After a fun and busy Labor Day weekend, I stated off last Monday, with a fully booked schedule.  It’s easier to see clients than reschedule them, so I often work on the smaller holidays that fall on Monday, my busiest day.

Monday
My first client arrived with her daughter at 7:30 and we headed out for a 2-mile run/walk.  I was pleased that my foot felt pretty good, and seemed to be on the road to recovery.  It was the last time my client’s daughter was able to join us since school was starting the next day.  I enjoy working with my clients’ teenaged children, and encourage my clients to bring their older children along for their workouts.  I do not charge extra because I want to help mold these young people into fitness loving individuals, who think of being active as being the norm.

Later in the day, I squeezed in an upper and lower body strength training session for myself since it would be the last upper body workout I could do for a while.   I again lifted unilaterally protecting my left arm which still had stitches in it from a basal cell carcinoma removed two weeks earlier.

Tuesday
Since my foot felt quite good on Monday, I joined my MRTT friends for hills on Tuesday.  I ran the lower section of the hill where it’s not as steep for a total of 5.5 miles.  Don’t let the elevation chart fool you, though – there was only a 50-foot elevation change over about a half mile!

MiniHillsElevationChart

Later in the day I got my stitches out and had surgery on my other arm to remove yet another basal cell.  Happily, I can now say I’m cancer free… at least until my next dermatologist appointment in mid-November, but hopefully, Dr. Ha won’t find any new spots then.

Wednesday
Before I had a chance to go for a walk or easy run, I hurt my back on Wednesday.  Seriously.  I know – I’m a mess.  While sitting a my desk working on a blog post, I reached for something just beyond my laptop, but well within my reach.  As I reached, I twisted ever so slightly, and immediately felt a twinge in the lower right side of my back.  It’s happened before, so I immediately put a cool Epsom salt compress on my back, then got on my Teeter inversion table and hung out for about twenty minutes.  It’s amazing how much better that makes my back/right leg (sciatica) feel.

Thursday
Thursday morning I skipped meeting my friends for our run, and decided to lay low as a precaution for my back.  My poor clients couldn’t be pampered, and had to help me move benches, stack the heavy weights, etc.  I wasn’t taking any chances with Ragnar only eight days away!

Friday
I woke up feeling great on Friday and ran 2 very easy miles before my first client arrived.  She and I went for a 2.75-mile run/walk before heading back inside for the rest of her workout.  I skipped my own strength training session because of my arms, which I’ll have to for the next two weeks.  I’m getting creative on finding core exercises that don’t require any lifting or major support with my arms, though.

Saturday
We had a great turnout for our MRTT group run on Saturday morning.  I was thrilled to see how many ladies were mingling around in the in the parking lot when I got there!  We gathered for a group picture…

MRTTGroupWithDeb
And when we walked from the parking lot to the trail we found six more runners from our group waiting for us!

MRTTGroupAtTrail

Once we got started, we broke out into different pace groups.  Erin and I were both tapering for our races coming up, so we ran 8 miles (9:27 pace), and peeled off leaving our group to finish their 16-mile run.

I spent most of the rest of Saturday catching up on paperwork while watching college football, and waiting for our big game to kickoff at 8 PM.  Once the Virginia Tech vs Ohio State University game started on ESPN, I paced back-and-forth while watching.  We were the underdogs, so it was extra sweet when we upset (then ranked #8) Ohio State!

VTvsOSUFinalScore

Sunday
I’ve hardly seen my BRF’s this summer, so when I got the text saying they’d be running on Sunday morning, I jumped at the chance.  I got in an easy 5.5-mile recovery run, and got to see my running besties at the same time!

BRFShoeSelfie

Total weekly workouts:
Running – 20.5 miles
Run/walk – 4.75 miles
Walking – 0 miles
Lifting – 1 hour

 

  • Questions:
  • What’s been your biggest training/injury obstacle?
  • Who gets regular skin checks?
  • Who raced this weekend?