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Brittany Runs a Marathon Versus the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Silicon Valley

On Friday afternoon, I wrapped things up with my last client at 4 PM. Bill got home from work shortly after me and asked if I just wanted to chill for the rest of the day. After a busy week, I thought that was a great idea so we headed to the basement to crash. First up we watched the last two episodes of season 5 of Silicon Valley, a hilarious show about startups in the tech industry. Next up, we watched Brittany Runs a Marathon, which didn’t live up to my expectations. It was cute, but left me feeling meh. We capped the night off with a couple of episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, another favorite for Bill and me.

Yesterday afternoon, after returning home from three hours at the gym where I taught a class on the importance of continuing to exercise as we age, I flopped on the sofa (see the irony?) and we jumped into season 6 of Silicon Valley.

 

The Princess and the too Soft Cushion

One of my goals of 2020 was quite simple – to not use my kitchen table as my workspace when we have an office where we each have our own desk. Seems simple enough, right?

Several years ago our backs started rebelling from sitting in cheap office chairs that provided minimal lower back support so I set out to find two new chairs. I bought wing chairs with tufted backs that felt heavenly sinking into and hugging my lower back. Unfortunately for me, I quickly realized that sitting on a soft cushioned chair is something my back no longer handles well.

Back to moving away from the kitchen table… Last Saturday I discovered that if I scooted back really far while sitting in my office chair, my back didn’t hurt. Hallelujah! My thought was to gradually add time sitting in the chair while getting my back used to a new surface – much like gradually adding mileage to long runs during marathon training. 😉 Unfortunately, I didn’t plan to get absorbed in my work and lose complete track of time while sitting for close to two hours.

Sunday morning I woke up with a tight and stiff back feeling similar to sore muscles when you do something new in your workout. Fortunately, on Monday when I got up I felt totally back to normal.

 

Low Keyed New Year’s Eve

We were in bed and asleep by shortly after 11 PM on New Year’s Eve, something I would have scoffed at a few years ago. We even slept through the fireworks that I’m sure were booming at midnight since they’d been going off regularly since about 9 PM. We did toast in the new year earlier with some peach bellini from from Trader Joe’s.

 

Surprise New Year’s Day Visitors

Our son called on New Year’s Day afternoon and asked if we were home and if they could stop by since they were in the area coming home from a hike. We were thrilled to get to see them again and I was tickled to get to try the portrait mode on my new phone while taking pictures of Pablo.

 

The poor boy was quite tired from a day of hiking…

 

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

 

Running

After the episode with my back on Sunday, I was thrilled that it felt fine when I woke up early Monday morning for my run. I headed out feeling pretty good and thrilled that nothing hurt. Around the 2.75-mile point I started noticing a little pain so I circled back around and finished my planned 5-mile run at just over 3 miles.

As the morning progressed my lower back/SI joint area got tighter and I walked around like a little old lady. I couldn’t wait until I finished up with my last client of the day so I could lie down (I took a 3.75-hour nap). On Tuesday evening I felt pretty good after two days of Advil and afternoon naps.

I’d organized a 9 AM run with my friends followed by coffee/hot chocolate at Starbucks for New Year’s Day, but out of an abundance of caution, I skipped the run and met them afterward at Starbucks.

 

I’m still on the fence with how much more time I should give my wonky back before I return to running. It seems wise to give it one more week of recovery before heading out for a short trial run. And no, I haven’t sat on my office chair for more than five minutes at a time since last Saturday. And yes, I’m typing away at my kitchen table while sitting on a wooden kitchen chair…

 

Biking

On Sunday afternoon, I got on my spin bike (affiliate link) while talking to my mom and rode an easy 10 miles hoping to loosen up my back. After a week of taking it really easy, I plan to get back on my bike a few times this week to supplement my cardio.

 

Strength Training

After having to cut my workout short on Monday, I skipped Wednesday’s workout entirely, but was able to resume on Friday.

 

Yoga

Rather than trying to do any yoga, I focused on stretches for my lower back / SI joint area.

 

It’s on the Blog

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

 

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

 

  • Questions:
  • • Have you watched either of the TV shows or movie I mentioned? If so, which did you like/didn’t like? 
  • • How did you bring in the new year? 
  • • Did you run in a 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 those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!