Workouts this week: March 5

Sunday: Reluctant run
I couldn't decide whether or not to run today. I put it off and put it off and looked for every excuse NOT to run. But did anyway.

I ran hills at the botanical garden. (Meaning I ran the hilly trails. I didn't actually run hills like we did in high school. Ugh!) And I actually had a good run!

Despite being the third day in a row I've run. (I never do this.) I ran a minute faster on this route than last time. I walked twice (instead of 6 times). I felt so much stronger. That hill up from the river is brutal and I went from a 14 minute pace to a 9 minute pace. I walked a few steps at the very top (it never ends) and then once more. But that one big hills is it. Can I run it even faster next time? It just felt so much better than last time. I'm glad I ran. And it's kind of awesome that I CAN run three days in a row. THANKS LEGS.

Monday: Pilates
It's spring break in my college town so no Ramsey classes for me. The students are gone. So I went to noon pilates. Which was probably good for me. My quads are tired. I'm tired. I died in the class. I couldn't hold my plank (and I have been neglecting my abs). I needed to do some abs. And I needed an easy day.

Bathroom selfie. Thought this mirror made me look young. 

Skipped my evening run. Went and got curry at a cheap sushi place instead. (Cheat day!) Saw the university swim coach there. Haha

Tuesday: Lunch run through campus
I NEVER run on pavement. Ever. I had horrible shin splits as a teen and always attributed this to running on the pavement. Now I run on the trails or track. And that's it.

HOWEVER, I signed up for a 6.5 mile run on pavement. I wanted to be able to see if I could do it. So I ran three miles of that course on my lunch break (the other 3.5 miles of the course is in the ghetto and isn't safe to run by myself.) I've never actually run through campus before. Even though I've been on campus for over a decade.

The run wasn't easy, but I persisted and had some pretty good times. And since I train so much on hills, I got all sorts of Strava speed records. Which was nice. So I should be prepared to do the race April 1 (really, really worried about the temperature though since I don't do cold.)

Wednesday: trampoline park
There was no gymnastics this week because of spring break so a bunch of us went to the trampoline park. Super fun. I was so tired by the end of the hard. I kept moving for a solid 54 minutes before dying. I did flips and handsprings, back bounces, the ninja course. And then I was completely worn out.

Bonus: Ran into a friend I used to work with.

Thursday: Long run

I've been following an online plan to get in shape for a 6.5 mile race (I used a 10k program). And that race has you training up to an 8 mile run for the race. I like the idea of running longer than the race calls for so you can definitely do it. I usually do my long runs on Monday or Tuesday but there were storms Tuesday and the weather was nice today. I went out and the goal was to run 7.5 or 8 miles depending on how I felt. I was a little slower today than normal—sore quads and I definitely wore myself out at the trampoline park the day before.

I ran my normal route for the first two miles and then tried to find this Strava segment I've attempted to find before (and finally got it today, wahoo!). So I did that .5 segment (total 3.5 miles), back up to the top of the lake (4 miles) and then I did the Lake Herrick loop segment (1.8 mile, 6 mile total), back up the hill all the way to the top of the segment (7 miles), back down to the gate and back to the top of the lake and it was 8.3 miles on Strava 8.09 on my watch. (I keep the run on my watch since Strava for Apple watch is too slow to tell me the distance).

It was my longest run to date. I didn't walk a step. I felt amazing for being strong enough to do that. (I felt strong enough that I could gradually bump my mileage up to do a half if I wanted.) I actually researched halves in May or June. Let me get through my next races and see how I feel.

Friday: Pilates
More pilates today. This class is so hard. I am so bad at pilates (which maybe means I need to do it.) I came home from work and walked the dog.

Saturday: Trail run

I ran the 5k route at Sandy Creek park twice. I wanted to run the course once more but needed to get some mileage in—so we ran the course twice. I also tried to roll my ankle twice. The first time I was looking at Matt and not the ground. My foot went one way and my body went another. It hurt. And then on mile 4 or so I was feeling good thinking about how strong I was for doing this hard course twice and I rolled it again. It hurt the rest of the day :( I iced it twice and kept it raised. It was fine the next day. I also got a blood blister on that same spot. I drained it.

The run was a few seconds faster than last time and I did the first 5k without walking. I was pretty tired the second time. So I'm ready for the race this weekend. If only the race was at noon. It's at 8 a.m. and I'll be lucky if it's 40 degrees. I never run when it's below 58 or so. So I'm not sure what I'll do. My body hates cold weather. PLEASE BE WARM NEXT SUNDAY.