Week off running

After my half marathon, I took the week off running. I'm not sure I've taken a week off this year. I've been training pretty hard, so week off it is. I didn't run. I ate junk. It was awesome.

I thought I'd miss running or get antsy without running or moving, but I didn't. (Should I have done some yoga or cycling? Probably. But I was too tired.)

Sunday: Off. I spend most of Sunday traveling. Saw a waterfall. Took a ferry to Victoria Island. (Ate french fries)

Flight back to Atlanta

Bland tacos. Worst tortilla chips ever. LAX.

So tired.

Monday: Off: All day in airports. (LAX does not have good food or enough chairs. Ate a Chick Fil-A sandwich at 10 p.m.)

Tuesday: Back at work. Fell asleep as soon as I got home. (Brought home tacos for dinner to make up for the AWFUL LAX tacos)

Wednesday: Was supposed to lead a trail run. It started lightning. I didn't even get the water out of my car. (Ate Oreos)

Thursday: Off. Went to an event to rep Athens Road Runners. (Ate cookies). (Lunch had fried chicken tacos. Sooo good.)

Friday: Off. Went to a Ladies Night at the local running store. Bought two shirts and some pink socks. (Had Chick fil-A with waffle fries and Chick-fil-A sauce as my cheat. Also ate a donut. And two ghost cookies.)

Saturday: I decided my legs were probably getting really stiff, so I ran one mile to end my week off running.
My legs felt 100% fine on my short run. But afterwards, they felt like crap. Whatever lactic acid etc had been building up in my legs was awful. I soaked my legs in epsom salt twice. I rolled. I got on the exercise bike. I rolled and stretched some more. I also napped a lot. I had big plans for Saturday, but my body wanted sleep.

Workouts this week: July 17-23

Back to running

I was reading a running book, Run the World, and the author, an elite runner, takes two weeks running off every year. And that made me feel better about my running back. I needed it.

Monday: OFF
My official weekly off day.

Tuesday: Run

I was really hesitant to go back to running. Should I take another week? Would I make things worse? But I got up and ran before work. The plan was to run 1 mile. 1 mile was fine, so turned into 1.5 mile and that was fine, so I ran .5 mile back to my car.

IT WAS FINE. No pain

Also, went to yoga class after work. I did a headstand and fell out of it and startled the teacher. Oops. I was over confident and didn't set up for it. I was fine!

Wednesday: Exercise bike at home
Exercise bike and abs at home.

Thursday: Morning run

I upped my miles to three before work today. And it was fine! No pain. Hooray. I even made it to work on time.

PM: I had planned on going to yoga or an abs class at Ramsey, but I had to work late and Matt had an appointment. So instead, I worked late and then went home and did 20 easy minutes on the exercise bike, some abs, and 10 minutes of rolling.

Friday: Yoga
I went to yoga at Ramsey.

Saturday: 4.5 miles

I got up early and had the trails to myself. (The goal was to finish running before it got too hot and humid.)

After my run, I run into my boss. I ended up walking .5 mile as a cool down with her and her super cute dog.

No pain.

Sunday

After three runs with no pain I was feeling overconfident and went out to run 5 miles off trails.

At mile 3, my shin started feeling bruised. I ran anyway and my shins didn't feel great afterwards. I don't think I'm quite ready to run on consecutive days. Now I know.

Yoga
Went to Sunday night yoga class. This class was focused on the lower back.

Runs this week: 4
Miles this week: 14.8
2 yoga classes plus some exercise bike

Workouts this week: April 2

Sunday: Recovery
My calves are shredded. My right one especially. I can't walk right.

This is what it's like to race hard. I haven't done that in forever. Not sure if it was running the longest race of my life, running on pavement. Matt think it was running in new shoes. I had 20 miles on them. They were comfy. They were also racers with no support. Either way my calves are awful. I spent most of the day stretching, rolling them out, massasging them, using a back massager on them.

I saw a Facebook post for Runner's Recovery yoga at Athens Running Company for a $5 donation. So I went there. I wasn't sure what to expect.

It was a small class, maybe 6 people. The class lasted an hour and 15 minutes. It was very similiar to the yoga class I take at Ramsey, with some leg stretches like they do at the end of Pure Barre thrown in. (Calve stretches with a strap.) I liked meeting some of the other runners.

I liked it okay. Definitely an option for when there aren't classes at Ramsey (which I've already paid for.) I like that it's earlier in the day.

Monday: BodyPump
I did BodyPump to make up for missing it Sunday. My calves were still sore but the class was fine. (I went easy on lunge weight. I suck at lunges.) I stuck around to use the vibrating plate machine for my calves. I had to wait FOREVER while some skinny dude did calf raises off it. (Yes you can use anything else to do your workout!). Just to use it for 60 seconds. But that's what I needed. It melted the tension out of my calves.

I was going to run a mile after class, but didn't. Laziness.

Tuesday: Run day
I was supposed to run before work, but was sleepy and it didn't happen.

I did run on my lunch instead. The goal was slow miles, maybe 9 minute miles as recovery. I tried to run slow. Didn't look at my watch. I did have to walk a lot. After the run I look at my splits and I'm still running 8:18s. My first mile was 7:40. So I have two speeds: 8 minute miles and sprint. To get in a slower gear, I have to run for a really long time. It's hard to find that slower mode that I should be running in.

That evening I ran an extra 2 while I ran/walk and scouted the course for this weekend.

Wednesday: Home workout
I was going to go to gymnastics, but it was canceled because of severe weather in the area. I went home and did some exercise bike, arms and abs. It's always amazing to me how much free time I have when I don't go to the gym.

Thursday: run
I ran 3 slow miles after work. My calves are still tight and I felt some bad twinges at the end of my run. Ow.

Partial rainbow.
Apparently there was a double rainbow over the Coliseum. 

Friday: off
I took today off. We went to my inlaws and did our taxes. We owe the government $800. Sadness.
We always owe. We both claim 0 and we always owe. I don't know who actually gets refunds. Not us. Ever. I was hoping it would be less, but it wasn't.
My mother-in-law made me a turkey burger, which was nice.

Also, my mom and sister came to lunch with me (belated birthday lunch). I had about five french fries and one section on a nutella and banana quesadilla, which was warm and gooey and amazing. (Sugar, I miss you!)

Saturday: Race day
There was a race across the street from my house so I decided to run it. And hoped to be done before Matt woke up. I knew he'd tell me it was a bad idea to race on consecutive Saturday. (Races 2 and 3 of my adult life.) And it was, but oh well. (I paid for this the week after)

Will do a separate race recap.

Workouts this week: 7
Runs: 4
Miles run: 15.58
1 yoga class, 1 body pump