Let me just start by saying that while I don't necessarily buy into the whole Punxsutawney Phil thing but if we are set to get an early spring this year I won't be mad! I'm sick of these mid 20s to low 30s temps especially in the mornings. If the sun is up, it should be warm damn it! Now I'm looking at those temps for Tuesday and Thursday but possibly high 40s for my long run on Saturday! If you remember from last week's post I said I was adjusting my long run and recovery run again for this week so I should be doing 6 miles on Saturday and 3 miles on Sunday but let's see!
REMINDER OF WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO
WEEK 4 SUMMARY
TOTAL MILES: 14.83
TOTAL TIME: 3h 51m 47s
Day 1 - Rest Day
I had every intention of doing some sort of stretching or yoga however I ran into a hiccup when it came to filing for my unemployment. Long story short I had to do a video call that gave me a wait time of 54 minutes and I proceeded to wait for 3 hours and 50 minutes. I thought I was going to be playing time chicken. Was I going to have the call done before I had to leave to get my kid at 3:35pm? I started the wait time at 10:06 and finally talked to someone at 1:56pm. I was angry and really wanted to run but at that point I was so tired I just said nah!
Day 2 - 3 miles + hills
You might be a little confused looking at the picture right. I'm holding up 4 fingers meaning 4 miles but was only supposed to do 3 miles. Well including the warm up walk down this hill in the picture, the 3 mile run, the 5 minute cool down, and the 8 x 20 second repeats, I came in at 4.17 miles. This was after I got back to the top of the hill where I initially started the whole day. I have to say, I love this trail. This time of year with all the trees still being bare, it is beautiful. I enjoy it so much that I never remember to take pictures while I'm out! You can't really see it but down the hill from the big pole behind me is a sign and I'm fairly confident that I started all of my repeats at that sign. If I didn't, then I did for at least 6 out of the 8, not sure about the first two.
Day 3 - Unplanned Rest Day
Absolutely nothing kept me from doing my workout. I had planned to do a walk outside but was too cold so decided to do it as a warm up before the live strength class at 6pm but then we started eating dinner around 6pm and I thought I would do it after dinner and then just ended up in bed.
Day 4 - 4 miles
It was 50 degrees outside when I was getting ready for my run. I put on shorts and a t-shirt. The moment I stepped outside, the wind blew and I immediately started regretting my clothing choice but I went with it anyway. Including the warm up and cool down, I ended up doing a little over 4.5 miles. I did create a workout on my watch for this run and decided to try using the pacing option. I wanted to keep the pace between 14 and 15 minute mile. Any mileage that doesn't have a specific workout (like hills, speed, etc) are supposed to be done at an easy pace and I'm still working to find that easy pace some days. I liked that if I went faster then my watch beeped at me and told me I needed to slow down however it also told me that if I was at exactly a 14 min/mile. I ended up not hating life in my clothes but definitely hopped back into the car as soon as I could! Funny thing was driving home, I had the AC blowing on my face but my seat warmer on to keep me warm since I was soaked in sweat!
Day 5 - 45 minute Full Body Strength
I went into this workout super excited. It has been awhile since I've done one of Rebecca's strength workouts with weights. I loved the variety of weights I was able to use. What I wasn't ready for was the fact that this class could be added to her 5 Day Split program. I kept up and pushed through all of the moves. I liked how we alternated between a lower body exercise and upper body however...
This was the look on my face post AMRAP. I did 1 full round without weights but here is why. The AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) was 4 minutes to do 3 human makers (watch this), 3 squat jumps, and 6 sit ups. Here's the problem. I don't have great core strength so getting sit ups in for an AMRAP is damn near impossible if I don't have my toes secured under something. Also, I'm working on regaining my upper body strength so the human maker was being done on my knees. I cannot put too much pressure on my left knee still from tripping in November. Still have a bone bruise there so it makes doing a lot of things from the knees difficult and painful.
Day 6 - Rest Day
When you wake up with a migraine the last thing you want to do is run. I ended up sleeping in until about 11am. It didn't help the headache but around 12:30pm we ventured out to the park and it tried to rain. I took my daughter out for lunch at iHop and then we spent about an hour at the library and got some of her favorite Fly Guy books. I swapped my long run to Sunday because my husband had one last weekend for duck hunting season so I missed out on the 3 mile run I was going to do.
Day 7 - 6 mile long run
Do not let that smile fool you. I hated every moment of this run. I did not want to do it on the treadmill at all but the rain just didn't stop until it was way too late in the day to go anywhere and I frankly cannot run that many laps in the neighborhood without losing my mind! I listened to some of my playlist and then I think I tried to listen to some of my audiobook but this run just felt so long! I did enjoy the scenic run that I chose off YouTube. It is a trail from back home in Washington. I've never hiked that trail but it was fun to run it virtually. Definitely one that I'll keep on a playlist for when I have to run on the treadmill.
WHAT'S ON DECK FOR NEXT WEEK: The biggest thing is my kid spiked a fever on Sunday so as long as she doesn't miss any school then we should be fine. I'm now at the point where I will be following the mileage listed in the training plan now and not making any adjustments. Weather could be a factor but I hope not. My daughter also has early dismissal on Friday since the 19th is a holiday so I'll try to get my strength done before I pick her up.
