What a week! Some of it great, some of it not so great.
Weekly summary April 1 - 7
Monday - plan: one mile time trial, Kung Fu
I’m running time trials this week to see what my next goal needs to be. The first one was this morning.
I got up, ate a piece of pb toast and had some water, did the morning things I had to do, and headed out about 40 min after eating.
T+D = 69 + 60
Warmup: Walked maybe half a mile to start, then did a mile warmup. Started with 30/60 run/walk and ended the mile with 30/30. Overall pace for that mile was 16:11, avg heart rate 143.
1 mile trial: 30/30 run walk. Pace according to apple watch was 13:19. Avg heart rate 171.
According to Strava my average pace was 13:17, GAP 13:05.
I might try just having a ucan gel before my trial on Friday, instead of actual food, but I didn't feel super weighed down by the toast.
Kung Fu wasn’t bad, but it was so hot in there!
140 kicks, and I did them all!
Tuesday: Plan: weightlifting
Today is our first real lifting session. I went in prepared to do lower body but we ended up doing upper body instead, which was fine by me because my legs were still a little tired from running and class yesterday.
Lifting went ok. I couldn’t get my (nonexistent) back muscles to activate, so my shoulders kept trying to take over even when it wasn’t their turn. Then my neck decided to help out, so I had to back off on the weights. Not being too hard on myself since this was just my first time trying. The good news is I have sticks for arms so any muscles I do develop will be obvious fairly quickly.
Wednesday -
Plan: intro Kung Fu Here's where it goes off the rails a bit
- Wicked weather change brought me a migraine so I spent most of the day wishing I was asleep. Kind of sore from yesterday’s lifting too. Mostly in my shoulders, as expected.
Thursday -
Plan: second mile time trial if I feel good and weather is good (otherwise do it Friday), Kung Fu
The headache wasn't letting go, so I had to take another day off.
Friday -
Plan: one mile time trial
My Kung Fu teacher is headed out of town soon so we needed to go ahead and get in another weightlifting session while he's still here. Today we did lower body and it went really well! From our first overview session I was really worried that my knees weren't going to let me do any of the exercises. But I bought a pair of neoprene knee sleeves and things went great! I still started off with really low weights and slow movements, but I was able to gradually increase the weights and I think this is going to work. I'm also super excited to have two weightlifting buddies for support and accountability. I'm really looking forward to working out with my new little group.
Saturday - Plans, who needs 'em!?
Somebody ordered a delivery of garden soil for this weekend (it's me, I'm somebody) so, even though I was sore from yesterday, I still had to haul dirt while I had people willing to help me. It was probably good for me to be moving, but this meant my second time trial had to be delayed yet again.
Sunday -
Plan: rest
No rest, still a bit sore, but it was finally time to do my second time trial. I had a few things I wanted to try differently this time, and they paid off.
T+ D 62 + 32. It was a gorgeous morning!
I got up, had my pb toast, did my morning things and headed out. I did a mile walking warmup at 20:56 pace and then another run/walk mile at 15:22, then I was ready to start my trial. As always, the first mile was terrible and I was already telling myself that this trial was going to suck. Lucky for me, I didn't listen to myself.
I decided to try to run 60/30 intervals today and, instead of listening to music or nothing, I used a metronome set to 180 BPM. This was super helpful. I run best when I can just turn off my brain (as I found running at
Disneyland running with the pacers), so I just put my feet down with the clicks until my timer said it was time to walk. This went really well and I was under a 12 minute mile for the first half mile. I don't know how to record splits within a mile, but a screenshot I took at .32 miles showed a pace of 11:35, which is fantastic for me.
My legs were happy to hang in there at that pace, but my lungs disagreed. I haven't really pushed my cardio since January and I got out of breath and had to switch to 30/30 for a couple of intervals. I was able to get back to 60/30 at the end, though, and finished with an overall pace of 12:22. I definitely feel like I could have been faster if I had been able to get my breathing under control, but I never really push my pace like this so I'm happy for now.
And, my Kevin skirt is done! It's very floofy. I think I will be glad this is just a 10k. I still need to make the little sparkly head things and decide what I'm wearing under the skirt, but I'm almost done!
So, other than the headache, it was a very good week!
Total time for the week: 1hr 16min
Total miles for the
Week: 5
Month: 5
Year: 203.6
Let's go!!
