Happy Monday...well, as happy as it can be, I guess. The tragedy in Paris and the passing of a friend's mother has me thinking about how fragile life is and makes me remember to be grateful every day for life.
I'm joining Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap. I had a really busy weekend following a busy week at work. Last week I hurt my back when I picked up heavy weights wrong, so I stopped lifting weights for the rest of the week. My back feels 99% better, so I'll be getting back to weights this week but will be really careful with the heavy weights. Last week I ran 22.35 miles, did my plank challenge every day except for the day when my back was really in pain, and also kept to my challenge of tracking Weight Watchers points. Aside from my back throwing a wrench in my plans, it was a good week with awesome fall weather continuing. The mornings when I run are pretty cold, which I love, and aside from a few rainy days it was sunny and nice all week. Is this Pittsburgh?!
Monday
Easy run: 3.1 miles--33 degrees!
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Lulu Purple Pique Longsleeve,
White Pique Neck Warmer,
Black Speed Tights |
I did the Ashtanga sun salutations (the first five) and the standing sequence in the evening, which took about 30 minutes. Oof. It's been a long time since I've done Ashtanga, and it felt like it. My body was creaking, and the poses were tough to get into. I love Ashtanga so want to start doing it regularly, even though I'll probably need to break up the 2-hour session into smaller sessions.
Tuesday
34 minutes of lower body and core strength training--when my back started to hurt.
Wednesday
Speed work: 4.25 miles
I did 3 half-mile repeats with .25-mile recovery sandwiched in between warm-up and cool-down miles. I ran at what feels like 5K pace without looking at my watch at all. If I were going by my watch I'd have tried for a 9:35-9:40 pace. My splits were 9:04, 9:22, and 9:49. This was hard. I haven't tried to run 5K pace since the summer, and I was dying in the last repeat. I likely did the first repeat too fast. And that feeling of running at 5K pace--it sucks! But, it's good for me to mix things up and do some faster speedwork now before my training starts. After this run is when my back pain got really bad.
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Athleta White Chi Top &
Purple Relay Capris |
Thursday
Rest day. I didn't want to take a rest day since I work from home on Thursdays and can work out longer than other work days. But, my back was so bad that I took a day of rest, except for doing 8 minutes of planks and push-ups in the evening.
Friday
Easy run: 4 miles
The storm that had hit the rest of the country came to Pittsburgh Thursday in the form of rain and very strong winds. It was 45 in the morning but still very windy, so this run was tough. It felt like I was running into a wall on the way out and the wall was pushing me on the way back.
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Lulu Cadet Blue Heathered Swiftly,
Bordeaux Drama Speed Tights,
Silver Fox Miss Misty Jacket |
Saturday
Training run with Django: 1.83 miles
This was more of a run/stop/stiff/pee than a straight run, but with Django just getting over being sick I didn't want to push him. There were times when he was sniffing a stick for about five minutes at a time. He enjoyed it though! Our pace was 4 minutes slower than the last time we ran!
Moderate run: 5.17 miles
After I took Django home I headed out for some more miles by myself to get to 7 for the day. It was windy and partly sunny, so at times I was really hot and at times really cold. I ran this at slightly above easy effort.
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Athleta Half Zip (from several years ago)
Lulu Heathered Slate Speed Tights |
In the afternoon we walked to the park near our house with Django. He loves playing in the leaves!
Sunday
Trail run: 4 miles
I drove to North Park to run on the trails for the first time. I did 1 mile warm-up before getting onto the Rachel Carson Trail, a singletrack trail that was mostly uphill. It was really tough. Some parts of the trail were not only super steep but also just covered in so many leaves that I couldn't see rocks and roots. I walked up those sections and walked down them as well. I went really slowly to watch out for rocks and roots. As you can see in the picture below, nearly all the leaves are down from the trees, but it was sunny and warm (45 when I started, 55 when I was done) and just a gorgeous morning. Even though this was a tough run and I went 1:30/mile slower than my easy pace, I loved this run. I saw a woodpecker right off the trail and watched him for a couple of minutes. And I just loved being out in the woods by myself. When I got to 1.5 miles, I was excited to turn around because I knew I'd be going downhill. It was so much fun! I still had to watch out for rocks and roots, but I felt like a kid running through the leaves. I really enjoyed this run and definitely want to continue doing trail running. Aside from being fun, it was a good workout.
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| Rachel Carson Trail in North Park |
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| Me on the trail |
After my run I did 18 minutes of body weight lower-body exercises (squat jumps, lunges with rotation, glute bridges, resistance band x walk, clamshells, and planks).
Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, with temps in the low 60s. We took Django to Schenley Park in the afternoon for a long walk. Anytime that he can sniff and pee on leaves and kick them around, he's so happy!
We ended the weekend with a firepit in our back patio before bed. I love that the weather is still nice enough that we can hang out outside by the fire.
Happy running and working out this week!
Labels: django, running with Django, trail running, weekend running, weekly recap, weekly wrap
