This Week’s Workouts: 19.5 Miles

This week was pretty busy at work (I’m getting ready to hire a team), but I managed to get my miles and workouts in.  My workouts have been a mix of all sorts of stuff lately, but I’ve finally used up the last of my ClassPass credits, so I’ll be focusing on running/ strength/ climbing from now on.  I’m really enjoying climbing right now, and I’ll probably be signing up for a monthly membership since we’re going at least once a week.

Mon: rest day – slept in and missed Pump 

Tues: 7 X 400 meters on T/M – my speed is starting to come back; intervals at 7.3-7.6 felt more comfortable.  I’d like to see that number go up to 8.0 in the next couple of weeks!

Weds: rest day

Thurs: 6 easy outside (9:50 pace)  – this was a great run with some cooler weather (low 70s).  I made sure to carry water this time and zoned out to podcasts.

Fri: Elevate Interval Fitness class via ClassPass – this was similar to OTF but with a more involved strength training portion, which I liked.  I also tried a Woodway treadmill for the first time and I understand the hype – they’re so smooth and comfortable.

Sat: 4 miles on T/M (10:22 pace) and climbing! We tried some harder routes and my forearms were so sore after, so I think that counts as a good upper body strength workout.

Sun: 4 miles on T/M (10:20 pace)

I’m focusing on taking rest days when needed so I don’t get burned out or injured while my mileage increases over the next couple of months.  I’m happy I got in one run outside, and if we don’t get crazy thunderstorms this week again, I think I’ll be running outside more!

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Last Week’s Workouts: 18 Miles

My mileage ramp-up is still going well! Whenever I’m coming back from injury, I generally stick to the “less than 10%” rule – any mileage increases from week to week are less than 10%.  This helps avoid ramping up too fast and getting re-injured.  Since I ran 16.5 miles last week, I ran 18 miles this week.

Mon: Body Pump

Tues: 4 X 800 meters on T/M – After a mile warm-up, I alternated 800 meter intervals with 400 meter recoveries.  This definitely pushed my fitness, even at a conservative 7.2 speed.  Hopefully I’ll see my speed and endurance improve!

Weds: rest day

Thurs: E60 class in Arlington through ClassPass – this was an intense circuit program that went by quickly! We did rowing, treadmills, medicine ball exercises, boxing, and lots of core work.  My core was sore for 4 days afterwards, lol.

Fri: 3.5 miles on T/M (10:33 pace) – Since I ran half a mile during class the day before, I cut my run short on Friday.

Sat: 6 miles on T/M (10:16 pace) – I wanted to do this run outside, but I woke up late and didn’t have much time before a rock-climbing date with a friend.  I’ve gone rock-climbing every weekend this month – it might be time to invest in some gear!

Sun: 3 miles on T/M (10:21 pace)

I’m glad I got in my miles and a decent amount of strength work this week, but I need to start taking my runs outside this week.  I know from experience that too much treadmill training translates into poor race times for me.  My goal this week is to do all my runs outside, with the exception of speedwork.  Hopefully the weather cooperates :)

Friday Faves

Happy Friday friends! Any good plans for the weekend? I have a 6 miler on Saturday, then maybe indoor rock climbing.  Mike and I also have to start prepping to tutor a girl at our church for the fall PSATs – remember those days? Here’s a few things I’ve been loving this week:

Zen Koi – I don’t usually play a lot of phone games besides Sudoku (weird, I know), but I’ve been spending a lot of time at the acupuncturist and this game really helps pass the time (and ignore the pain, lol).  The design of the game is beautiful and very low-stress. I’ll talk more about why I’m getting acupuncture next week after I (hopefully) start seeing some results!

Halo Top ice cream – I was so hesitant to try a low-cal ice cream after trying Arctic Zero years ago (pretty gross), but after seeing so many positive reviews for Halo Top, I grabbed a pint of mint chocolate chip at Target.  It’s actually pretty good – very creamy and filling and minimal taste of artificial sweetener (after the first bite, I don’t really notice it).  I’ll report back after we try the other flavors!

Eyebrow razor – this is a weird one, but after I complained about how my eyebrows were growing bushy too quickly between waxes, a friend introduced me to eyebrow razors! They’re so easy to use and hard to mess up (unlike waxing at home, which I couldn’t get the hang of).  I bought this cheap set of three on Amazon.

Buzz bakery specialty cakes – this is for any DC local readers out there – Buzz has the best specialty cakes for baby showers! We’ve had a few showers for ladies in our small group recently, so I’ve picked up cakes both times and gotten rave reviews.  The cake is so moist and delicious (we’ve tried red velvet and cookies & cream) and the decorations are gorgeous.

 This super-easy recipe for “spaghetti cabbage” – I was scrambling for a fast dinner idea a few nights ago, and I realized I had a bag of shredded cabbage to use up and I vaguely remembered this recipe off of Detoxinista’s website.  I used jarred spaghetti sauce and added some chicken sausage and it came together in no time. We’ve been trying to eat more vegetables at dinnertime, so this was perfect.

Last Week’s Workouts: Running Again!

I am slowly ramping my mileage back up after recovering from an Achilles tendinitis injury back in early January – probably the longest recovery I’ve needed from a running injury yet.  I got a chance to talk to author Matt Fitzgerald in April (I’m going to be in his new book!), and he mentioned that his AT injury sidelined him for two years, so this injury is no joke.  Given the length of time I took off from running and desire to avoid re-injury, I ramped up much more slowly than I have in the past – weekly mileage started at 12 miles 5 weeks ago, then 12, 14, 13, and 16.5 this past week.  I did no speedwork the first 4 weeks, and introduced a short speed workout last week.  Here’s how last week’s miles went:

Mon: 6 X 400 meters on the treadmill – I did a one mile warmup, then 400 meters around an 8:10 pace, followed by 400 meters of walk/ jog recovery.  Finished with a half mile cooldown. The last two intervals felt tough, but doable.

Tues: rest day – had to travel for work

Weds: XT day – Body Pump in the morning, followed by a cardio dance class at Kazaxe with a friend at night.

Thurs: 3 easy outside (9:14 pace) 

Fri: Zengo cycle class

Sat: 6 miles outside (9:34 pace) – this was a tough run; it was about 75 degrees when I started, and I didn’t bring water because there’s a water fountain around 2 miles in on the path.  The water fountain wasn’t working, but I decided to keep going since I wasn’t thirsty yet.  As the temps rose into the low 80s and the sun came out, I didn’t feel good so I took frequent breaks during the last 2 miles to cool my body temp down.  Definitely carrying water for any runs over a few miles from now on! I went rock-climbing with a friend later that day for a little upper body exercise too :)

Sun: 3.5 miles on T/M (10:13 pace) followed by some yoga

Friday Faves

Happy Friday! I always look forward to publishing these Friday faves posts to share some things that have made me happy this week.  I haven’t written one of these in months, so we have some catching up to do ;)

Iced green tea lattes.  I strangely lost my taste for coffee as the weather got warmer this summer, and landed on green tea lattes as my caffeine substitute! Mine is super simple – I just add water, soy milk, half a teaspoon of this matcha powder, and some granulated honey into my Contigo shake and go tumbler (the BEST) and shake it up.  If you try this, I recommend adding the matcha powder/ sweetener after you add all your liquid so that the powder doesn’t stick to the bottom.

Red Rising series by Pierce Brown – probably the best sci-fi/ fantasy series I’ve read in a long time.  Mike’s co-worker lent me the first book and I blew through the trilogy in less than a week.  Everyone I’ve recommended the series to has been similarly hooked!

My new favorite take-out lately is Cava Grill, which is one of many Mediterranean-style build-your-own bowl/pita/salad restaurants in the area.  I’ve tried a few, but Cava’s toppings and falafel are the best, and their drinks are really good too.  I tried the watermelon soda last time and it was incredible.I was looking for some affordable workout clothes earlier this year (I have a huge running wardrobe, but not a lot of capris/ tanks for cross-training), and was really impressed by Gap’s workout line! I bought a couple of their tanks and capris for barre/yoga type workouts and found them to be really stylish and great quality.  They always offer free shipping on $50+ and nearly always have a 40%-50% coupon code.

theSkimm.  With my new job, I don’t have a lot of time to read the news anymore, so I love this daily digest sent to my inbox every day.  It’s very readable, gives you the background and highlights, and takes less than 5 min to read.  Best of all, the subscription is free :)

 

Last Week’s Workouts

Our weekend started off strong with an escape room adventure with our small group on Friday night! We split up into 2 groups (too many for one room) and tackled two rooms at Escape Room Live in Alexandria. Mike and I were in the Poe-raenormal Room (Edgar Allen Poe-themed, if you hadn’t guessed) and we juust got out with two minutes to spare! I loved the theming and decorations at this location – they did a great job setting the mood for each puzzle.
We grabbed ice cream afterwards at the new Old Town location of Nice Cream – it had opened that day! Still our favorite ice cream; the pistachio flavor was amazing.

Saturday was spin, spin, spin at Cyclebar – we liked the studio so much that we added two more classes to our intro class pack. I really appreciate the great and friendly customer service we’ve experienced at this studio.
After cleaning up and taking care of the usual chores, we hung out at home for a while before I started getting ready to go out for a baby shower for one of our small group women. I was in charge of the cake – the one I picked out from Buzz Bakery was a big hit :)

Unfortunately I came down with a small case of food poisoning that night – I think it was some old yogurt I ate earlier in the day – so I was out of commission on Sunday. I managed to clean up our file cabinet, but didn’t do much else all day. Thankfully, I’m feeling much better today and got in a good workout this morning.

I realized pretty early on this week that I needed a bit of a cut-back in effort, so I substituted one tough workout (probably would have been bootcamp) for a yoga class on Sunday. As a result, I don’t feel so sore going into this week and I’m ready to push a little harder again. I really believe in taking cutback weeks and even entire rest weeks when my body starts to feel a little run down – a little recovery can prevent future injury and illness. Listen to your body :)

Mon – short run (2.5 miles) and 15 min elliptical – I tried to test out my Achilles again, but it just wasn’t having it.

Tues – rest day

Weds – boxing class at UFC – I paced myself much better than last week and didn’t feel like dying the next day ;)

Thurs – 45 min elliptical and 10 min row – for the row, I did 3 – 500 meter rows with rest in between, and then repeated 10 forceful strokes with 30 seconds recovery row till I hit 10 minutes.  Short but effective.

Fri – 40 min elliptical

Sat – spin class at Cyclebar! Loved the sprint repeats at the end of class – we did 20 sec on, 10 sec rest repeated 8 times.  My quads were on fire.

Sun – short yoga video

Friday Faves

TGIF friends! I have a pretty easy day today – teleworking from home, and then we’re meeting our small group tonight for escape room adventures.  Should be fun :) I’ve got some Friday faves below.

I recently decided to learn some basic Spanish to help me communicate with the people we’ve been serving during volunteer activities, like the food distribution event I went to last weekend.  I was looking for a audio-only learning program I could do during my commute, and ended up buying Pimsleur‘s Level 1 package of classes.  It’s been awesome! It’s just a 30 minute lesson each day, and there’s lots of repetition to help you remember the words.  I’ve only been doing it for a week, and already have several useful phrases under my belt (e.g., “I am an American and don’t speak Spanish” lol).  It also makes my evening commute go by so much faster.

After making our way through lots of bad TV, I’ve decided to just go ahead and re-watch my favorites – so I’ve been re-watching West Wing in the evenings.  Just as good the second time around.

Homemade almond butter – I go in and out of food phases, and I’m all about the almond butter right now.  I’ve been buying the roasted, salted almonds from Trader Joe’s and making (and eating) a jar a week.  Sometimes I’ll go plain, and sometimes I’ll add in a little honey and unsweetened coconut.

If you’re looking for a pair of comfortable and cute sneakers, I highly recommend Allbirds. Mike’s brother and sister-in-law turned us onto them, and they’re amazing.  Made of wool, they’re machine-washable, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and comfortable enough to wear without socks! I got a ton of compliments on my mint green pair the first weekend I wore them out.

I’ve been on a huge pancake kick lately (see my breakfast above) – I’ve made buttermilk pancakes, sour cream pancakes, and ricotta pancakes in the last couple of weeks to use up random dairy products left over from recipes.  And you know what? Ricotta pancakes are THE BEST – so fluffy with a luxurious creamy center.

Arrow Endure water resistant mascara – I got this as a Birchbox sample and wasn’t expecting much, but it works so well! It’s the first mascara in a while that actually helps me look like I have lashes ;)Britt Marie Was Here – I’ve loved all the books I’ve read by Fredrik Backman so far (including A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry), but I think this one is my favorite! I love the way he transforms his characters through interactions with other people – like softening wax with a flame.

I’m making this warm kale salad with dates, bacon, and other goodness for lunch next week.  Make it with me!

What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this weekend?