Weekly Workouts – ride time!!

Hello!!  It’s been a memorable week on several levels.  Things have definitely been going in the right direction and I’m feeling more prepared for the Berlin Marathon after each week.  7 more weeks to go! I ran 27 miles this week, and biked 65 miles.  Looking back there were a lot of rest days, but they were really needed.  You need those easy days to get through the hard days! It’s been a good balance of fitness, family and fun.

Mon – 4 miles running.  In the evening we went to the Dave’s Running Shop Metroparks Monday and walked 2 miles.  The first Monday of the month is cookout day so we brought a dish to share and enjoyed some yummy food with the fellow runners.  I got to tell everyone I’m running again!  yay!

Tues – 7 miles running.  Today was a good day!  I mean, the run was exhausting with the humidity.  I had to walk twice.  I ended up being slower than expected and was late to work.  BUT, on my last mile I found $20 on the side of the road.  Woohooo!  Not only that – I had prepaid for a medical test I had last month and I found out my insurance covered it all.  $791 coming back to me.  Bonus woohoo!

Weds –  Strength day – did another Quick Strength Training for Runners.  Fun event today – I was part of a fitness challenge at work and we took first place.  Basically a total of our running and walking miles.  They gave us a cool trophy.  It’s heavy (it’s about the size of a dinner plate)!!

Thurs – 16 mile long run.  16 miles?  Hell ya!  The weather was decent (less humidity, lower temps!) and this run went well.  I changed up the original training plan which called for 11 miles today.  I changed the long run distances to make me feel comfortable with conquering 26.2 miles and also not get injured from lack of training.  There’s a fine line between being prepared and pushing too hard! I practically had to run 16 miles because the scenic part of my route was close to the 8 mile turnaround 😉 (sure I could have drove to a different starting point, but where’s the fun in that?)

I spent the afternoon with my mom, lunching (eating the biggest burger ever!) and picking flowers.  It was a nice day.

Just when I was ready to spend the night at home, my daughter asked if I wanted to go climbing.  Yes please!!  I’ve avoided the climbing gym due to my leg injury so I was a little nervous.  I haven’t been there in 10 weeks and I was happy to not feel pain as long as I didn’t over do it. My daughter is getting so good (she has a membership there and climbs often).

We also tried the speed wall. Have you seen the climbers on the Olympics?? We couldn’t even make it up to the first hold (the big red blobs in this picture). 😂

Fri – Rest day!  Pizza, a local festival, followed up by some ice cream.  A good summer day!

Sat – 65.6 miles cycling, 3hrs 23 mins of riding!  TAB (Toledo Area Bicyclists) MARR (Mad Anthony River Rally).  Such a fun/exhausting/challenging/rewarding event!  I was a bit nervous about this ride.  Since my only fast group ride was last week, and I got dropped, I was concerned I would be dropped on this ride too.  I joined several of the same riders on this group and the target rolling average speed would be 18-20 mph.  Our original group was around 20 riders in a peloton.  We took off at 7am with a slightly chilly temp of 56 degrees.  It was a beautiful sunny morning which didn’t seem too windy… well, until you were riding in it!  The route was hilly and sure enough I had my first pull up and down 3 hills.  Oof.  I was for sure the weakest cyclist in the group.  But thankfully everyone did what they could to keep me in the pack.  I did end up dropping at one point, but caught back up with everyone a few miles later.  If you’ve never rode in a group like that, each person takes a turn at the front of the group “pulling”, aka blocking the wind and keeping the pace.  When you’re tired you rotate to the back of the group for a “little rest”.  But…. if you get the back of the group and you aren’t going the same speed as the group, you will quickly get passed by the group and then it’s extra hard to catch back up with them.  That’s what happened to me.  The gap just got bigger between us and I had to let them go.  No worries though, we got back together and everyone was wonderful.  Average speed for this ride?  19.5 mph (yep, for 65 miles).  Wow!!!  

After the ride we enjoyed some Mexican food, a few beers, and an ice cream treat.  Good times!! By the time we got home around noon I was in need of the biggest nap ever and crashed for almost 2 hours.  My bed has never felt so lovely 😉

Then, it was time for a friend’s birthday party and we ended the evening picking up our son from the airport.  He’s been gone for 10 weeks with the Rocky Mountain Conservation Corps and it was so good to see him in person again!

Sun – Rest day!  I didn’t get all of my training runs in this week, but a day of rest is needed.  Garmin said my training readiness score was “1”, so yeah, that’s pretty low!!  My day will be filled with hanging out with the family.   Sssssh! Don’t tell him I snuck this picture of him sleeping this morning ❤️ Awwww.

Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!

Q: What has been your favorite sport in the Olympics?

I have not spent much time watching everything, but breaking sure has been interesting! The indoor cycling was also very interesting to watch.