Weekly Review

Well, I'm not currently training for anything because of the tendinitis but I thought I'd still talk about what I've been doing the past couple weeks :)

First, I've decided that my April half will be transferred to doing the 8k instead.  I don't want to have to ramp up too quickly and then risk injury again.  So I'm going to take my time running and getting back into a routine and gradually increasing my miles.  It's a bit of a relief to not have the half looming over me when I feel so unprepared.  And hopefully this will allow me to be healthy for my Fall races.

We had snow last Wednesday so I actually ended up working from home most of the week.  I'm really thankful I have the opportunity to telework.  It helped out with my foot too since it's a bit complicated trying to put a shoe over my ankle brace.  I'm back in the office today but just wearing sandals since that was the easiest thing to get over the brace.  I'm also wearing socks since it's cold out.  It's definitely not an attractive look but it works.

We've had a several fun concerts this week.  We went to see a Weird Al concert on Tuesday and we saw an interesting concert on Saturday.  The band is called Red Baarat and there sort of a mix of jazz, funk, and Indian folk music.  It was a lot of fun and it was a venue we hadn't been to before in DC.  I really liked the venue as well as the band.

Saturday we also went to a local rally before the March for our Lives.  I decided not to go to the march itself given my foot but we volunteered to do voter registration in the morning and had a lot of fun with that.  I also wrote some get out the vote post cards while watching the march on tv in the afternoon.

I've somehow managed to lose my wedding ring.  I don't even know how or where so I've been calling a lot of places to check their lost and founds but nothing yet.  I'm going to continue to look but I may need to replace it instead.  But I did spend a lot of time this weekend looking around the house and emptying various bags.

We're going to a local sci fi convention March 30th so we spent some time getting our outfits together and packing yesterday.  I'm pretty happy with how the outfits came together and am really looking forward to the weekend :)

Lastly, there was lots of time spent cuddling with my cats!  Always a fun addition to the day :)

Perry looks unhappy hear but I promise he likes the cuddling!  This look only came out when I stopped petting him to take a photo.

St. Patrick's Day 10k

Ugh, sorry I've been missing from blogland for a couple weeks.  Things have been busy with work and I just haven't been working out at all.  I went to the podiatrist last week and he confirmed that I have tendinitis, and it's my peroneal tendon.  He gave me an ankle brace to wear and he said he didn't want me working out on my feet at all.  No body pump, no elliptical, just upper body weights.  I asked if I could use the bicycle and he kind of wavered on that and said I could try it but I had to stop if it hurt at all.  So I've been playing it safe this week and just doing my PT exercises plus abs and upper body weights.

  

But I did want to get back and at least talk about my St. Patrick's Day 10k from a couple weeks ago.  It was a super windy weekend.  Mike's work was actually closed on Friday from the wind and we had heard that there was at least one local race that was cancelled on Saturday.  The winds were more manageable on Sunday, which was the day of my race, but it was still in the 15 to 20 mph range.

I also have to admit that I went into the race with a negative attitude.  I'm sure that contributed to my bad race day.  I wasn't looking forward to the cold winds, I was upset that my foot was hurt and worried I was going to make it worse, disappointed that I had to cut down from 15k to 10k, and it just wasn't my usual positive outlook on things.  I don't even have any photos from race day because I just wanted to get things over with.  All of that to say if you want a better review of this race, please look at my 2016 review since it is probably a more accurate representation.

One of the differences this year is that there was no shirt.  You could pay extra for a shirt if you wanted, or get a bandana or store credit for Pacer's Running Store.  I do like that they had these options and that the shirt price wasn't included if you don't want it.

 

The medal was still included in the base price

Another difference is that there was no race morning packet pick up this year.  I was a little bothered by that but it was ok.  They did have packet pick up at the store for at least 2 weeks before race day so there were plenty of days to pick up the packet.  And it was easy for someone else to pick up the packet for you, because Mike picked the packet up for me on his way home from work one day.

We managed to find a cheap hotel room the night before the race so we stayed downtown, a little more than a mile from the race.  That was pretty convenient and I enjoyed having a nice dinner and catch up time with my friend the evening before the race.  The restaurant also had free breakfast in the morning that was convenient for pre-race fuel.  We did a warm up jog down to the Washington Monument for the race start.

It was perfect timing and we got there about 5 minutes before race start so we didn't have to stand around in the cold wind much at all.  The course is a beautiful course.  It's mostly flat with some very small hills.  It's also in a scenic area past the Washington monument, the Kennedy Center, the Potomac River, the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson memorial. 

It was a sunny day but that played a bit of havoc with my temperature. I dressed for the cold but I was probably over dressed.  So I would get pretty warm at times but just when I began to think about taking off a layer, there would be a windy spot and I would be really cold again.  So I pretty much alternated being too hot and too cold the whole time.  Oh, and there were no water stops during the race.  That was fine for me since I always carry my hand held water bottle but I saw a few other people out there asking where the water was.  I hope that this was just because it was too windy and not a permanent change.

The race felt really hard and I don't know why.  I guess there was the wind.  But in 2016 this race was my 10k PR of 1:14:21.  But this year it took me much longer.  I think this was actually the slowest 10k I ever had, 1:28:27, which is frustrating when I felt like I was working so hard the whole time.  I even took less time at the Avengers Half in Disneyland which I was taking super easy and stopping for lots of photos.  I did look at my fitbit a week later and saw that my resting heart rate had been much higher than usual that whole week, so I don't know if there was something going on with my body that may have contributed to this. 

It was also frustrating because it seemed like there were a lot of little things going wrong.  My running tights, which I had worn for my 20 miler and were fine, wouldn't stay up and I had some thigh chafing starting at mile 2.  And my bra was twisted somehow so I had chafing on my back starting around mile 4.  That is way too much chafing for a 10k!

And then, we compounded everything with making a bad decision.  We decided to walk back to the hotel.  Which would have been fine on a nice day but it was still on the cold side and I was freezing by the time we got back to the hotel.  I was really sore later in the day and I think part of the reason I was so sore after a 10k was due to this cold walk.  I also realized that counting the travel back and forth to the hotel, this ended up being more like 9 miles total. 

 

We did meet up with other friends for a delicious post-race brunch!

Pros:  Beautiful course, flat, fun theme with lots of people dressing up in St. Patrick's day attire, option to pay less and not get a shirt

Cons:  No race day packet pick up, no water stop, meh medal

National Women's Half Training - Week 5

Well, there wasn't much to report on the work out front last week sadly.  My foot is still giving me problems but I did go to a doctor.  The details of the week are below.

Monday - rest day, which was much needed after the 10k on Sunday. I also worked from home so I didn't have to deal with trying to put a shoe on my foot. 

Tuesday - Another work from home and true rest day for my foot.  It was elevated for most of the day and iced off and on.

Working from home includes kitty breaks

Wednesday - Body pump with a 10 minute warm up on the elliptical.

Thursday - 45 minutes on the elliptical

Friday - strength training at home, plus I spent almost half the day at various medical appointments.  I had a follow up PT appointment, a mammogram, and an appointment to see my doctor about my foot.  She got an x-ray and it showed that it's tendinitis and not a stress fracture, yay!  She is concerned that it's lasting so long (as am I) so she scheduled me to see a podiatrist this week.

We also went out in the evening to see A Wrinkle in Time.  I loved this book as a kid and was really excited to see the movie.  I know it hasn't had the best reviews but I really liked the movie.  I liked the casting for the kids (especially Charles Wallace) and that the movie captured the themes of the book well. Oprah was a miss for me in this movie just because it's hard to hear and see her and not think Oprah.

Dinner at Nandos before the movie, I love that they have so many veggie ootions

Saturday - Rest day plus some errands and shopping.  Sadly, my foot started hurting again after the shopping.  It wasn't exercise but I guess the sustained amount of time on my feet just tired it out or something.  We took it easy in the evening and watched another movie, this time Moonlight on Netflix.  It was a really beautiful movie, hard to watch at times but really well done.

Sunday - Rest day.  I took another day off to give my foot time to calm down.  Mike and I exchanged anniversary gifts (I got a new Ipad and Mike got a tattoo consultation).  I also spent time writing more get out the vote postcards and tried to come up with as many animal puns as I could :)

So that was last week.  I'm not sure what to do this week.  I may try to just do strength training and avoid cardio entirely until I see the podiatrist to see what they recommend.  I feel like the reason it's lasted so long (more than 3 weeks now) is because I kept running as soon as it felt a little better the first two weeks.  This past week of no running does seem to have made it a little better so hopefully a week of no cardio on my feet will finish the healing? 

I'm linking up with with HoHoRuns and Taking the Long Way Home for the Weekly Wrap.

 

National Women's Half Training - Week 4

Well, it's Monday and that means it's time for a weekly wrap.  It's been a bit of a mixed week but here are the details.

Monday - Rest day

Tuesday - strength training at home (Squats, lunges, overhead presses, chest flys, crunches, glute bridges, clam shells, planks, bicep curls, tricep extensions)

Wednesday - Tempo run, 15 minute warm up, 20 minute tempo pace, 15 minute cool down.

Thursday - rest day

Friday - strength training at home (Squats, lunges, overhead presses, chest flys, crunches, glute bridges, clam shells, planks, bicep curls, tricep extensions)

Saturday - rest day

Sunday - 1 mile warm up from hotel to race and then St. Patrick's Day 10k. There was also a 1 mile walk back after the race.

I'll have a full write up of the race later this week but suffice it to say the best thing I can say about it is that I finished.  I was much more sore than I should have been after a 10k.

Mike had gotten me this shirt and I wore it after the race...it was appropriate!

Here's the plan for this week. 

Monday - Rest day
Tuesday - Body Pump after work
Wednesday - Elliptical
Thursday - Elliptical
Friday - Body Pump lunchtime class
Saturday - Elliptical
Sunday - Body Pump

I'm linking up with with HoHoRuns and Taking the Long Way Home for the Weekly Wrap.

 

Friday Five - Entertainment

Well, it's Friday!  We're experiencing some high winds today (gusts up to 80 miles per hour!) and I already see some branches down in our yard.  But they're small ones and hopefully that continues to remain true.  I'm thankful that I was scheduled to work from home today anyway.  The government actually ended up closing today so Mike's at home too.  We're both warm and cozy.  Which means it's perfect timing for the Friday Five.  I thought I'd talk about 5 pieces of entertainment I've really been enjoying lately.


1.  Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - This show was one I used to watch years ago when it was on.  But it was just rebooted on Netflix and I binged the whole season in like two days.  It was so good!  And they're getting much deeper than they used to in the old show.  I came close to tears on almost every episode.

2.  The Crown - This was another Netflix Original that I loved.  It's a show about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.  The costumes and the acting are phenomenal.  I was sad when I got to the end of season 2 and learned that season 3 wasn't going to come out for a while.  It's interesting because the rumor is that there will be a time jump for season 3 and they'll be casting all new actors to portray the royals as they're older.

3. A Wrinkle in Time - I'm so excited about this movie!  It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.  We're trying a free audible trial that included a couple free audio books.  So I decided to try this out as one of my free books and it's great!  I wasn't sure if I would like it as an audio book but the narration is really well done.

4. Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling - This is Mindy Kaling's second book and was my second free audio book from the audible trial.  I love it when authors narrate the book themselves, especially for memoirs.  It started out a bit slow but I really got into it after a couple chapters.  It was pretty funny and I enjoyed this insight into Mindy's life.

5.  Hamilton - I've talked about my love of the musical, Hamilton many times.  It's come back to mind since tickets for Kennedy Center members went on sale earlier this week and there was quite a line to buy tickets.  I wanted to get my parents to see Hamilton so I had initially planned to try to get those tickets as well.  But we got lucky a couple months ago and managed to get a set of tickets for the show in New York.  So we'll take my parents to see the show in New York in June and don't have to worry about scrambling to try to get DC tickets :)

The last time we were in New York was snowy and cold so June will be a nice change

So that's some of the stuff I've been enjoying watching and listening to recently!  I'd love to hear what you've been entertained by too :)