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.
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!
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 – Julie’s bday celebration continued
Sunday – 10 miles
Monday – Rest
Tuesday – 3 miles
Wednesday – 1 hr kettlbell class at Unleashed
Thursday – 3 miles
Friday – Probably yoga
Sunday’s long run didn’t exactly go as planned. I met up with a friend to run in City Park but after snow/rain on Saturday and freezing temps overnight it was just sheets of black ice. We opted to run in the neighborhood surrounding the park, but it was so cold we couldn’t feel our hands, even with gloves on. We did one loop of 1.5 miles and called it quits. I later ran near my house in the afternoon and it was a like a totally different day – bright sunshine and temps in the 40s. It was an awesome feeling running outside again and I was able to get the remaining 8.5 miles in.
Tuesday I felt AWESOME. I had a strong run. I ran the fastest I ever have on a treadmill at the end and kept a consistently higher pace as well. Thursday, well, that was another story. After taking kettlebell class on Wednesday night, my legs were like jello. My quads and glutes are verrrry sore. This morning is even worse. Yay for day two of DOMS!
So anyway…that’s my training week. Outside of that, things are not going well. I want to talk about something, but am building up the courage to do so. Even if no one reads it, this is my blog after all. This is where I pour out my thoughts and feelings for myself, if no one else.
We were supposed to have a pretty busy weekend, but now plans have changed and just Saturday will be busy. I have a long run Sunday, hopefully outside with a friend, but we’ll play it by ear and maybe just relax the rest of that day and catch up on the DVR or something chill.
Here is this week’s song. Have a good weekend everybody!
Ohhh this week! It’s been interesting. Training runs done, that’s all I can really ask for.
I did my long run this weekend on Saturday to get it out of the way for a planned ruck with friends on Sunday. Originally, we thought Julie and Dan were coming down to hang out Friday night/Saturday, but they changed their mind. This freed me up to make that change with the run. I got home from it around 1pm and then found out they were coming down after all and just staying Saturday night instead. Woo hoo! We had a fun time! We watched the premiere Doctor Who episode again since Dan hadn’t seen it yet, checked out a new restaurant for dinner and had our first scorpion bowl (well, for me and Tara anyway) and then played Pictionary outside on the deck in the dark. It wasn’t as hard as it sounds because we have a patio umbrella light, plus candles. Very fun day!
Check out that carrot flower!
Sunday we just kind of lazed around with them and they took off around 10:30. We had plans to meet with friends for a hike at 4pm so we just kind of hung out until then. We picked one of them up around 3:30 and met the other one there, at Parker Woodland. I packed my full ruck (4 bricks, 100 oz water bladder) for training, as did the other women. Parker Woodland is the first place Tara and I had started hiking last year so it was nice to go back. It’s a nice little hike, but lots of rolling hills made rucking interesting. Afterwards, we booked it home, split up so we could get showered and changed and we all went to see Guardians of the Galaxy (finally!!!!). I loved the movie and had a great time, but one woman fell asleep and Tara said she didn’t like it. Oh well!
I had wanted Monday to be a relaxing day since it was the end of a busy long weekend, but nooooo. We ended up taking down the pool finally (it takes a few days to drain) and putting that away. I also re-caulked the shower/tub. Let’s not forget that summer decided to show up finally and it was near 90 with about 1000% humidity Sunday and Monday (and during this week). That wasn’t a great choice for doing manual labor.
I had a pretty nasty run Tuesday night. I headed out for 3 miles (can I get a woo hoo for tapering?!) and about 3/4 mile in I noticed my left thigh felt like it was chafing. Well, when I ran at 5pm it was still like 86* and ridiculous humidity so just thought maybe it finally caught up with me. I always wear compression shorts to avoid the chub rub, but you never know. I spent the next 2.25 miles fiddling with my shorts legs to see if I could situate them just right. By the time I got home I was in agony and knew I was going to have a mark of some sort. Turns out, the seam had finally given out (they were nowhere near new shorts) and there was a hole a little bigger than a quarter. So essentially, my left thigh had been rubbing the seam of my right thigh almost the whole run. I’ll spare you the picture, but I’ve got a mark about 6 inches long that is just pure, raw skin. I immediately went on Amazon and ordered a new pair that I had before my 3 miles last night, so all was right with the world again. Didn’t even notice the chafing while I had them on!
One more thing I just HAVE to talk about is Chik-fil-a. They opened their first store in RI and it just so happens to be about 5-10 minutes from my house, between home and work. I heard on Wednesday that people were already lining up for the grand opening on Thursday, so I took a detour on my way home to see these chuckleheads. I guess the first 100 people in line would all get 1 meal free per week for a year, so they were camping out. It was ridiculous. So here is a picture of their tent city.
This weekend I’ll be doing my first 5K with all 3 of my compadres – Tara, Julie and Dan. I’m really excited to do a race with them, even though we’ll likely be walking it. But hey, the race is in a zoo, so wouldn’t you want to walk anyway???
For this week’s song, I chose one that I’ve always found beautiful when I’ve heard it on Spotify, but never really paid much attention to it. I watched The Great Gatsby remake over the weekend and it made it even more haunting.
Decent week. I’m not overly psyched about it, but I put in some miles. My knee was really bothering me after the 10 miles on Sunday, so I brought it up at my chiro appointment on Monday night. I was concerned it was something other than muscle strain so she took a look and made me feel better by saying it was just my hamstring, no meniscus tears or anything like that. She then performed a little torture on me known as the Graston technique. Typically she just does ART with me, as well as adjustments, because she had told me before how painful Graston was and that the ART seemed to be doing fine. Well, she was right! It still hurts today from that! I should have run last night, but I decided since it still didn’t feel great and I have a 7 miler coming up this weekend that I’d just do a ruck/walk with Tara instead.
You mean you don’t go for a walk with a rucksack full of bricks and a head lamp?
So this week has been interesting. And shitty. And I’m glad it’s a long weekend.
First, and not a super big deal, but I missed my first blogiversary. Apparently my first post was 8/16/13. I knew it was in August and it was coming up, but for some reason I thought I started blogging later than that.
My iPhone battery hasn’t been holding a charge well in weeks. I had made an appointment for Sunday morning to go get it checked. When my schedule was going to have me running my 10 miles super early, I decided to change it to Wednesday night after work. Then on Tuesday, I found out that there was a recall on the batteries in both of our phones so we were entitled to free replacement batteries. We made an appointment for Tara right after mine and headed up there and were promptly told it would be an hour per phone. Booo. So, we decided we’d have a sit down meal at a restaurant in the mall and kill some time window shopping.
Apparently it was really easy to kill 2 hours because we headed back around 8:30 and they were already done (a little early). We headed home and were just about there when I got pulled over by a cop. My first instinct was I was pissed because I hadn’t been home all day and really had to pee. I knew for a fact I wasn’t speeding because I had literally just looked at a 35mph speed limit sign and I was doing exactly that. He pulled me over and shined his big ass spotlight right into my mirror so I couldn’t see anything, came up and asked for my license, registration and proof of insurance. I gave him all of the above, which I’d already gotten out. He then asked Tara (my passenger!!!) for her license. Then I got really pissed. I asked him why he pulled me over and he said my driver side headlight was out.
Now, to me it looked like I had two beams of light so I was pissed. He took forever checking shit out, came back, told us it was probably the bulb (DUH!!) and to get it replaced. As soon as we got home I got out of the car to look at it and it wasn’t even completely out! It was only dimmed, on it’s way to burning out! I was even more pissed about this because clearly he was just bored and itching to bother somebody. It still really pisses me off, especially about taking Tara’s license. What if she didn’t bring her purse? Or didn’t have a license? Was he going to cite me for having a passenger with no ID???
Add into this week that it’s end of month so work has been kind of nutty and our fax machines aren’t working so that makes it even worse because the orders aren’t coming in properly, which brings calls from pissed off customers. Good times. And they keep overbooking the amount of people out on vacation in our department so that’s annoying having to cover lots of extra stuff at the busiest time of the month.
Let’s end with a few positives. We’re having an ice cream sundae party in our department today. A friend of mine from the gym is going to install my headlights for me, saving me from paying $15 PER headlight to install them. And it’s a long weekend that I imagine will be full of fun. I know we have at least 1 hike planned with friends so far. And maybe, just maybe, I can convince Tara to go see Guardians of the Galaxy with me. Maybe.
I’ve been listening to a lot of 90s music on Spotify at work and this little gem came on the other day. I had a big thing for Third Eye Blind back in the day. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Wednesday – 1.5 mile ruck (ruck packed with 20 lb of bricks, 100 oz water bladder, foam yoga block)
Office workout Wed – 5 sets of 10 – 4 count flutter kicks and push-ups
Thursday – 5 miles
Office workout Thurs – 3 sets of 10 – 4 count flutter kicks and push-ups
Friday – Kayaking, possibly a ruck
You’ll notice I added in “office workouts”. I’m going to start keeping track of the stuff I do throughout the day in my cubicle. There are definitely not all done together, but throughout the day as time allows.
I’m very pleased with this week. Considering the pain that keeps happening during my half training, I’m glad I was able to get 3 full runs in this week. I’m a little concerned about my run this weekend which will be the longest of the training cycle – 10 miles. I’ve only ever run that distance once in April, but I also wasn’t dealing with these nagging injuries at the time (only the lack of endurance from them! LOL). After that, we’ll start going back down in distance until the race – only 3 weeks away now!
I took today off to spend with Tara, who has been on vacation all week. We’re going to go use our other Groupon we got for kayaking and then play it by ear. We have errands to do, but other than that, I might wrap my new “shiny” bricks and get a ruck in this afternoon. I borrowed a different rucksack from another friend (the one I used on Sunday for the hike) and after my run last night we stopped at Home Depot and got the bricks and some fun duct tape. Now I’ll have the exact weight I need to be carrying (4 bricks = 4.5 lb each = 18 lb) to practice with. It’s just a matter of finding the right rucksack now. Tara stopped by her parents house yesterday and also grabbed her brother’s army pack, but that thing is HUGE. I could fit myself, Tara and our 2 cats in there. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration. Either way, it’s far too big for this purpose.
Not much else to say on the week. Nose, grindstone, blah blah blah. For the song this week, this is one I’ve been debating putting up here for weeks now. I heard it on the way home from the run last night on the radio for the first time and decided I would finally pull the trigger and do it this week. Enjoy!
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!
Fitness this week:
Saturday – Yard work
Sunday – 7 mile run (1 hr 34 min)
Monday – Chiro appt
Tuesday – PT stretches
Wednesday – 30 min run/walk
Thursday – PT stretches
Friday – possibly a run later, or maybe just PT stretches because I’ll be having a pretty active weekend
Lilah didn’t want me to leave so she watched me walk away and waited for me in the front window.
I would say my first ever 7-mile run was a big success! I mapped out a route about 7.5 miles because I always include a 1/4 mile warm-up and cool down. I did the first half the way I mapped it out, but decided a second loop of it would be boring (even if I was going to be going in the opposite direction) so I changed it up – this may have been a mistake. I wanted to stay somewhat close to home, so the first time I went out I took the right bike path out of the neighborhood then looped around the main road and back in. It was at this point that I decided to switch it up. When I headed back around, I went down the left bike path and planned to loop around like I used to. I could have sworn when I used to do this loop that it was 3 miles, but somewhere along the line I got mixed up in how far I’d gone and how far I had left. No worries – I just ran the neighborhood streets until it clicked over to that magic number!
This is also where I had my first ice bath (sans actual cubes). I let the tub fill with the coldest water possible and then threw caution to the wind and stepped right in. That was the absolute worst part because my feet and ankles were instantly mind-numbingly, achingly cold! Once I had my feet in, sitting wasn’t so bad. Honestly, the whole of my legs and butt were fine (I do have plenty of insulation), but man did it hurt my ankles and toes! I managed to stay in for 10 minutes and I honestly think it helped with my recovery the next day. For the remainder of Sunday I had to kind of hobble around the house because my calves were *really* tight, but I put on a clean pair of calf sleeves and wore them for the rest of the day, plus slept in them, and I was mostly OK the next day! I don’t know if it was a combo of the new bigger shoes or the ice bath or what, but I was a happy camper (and so was my chiro Monday night at my appt).
I still need to do up a post about the chiropractor/shoe situation but I just don’t have enough waking hours in the day. I’ve got a rough draft, but I’ve also since replaced 2 more pairs of shoes (trail running and hiking shoes since I may use them this weekend) and kind of want to include those in there.
This week has been a really extreme weather week in New England and I’m not happy about it. Monday was close to 80 and then by Wednesday it had dropped to freezing and there was snow on the ground and cars when I got up!! It’s been really windy and chilly since then, but looks like the weekend might be nicer, near 60 and no rain. I’ll take it!
I’m planning on doing my Unleashed class tomorrow morning (instead of last night like normal) and then do a couple of things around the house. We plan on maybe taking a hike with Julie and Dan and then Sunday we’ll have Easter dinner at my aunt’s house.
My song choice this week is a Jack Johnson song that I love. He always makes me think “summer” when I hear his music, so I’m hoping to speed the nicer weather up. Plus he’s just got such a chill, mellow voice I could listen to him all day. Enjoy!
Don't blink. Just run. 