He’s Baaack…

Pablo is enjoying another long weekend at Camp Mim and Grandpab while his parents are enjoying time with Jess’ family in California. BTW, Grandpab is not a typo. 😉 I can’t stand how cute he is and really miss the little fellow when he goes home. We’ll be watching him two more times this fall so my heart is happy. Of course, when Pablo gets dropped off we get to see Daniel and Jess which is a huge bonus!

 

Pretty Uneventful Week

Other than work, it was a pretty uneventful week. Daniel and Jess came over Thursday after work to drop off Pablo and we went to the new Bungalow Alehouse for dinner. I got the Brown Derby Cobb Salad which was amazing! Unfortunately, I forgot to have them skip the blue cheese and even though I scraped most of it off, every once in a while I would get a bite of that strong taste that I don’t particularly care for… The presentation was quite lovely, but I was so hungry and dived in so quickly that I forgot to take a picture. 😉

 

And Now on to a RunDown of this Past Week’s Workouts…

 

Running

As with most of my weeks, two of my runs were at zero dark thirty, solo, and uneventful. Uneventful is always a good thing at that hour!

On Thursday night, I reached out to my friends to see who wanted to join me for a ten-mile test run on Saturday morning. I’ve been quietly considering running in the Marine Corps Half Marathon at Camp Lejeune with my good friend Beth who moved to North Carolina last year. We’ve really wanted to visit since they moved and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

It was 58 delightful degrees when I met my running buddies Tracy and Lupe at the trail parking lot at 6 AM and shortly after we got started we caught up with some of the other ladies in our MRTT chapter. They just happened to be stopped for pictures when we caught them so I volunteered to get a GoPro (affiliate link) picture of all of us.

 

The three of us continued on for ten miles and I was thrilled that we averaged a 9:50 pace, especially considering that both of my runs earlier in the week were at a slower pace. More importantly, nothing hurt when I finished and I feel fine today!

 

This will be a crazy short training cycle because I wanted to make sure I was feeling back to normal and healthy enough to start adding mileage into my training. A few months ago I increased my Saturday mileage from five to six, last weekend I increased it to eight, yesterday ten, and next Saturday I will attempt twelve miles. I plan to cut back down to six or eight miles the following weekend and the race will be the following Saturday. I’ve not included any speed work or hill repeats in this lead-up to my race. Everything has been very measured and careful with hopes of pulling off just one more half!

 

Biking

Two group rides in one week; say what?

Sunday afternoon, Bill and I joined Jason from Bicycles & Coffee for their bimonthly gravel ride. Also joining in on the fun was Susan and her husband Damion. I mentioned Susan recently in my recap when I admitted that I couldn’t remember her name when I saw her at the Firecracker 5K. Anyway, we had texted back and forth a few time about riding together, especially on the gravel in Western Loudoun. Sunday worked for both of us and we had a great time despite the 95° temperature.

Photo credit: Damion

This was a much hillier course than our last ride in Western Loudoun and I had trouble on one of the really steep hills and had to stop and do the push of shame for the last few yards. Apparently, I’m still a work in progress with gearing down as necessary, but I’ve come a long way since last year. I figured out what I did wrong and performed much better on the rest of the hills.

Much of the ride was in shade, but when we were out of the shade we rode under a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds. Despite the heat, the humidity was only at 67% so it wasn’t oppressive.

Photo credit: Bill

Back at the shop, we got a group picture before grabbing dinner and heading home.

 

On Wednesday morning, I joined Bill and the Herndon Crew for my first early morning ride. Our Cruiser friend Chuck invited us to ride with them on Wednesdays and Fridays, but with early morning clients, I hadn’t been able to join them. They start at 6 AM in Herndon on the W&OD Trail. Bill leaves our house at 5 AM to ride to Reston with just enough time to turn around and get back to Herndon as everyone else is arriving.

My schedule on Wednesday morning just happened to be open so I jumped at the chance to ride with the crew. Bill and I left our house at 5 AM and rode in the dark for over an hour before it started getting light. It was very peaceful riding with hardly anyone else on the trail.

A mile or two before our turnaround, Bill pulled over and stopped. I pulled up beside him and just as I stopped I realized that I hadn’t unclipped. I could have easily peddled on to give myself time to unclip since we weren’t at a road crossing, but instead I panicked and over I went, landing on my left elbow and knee. Other than a minor bruised elbow and skinned knee, I was fine. Luckily, it happened before we met up with the crew. Could you imagine if we’d pulled up and just as Bill was introducing me to the group, I toppled over?

 

We rode with the crew west to Leesburg and on our way back toward Herndon, we exited the trail near our house. Our ride totaled 32 miles, the perfect start to the day!

Photo credit: Bill

 

Strength Training

Three out of three sessions completed for the week…

 

Yoga

It’s not great, but I’m finally starting to see some improvement in my form. And can we talk balance? Tree pose while standing on my left leg was very smooth, but when I switched to my right leg I couldn’t hold it at all. Not sure why, because the last time I did it I was fine.

 

It’s on the Blog

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

Next up on my recaps from our hikes while on vacation in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada in June is the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon. Here’s hoping I have time to work on it this coming week.

Also later this week, I’m hoping to join in on the fun with Marcia at Marcia’s Healthy Slice for Runfessions, and  Deborah at Confessions Of A Mother Runner and Coco at Running With Perseverance for the Ultimate Coffee Date linkup.

 

In addition to the workouts I mentioned above, here’s a complete rundown of my workouts from this past week (completed mostly in our home gym)…

 

  • Questions:
  • How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?
  • Bikers: do you ride solo or with friends?  
  • Did you race this weekend?

 

And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!

 

Disclaimer:  This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

 

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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!