Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a great week!  This week seemed really long for some reason but overall it went well.  I got in my 3 runs and two strength training sessions.  Here are the details for the week.

Monday - Rest day plus 1 mile walk at work since there was still some warm-ish weather

Tuesday - Strength training with a fitness blender video.  This one was tough and I definitely felt sore the next day.

Wednesday - 3 mile run in the morning before work.

Thursday - Rest day plus going out to see some friends at a happy hour in the evening.

Friday - 40 minute run in the afternoon.  It was cold and windy and I think I ran too soon after lunch, since my stomach wasn't too happy.  But it got done.  I had planned to meet up with some friends for a birthday celebration in the evening but didn't really feel up to it so Mike went on his own.

Saturday - Strength training at home.  This was supposed to be a snowy/icy day so we planned to stay in all day just in case.  It ended up just being rainy but it was nice to have a quiet day at home any way.  We ended up binging the first season of the Witcher on Netflix.

Sunday - 3 miles on the treadmill at the gym.  We had initially planned to run outside but the wind was pretty biting so we called it and went for the indoor option.

So that was last week.  I'm starting official training for my 10k race in April next week so I've got a plan and I'm not just winging it and doing what I feel like any more.  This week looks like it's going to be cold too so it may involve more indoor workouts.  But here's the plan for now.

Monday - Strength training
Tuesday - Running on the treadmill at the gym
Wednesday - Strength training
Thursday - Rest day
Friday - Running
Saturday - Running
Sunday - Running

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!

 

2020 Races

One of my goals for the year was to get back to doing more races, especially local and/or low cost races.  So I've begun researching for the first half of the year to get some races on my calendar. 

I'm joining Fairytales and Fitness for their Friday link up and talk about what I have so far!

January - 2020 Winter Hains Point 5k.  The first race will be next weekend!  It's a local 5k that was only $25.  It's in DC and down by the river so hopefully it will have some pretty scenery.  Mike and I are doing this one together since it is at the point in his training plan where he's gotten to 3 miles.

February - Kensington Park Run.  I've discovered that there's a park run really close to me!  So I'm planning to check them out some point in February.  It is a 5k every Saturday and it's free. 

March - Montgomery County Road Runner's Piece of Cake 5k - I did this one several years ago.  It's hilly and often rainy but it's  a fun race.  It's also the club's anniversary so there's always cake afterward :)  It's also free for club members.

 

 

From when I did this race back in 2015

April - Star Wars 5k and 10k at Disney World.  This is the big race Mike is training for!  This one, of course, is neither local or low cost but I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

I'm also doing a 10k for time in April, the Pike's Peek 10k.  I did this race a couple years ago but the course has changed a bit since then so I'm looking forward to it.  It's really close to my house so the logistics shouldn't be too bad, even though it's a point to point.  And they always have a fun after party with lots of food.

 

 

2015 is the last time I did this race too

May - Memorial 4 Miler - This is another road runner's race that's free to members.  It's also less than half a mile from my house.  I did it a couple years ago and just jogged over to the start as my warm up.  

June - Suds and Soles 5k - This is a local 5k that I haven't tried yet!  I've always been out of town this weekend for some reason but I should be in town this year.  This is an evening race and has lots of local craft breweries at the after party.  

So those are my race plans for the first half of the year!  I'd love to hear what you have coming up :)

Weekly Review

Last week was certainly interesting.  In addition to being the first full week at work after the holidays, we had a partial snow day and then a weekend with temperatures in the 60s.  I only got in two runs thanks to not feeling that well in the middle of the week.  But I did get in some strength training and some yoga in addition to the 2 runs, so I feel ok about the week.  Here are the details.

Monday - Strength training with a fitness blender video.

Tuesday - Planned rest day plus coming home early to avoid the snow.

Wednesday to Thursday - unplanned rest days since I wasn't feeling that well.  I'm pretty sure it's because I made a poor food safety choice and ate something I shouldn't have.

Friday - 3 mile run plus yoga

Saturday - Planned rest day as we had people over at our house for a movie day.  Of course this involved spending the morning doing some cooking and cleaning.  I did get a 1 mile walk in and was able to enjoy the warm weather before the rain started.

Sunday - 5.4 mile run plus some recovery yoga

 

Full Winter gear on Friday's run and bare arms on Sunday!

So that was my week.  Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Rest day 

Tuesday - Strength training

Wednesday - 3 mile run

Thursday - Rest day

Friday - 3 mile run

Saturday -Spin and strength training

Sunday - 6 mile run

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!

 

2020 Goals

The first full work week of 2020 is almost done!  It's seemed like a long week but I did take some time to think about my goals for 2020.  I'm joining Fairytales and Fitness for their Friday link up and talk about how my plans for 2020.

1. Half marathon - I haven't run a half since December of 2018, more than a year!  I want to get back to half marathon shape and run one this year.

 

Fun half in Baltimore in December 2018

2. More local races - I hardly did any races at all last year, to be honest.  I did the Disney Marathon in January and the 10k in Annapolis in June.  That was it.  And I think that was the right choice for me last year, but I know I've always enjoyed the race atmosphere.  I want to get back to doing more races this year.  And that doesn't mean spending a ton of money.  I have several low cost or free local races that I should take advantage of.

 

May 2018 was the last time I did a local race!

3. More blogging- Yikes!  Work has been pretty busy and for a lot of last year, I only had one blog post per week.  And that's just been my weekly review.  I want to get back to posting 2-3 times per week this year.

4. 6 non-fiction books - I've been doing this one a couple years in a row but I really like it so I'm keeping it for 2020.  It motivates me to read more non-fiction then I would otherwise read.  I'm currently working on reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

5. Continue food prep and record recipes - I was pretty good about food prep toward the end of last year and I want to continue that this year.  I also want to make sure I start posting about recipes I like so that I can find them again in the future.  I would like to post a recipe to the blog at least once per month.

So those are my goals for 2020!  The start of a new year is always exciting and full of possibility, I hope to keep the motivation going throughout the year :)  I'd love to hear about any goals you have for the year.

Wendesday Musings

I hope everyone is have a good week so far!  The days seem to be crawling by for me but I'm sure it's because this is the fist full week at work I've had in a while due to the holidays.  But 2020 is still starting out well!  So I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about a couple things I'm thankful for!

The first is that my work place is so flexible.  We had snow yesterday, and of course, the worst of it was going to be during the evening commute.  I was able to leave work around 1pm so I could be home before the snow started and just finish working from home.  We didn't get a lot of accumulation but the snow was definitely coming down hard at points and the visibility was poor.

I'm also thankful for starting a new year in running!  I'm not setting any mileage goals this year but I love this fun tracker I found online.  It's free to download and print, and you can color in each mile you run.  They have a 500 mile, 1000 mile, 500k and 1000k option.  Of course my official tracker is still garmin but I thought this was a fun little crafty project for the year.

Lastly, I'm happy to not be traveling for a while.  I always feel a bit exhausted after the holiday travel.  This week is the Disney Marathon and I've been seeing a lot of posts from people heading down to Florida for the races.  I thought I'd experience some FOMO but mostly I'm happy to be able to stay at home and settle back into a routine this year.  Good luck to everyone running the races!

How about you all, things you're grateful for to start out the year?

Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a good week last week!  It was a little strange with a holiday in the middle, but I'm not complaining about having that extra day off work :)  It also helped with being able to get in all my planned workouts.  Here are some details on the week.

Monday - Rest day

Tuesday - 3 mile run.  I got off work early so was able to get in my run with some sun set views.  We also had a friend come by our house for a nice, quiet New Years Eve at home.

Wednesday - 3 mile run. New Years Day and a day off work!  We got in our run in the morning so that we could do brunch afterward.  It ended up being a two brunch day, with pajama brunch on our own in the morning at a local restaurant and then going to a friend's house for a brunch gathering she was hosting.  It was a great way to start 2020!

Thursday - Rest day plus 30 minutes on the treadmill desk at work.  And we got together with some friends with a post work happy hour.

Friday - Strength training at home plus a 1.5 mile walk in the afternoon.

Saturday - Yoga plus a 1 mile walk.  I also met up with a friend to watch the new Little Women movie.  We both really enjoyed it.

View from my walk near the movie theater

Sunday - 4.75 mile run.  I meant to go for 5 miles but it was cold and windy!  I would usually run around on the street in front of my house until I hit 5 but I just wanted to get inside and out of the wind by that point.  We also had a friend visiting DC from Ohio so met up with her and her husband for brunch.  This was a brunch heavy week!

So that was my week!  It included lots of fun time with friends and that was definitely appreciated. But now, the holidays are over and it's back to the routine with a full week at work.  Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Strength training 

Tuesday - 3 mile run

Wednesday - Strength training

Thursday - 3 mile run

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - Rest Day

Sunday - 5.5 mile run

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!

 

2019 Goals Wrap Up

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's!  I can't believe it's already 2020.  Of course, the start of a new year is a good time to look back on the goals for the past year and work on setting goals for the coming year.  I figured I'd join Fairytales and Fitness for their Friday link up and talk about how my 2019 goals went.

1.  720 miles for the year.  This one did not work out.  I only got 562 miles for the year.  I knew I was behind by 20 miles at mid-year and that gap only grew due to the tendinitis in the Fall.  

2.  Train hard for speed - This is another one that was derailed by tendinitis.  I was happy with the way this goal was going up until then though.  I was close to hitting my pace goal in my June 10k in Annapolis (and did hit the goal if you consider the heat during the race).

 

The Annapolis race is always beautiful

3. Read 6 non fiction books - I actually ended up reading more than 6 this year.  I read Becoming by Michelle Obama, The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal, Factfulness:Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr, In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri, and Bucket to Greece by V.D. Bucket.  The last one was actually three books, and it was an amusing memoir of a British couple that moved to a small town in Greece for retirement. 

                                     

 

4.  Continue cooking at home.  This went pretty well throughout the year.  It helped that we used the instant pot a lot, and worked on a couple simple recipes that we could make quickly on work days.  And lots of soups in Winter!  I was not good at documenting it, unfortunately.  I know there were some recipes that we really liked but I didn't save them anywhere and I'm not sure if Ill be able to find them again.

Veggie Bibimbap from Sun Basket

So overall, it's been a mixed bag for 2019 goals.  The running goals were not met but I knew that was going to happen once I started feeling that pain in my foot again.  And I knew it was better long term to rest until the pain went away so I'm ok with that.  Fingers crossed it's good for gone now and I can work on increasing distance again in 2020.