Another Good Week… If You Like To Run (July 14 – 20)

Last week was another good week for running, and since everyone seemed to enjoy last week’s workout recap, I’m going to make it a weekly event!

Monday
I almost always rest from cardio on Mondays, but try to get a good weight lifting session and core workout completed on my non-cardio day.  After about 30 years of consistently lifting three days a week, I’ve been a little burned out the last six weeks and weight training has been hit-or-miss.  Of course this happens right before I will be wearing a sleeveless dress to my son’s wedding!  I need to start polishing these guns of mine.  Perhaps I’ll drop and do a bunch of push-ups before walking down the aisle.

I digress…  I managed to get a really good workout in on Monday, and I’d like to think that I’m back on course.

Tuesday
After two weeks of running hills on Tuesdays, I think it’s safe to say that we love to hate hill repeats!  I arrived about 20 minutes early so I could get a mile warm-up and two hill repeats completed before the other ladies arrived.

Currently, each repeat is only .15 mile with an elevation change of 50 feet.  Once everyone is able to complete ten repeats, we plan to run the full hill which will be .3 mile long with a 100-foot elevation change.  I did a total of 12 repeats this past week, so I would like to take on the entire hill soon.

From the chart below, you can see that I ran two repeats, and then ran back to the parking lot to meet my friends.  I ran a total of eight miles with an average pace of 9:51.

After my run, I came home and rolled out my hip that’s been bothering me a little.  I think the new challenges of running hill are aggravating it slightly, but hopefully that will go away soon.  In the meantime, ice and rolling seem to be doing the trick!

As soon as I finished rolling out, my first client arrived and we ran/walked three miles.  We run about half of the time, yet our average pace is 16:39.  We don’t run that slowly (maybe an 11:00 pace), it’s just that we walk incredibly slowly.  Seeing this reminds me that I need to challenge her to walk faster during her recovery.

Wednesday
After my mid-day solo run on Wednesday, I came home to a well deserved chocolate milk.  My pace wasn’t too bad for being alone, and I’m sure the slightly cooler temps and much lower humidity helped tremendously!  I run faster when trying to keep up with my MRTT buddies, and was happy with this time considering I had no one to push me.

Obviously I stopped a few times for pictures.  These petunias flock the entrance to my neighborhood, and the pond in the collage above is one of several ponds that I run by when I stay within my community.

Thursday
I took this screen shot of Thursday’s forecast on Wednesday night before I went to bed.  Thursday morning it was 55° at the airport, but I forgot to take a shot.

Needless to say, with the cooler temps we had a fantastic run on Thursday.  Four of us ran together, but Dora and I decided to tack on an additional mile, and somehow we forgot to take our group selfie before we went our separate ways.

I’m sure the people using the picnic tables later in the day appreciate that we use the table for stretching, but it’s the perfect height for my tight hamstrings!

As soon as I got home from my run, my client arrived for our three-mile run/walk session.  We stay within my neighborhood and enjoy the beautiful trails behind my house.  We alternated running, walking, and strength training with rubber tubing and I was almost cold when we stopped for her to do lunges, etc.

Friday
Bill took Thursday and Friday off to refinish our front doors and garage doors.  They are beautiful wood as you can see, but only stay that way because he refinishes them twice a year.

Before I headed outside to work, I lifted weights for an hour and stretched.  The weather was still absolutely perfect, so I enjoyed a beautiful day of gardening while Bill sanded and then varnished the doors.

The two puff-ball boxwoods on each side of our house had gotten totally out of shape this past year so I decided to work on them.  Bill started out with the electric hedgers, and then I took over.  They need a deep pruning, including cutting out dead wood deep inside the puff-balls.  They don’t look so good now, but I guarantee they will look fantastic in a month or two!

After a hard day’s work, and a few miscommunications, we met our friends (two hours late) for happy hour at a “new to us bar,” Bar Louie.  We both got the Pom Peche martini and it was quite good.  It’s a delicious combination of peach vodka, pomegranate syrup, mango purée, orange juice, and Sprite.  This is a horrible picture, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Saturday
Our MRTT group had a great turnout on Saturday morning for our long run.  We had a couple of new faces which is always fun.  Bill even joined us and took this picture so we didn’t have to gather in for a selfie.

One of those new-to-our-chapter runners was Beth.  She’s a chapter leader of a nearby group, but decided to run with us today for a change of scenery.  She’s used to the W&OD Trail, but not the portions we usually run on.  About six of us were running together in a tight little pack and someone mentioned my blog by name.  Beth said, “That’s DebRuns? I follow her on Instagram!” After lots of hooping and hollering by me, she told me her handle and I remembered that I had just started following her, too.  We decided a photo op was in order!

While we were stopped for this picture, we got into a little bit of trouble.  Keep in mind that we had all been up since at least 5:30 AM, so it seemed like it was late in the morning to us (it was probably 8 AM).  An elderly lady came out of one of the apartments next to the trail and asked us to keep it down.   There were about five of us at that point, so I imagine we might have been a little loud with our laughing and general fun time.  Like I always say, “It’s a party on the trail!”

After our turnaround, we ran into Vamshi and Amit well into their ten-mile run.  We stopped to chat before continuing to finish our 12-miler.  I ran a total of about 12.5 miles at an average pace of 9:49.

Sunday
I finished off another strong week of running with a recovery walk on Sunday.  The weather was still beautiful even though the humidity is starting to creep back in.  By Tuesday we are forecasted to get back to our summer norm of hazy, hot, and humid.

I walked four miles with an average pace of 15:12.

Total weekly workouts:
Running – 32.5 miles
Run/walk – 8 miles
Walking – 12.05 miles
Lifting – 1 hour

• Questions:
• How’s the weather been where you live?
• Who raced this weekend?
• What’s on your agenda for this week?