lots they were allowed to park in. It wasn’t so bad early in the morning, but as the sun continued to rise, I was baking! Luckily, one of my friends had sunscreen so I didn’t get super burned. I ended up doing one more “tour” of parking lot duty, but then most of the rest of my day was spent roaming around wherever I could help (front desk, merch tent, etc).
We had several vendors on hand for people to check out, including several local race series. We got to try out some tasty local almond/peanut butters and a new fruit bar coming to the market. There was supposed to be some water company there, but I never saw them. We also had a chance to win a free race registration to BoldrDash, but I ended up spinning the wheel and won a sticker. The NE Spahtens were also representing so it was nice to meet a couple of the Facebook admin in person. Plus, my old buddy Vin from Perform Better was there, so it was really great seeing an old coworker and friend.
It was a long day on my feet, which I’m so not used to, so I was pretty wiped out by the time I got home, but it was totally worth it. I love my Unleashed family!
Saturday – Rest – spent most of the afternoon in the pool
Sunday – 5 miles
Monday – Rest
Tuesday – 4 miles
Wednesday – Rest – met with nutrionist & giving my blisters some healing time
Thursday – 4 miles
Friday – Most likely rest instead of tomorrow
Not the most productive week, workout-wise, but I’m pleased that I stuck to the half marathon training program that I’m following. I did the distance I was supposed to, when I was supposed to, and that’s my main focus right now. My issue is that I’ve now developed blisters, dead center, on the balls of both feet – probably about dime-sized. I’ve switched over to wearing only strictly hiking socks (either my Smartwool or Thorlo), plus I got some blister bandaids. Now, these suckers are supposed to be waterproof, sweat proof and last for days. I put them on Wednesday, went for my run Thursday after work, and they basically disintegrated in my socks. I’m actually kind of pissed because it’s almost like they melted INTO my sock – like seriously, there is a sticky residue all over my friggin’ expensive Thorlo socks and those bandaids weren’t cheap either. It was like $7 for a box of 6 bandaids! When I took the sock off, it was crumpled under my toes and had come off on it’s own probably halfway through my run because I could feel the blisters bothering me around that time but just kept going. It’s a good thing the Thorlos are padded because I think that helped me finish out my run. So yeah, I’m pretty pissed off and don’t know what to do next. Hence why I didn’t really do any cross training (which would have been elliptical).
In regards to that nutritionist appointment, I met with him after work to get more details on the plan he had worked up for us. He had emailed me two separate one-day meal plans, one for workout days, one for not, plus a list of food exchanges because I’m so picky and need alternatives for several things he has on the list (like fish, grapefruit, oatmeal, etc). I’m kind of bummed that’s all we got for $75 (discounted rate for Unleashed ambassadors), but we’ll see how it goes. We’re supposed to follow the one day plan he gave us for two weeks and keep him posted at the end of each of those weeks to see how we’ll progress. I guess at that point he’ll tweak it if necessary. We also will now be using protein powder so that should be interesting. He had given us a sample of a cookies and cream flavor (which is one of my fave ice cream flavors) and it’s not terrible so I think I can get used to it. I bought a jar of that and a couple of blender bottles as well. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted as to how it’s going and what happens after two weeks in case anyone is interested in seeing a nutritionist. I’m not sure they’re all the same, but who knows. I may end up eating my arms and not be able to type an update. That’s what dictation software is for, am I right?
I’m really excited for tomorrow as it’s the day of the 1 year anniversary open house at Unleashed! I’ll be there bright and early around 6:30 to get the day rolling and it goes from 7-2 if anyone local wants to stop by and try out some FREE demo classes. And not just obstacle classes – they’ll be offering all the others, too, like kickboxing, kettlebells, TRX, etc. All the ambassadors will be there helping out with the main tent and spotting people, but we also get to have some of the fun, too. I can’t wait to try out some different classes that I could maybe add to my repertoire. I’m sure I’ll have a post about that after the fact.
This week’s song was just randomly picked off my running playlist. Not sure if I mentioned it, but I’ve been listening to only podcasts lately when I run and it’s fantastic. I just listen for my audio cues from Runkeeper to tell me when to switch from run to walk, but other than that I keep getting enthralled listening to Nerdist podcasts. If you have any others I should listen to, please tell me!!
So anyway – this week’s completely random song is Little Talks by Of Monsters And Men. Have a great weekend!
Don't blink. Just run. 