This week saw some ups and downs. Ups – a busy week and a fun family camping trip! Downs – overdid it on Monday and am feeling a not so great pain in the hammies/glute. But I did manage to run 10 miles, biked 28 and hiked 8 miles (plus 5 mile walking). This week I hit 150 days of using my Bend app. Go me! The temps starting creeping up and we had some days that felt like summer. Let’s get into it….
Mon – Run, gym, bike, run! I took advantage of an early wakeup and knocked out 6.5 miles first thing. Brrrr, it was only 44 degrees! Then I went to the gym. I was feeling pretty accomplished being back home by 9:30am with a full day ahead of me! After a busy day of tasks I decided that the weather was just too nice and had to get out for a 12 mile bike ride. It had warmed up to a sunny 80 degrees. The tailwind on the way home was a fun push of the speed to 22 mph!
My 2nd run of the day was at the Dave’s Training Metroparks Monday. The first Monday of the month is a cookout so we ran some miles and enjoyed a lot of delicious food. In addition to the yummy desserts that everyone brings, I especially like trying new side salads. There was a really good one with chickpeas.
Running was a bit awful though. Have I mentioned I’m a morning runner? There is a 3 mile route that everyone follows but with the heat (82) and the tired legs, I was struggling. I only ran 2 miles. After our dinner I noticed my hamstring/glute was quite tender. Not good!!! One bonus though – someone brought along daffodils to share. I have been wanting some!
Tues – No running today. Still feeling pretty sore. Whomp, whomp. But on the plus side, no swollen or itchy foot, so that’s a positive. I went for a park walk during my lunch hour.
Ladies Ride night was hot! Garmin recorded it as 88 degrees! What I didn’t realize was the winds. I opted to ride in the front position so I could chat with the ride leader (we ride side by side). This meant I was in front cutting the wind for our group for the entire hour! My legs were toast by the end.
Weds – 2 mile park walk with Mom. Still no running for me! I briefly thought about going for a run just because it was Global Running Day, but thankfully I changed my mind on that! Here’s Sam helping me plan our camping menus 🙂
Thurs – 2 mile run, 10 min elliptical, PT work, stretching and abs workout! I started out with a treadmill run but it became apparent that I wasn’t doing my injury any favors. I tested out the pain level on the elliptical and that seemed fine. So, future exercise might be on the elliptical or biking! Seemed like a good time for stretching, PT work and abs just in case I could magically improve myself. Yep, that didn’t work. No worries because I’ve got a long weekend of hiking planned which hopefully won’t irritate anything further.
Fri – Hiking! After a late wakeup (8:30 for me, 10am for the rest of the family!) we finally made our way out for hiking at Old Man’s Cave.
We had a short visit to the town of Logan as Sydney took an online test for her summer class using the internet access at the local library, and then we visited the Pencil Sharpener Museum! There were actually two collections on display. This just goes to show you that people collect everything!
Ash cave was pretty and not crowded. This area gets super busy in the summer and they have turned the trails into one way traffic only to combat crowding.
Most interesting was an ice cream store we stopped at. They boasted having 48 flavors. We learned that used syrups to mix up the flavors. We ordered cones with the flavors of espresso, Kaluha, brownie and pistachio. All of the flavors other than pistachio just tasted like vanilla! We all had a good laugh about it. Good thing we like vanilla! We also enjoyed petting the 6 cats at the store.
Sat – More hiking! Another day of hiking in Hocking Hills. Highlights today were Rock House and Conkles Hollow. The weather has been warm here, in the 80s. Back at our house up north the air quality is very bad due to the fires in Canada. I guess we picked a good weekend to get out town!
Rock House:
Conkles Hollow:
Sun – After packing up the camper and heading back home, I’m not sure what is on tap for today! I’ll try running again on Monday and see how it feels. I am 18 weeks out from the Columbus Marathon and my tentative plans are to run the full. Alan is running the full, so why not? (well, being injured would be a a good reason not…. 🤣)
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: Have you ever been to Hocking Hills in Ohio?
Looks like a really busy week for you all! Lots of fun and activity. Hope your hamstring is feeling better!
Yes, hopefully it was just a little irritation and I’ll be back on track. It does feel a bit suspicious though. 😐
WHAT??????????????????? We were at Hocking Hills the previous week!!!!! May 30 to June 1!
We did Whispering Cave, Old Man’s Cave, Cedar Falls, and both of the Conkles Hollow trails – the gorge and the rim trail, and then Ash Cave. After that we went to a bike path about 40 minutes away and rode our bikes from the Moonville Tunnel to King’s Hollow Tunnel (two old ghost town rail tunnels). I am way behind on blogging, but if I ever catch up I’ll do a recap. We’ll go back anyway, but now that I know that there is an ice cream place with cats, that needs to happen sooner rather than later.
Too funny that you were just there. The trails were crazy busy on Saturday.
Now that we all have adult sized bikes there is always a debate on if we should bring them along camping. This trip I lost, but I’m hoping to have an easier bike transport/storage solution soon so we can bring them! The weather wasn’t ideal for biking but I’ll check out the trail you mentioned. I’m always up for a bike ride!!
Oh no, I hope your hamstring pain isn’t a huge deal going forward. Maybe it was just caused by the two runs in one day? I’d find it hard to skip running with the group before the cookout, too. Yay for being back on the ladies evening rides. And wow, you pulled for an hour? What a great workout!
I’ve not been to Hocking Hills, but it looks really pretty.
I bet if Sam could have, he would have written sardines onto the menu. LOL
LOL, true on the sardines! The cats had to stay home on this camping trip but we do plan to take them both sometime this summer. Individually they each camped well, so we’ll see how the unfriendly pair does together. I forgot to mention that our neighbor had a Macaw at the campground. The Macaw went outside and goes for bike rides too!
I totally forgot that I’d be pulling the whole time on that group ride and just wanted to chat with my friend (the group leader). I could have asked someone else to switch with me, but I’m glad I stuck with it. It was quite the workout!
Sorry to hear about the hamstring, hope it’s over quickly. I’ve done two walk-runs so far now my physio is allowing that: it does feel good to run, but also weird! Hm.
That’s good to hear you are starting up with some run/walks! Maybe that will be my plan on Monday.
My Ohio sister has mentioned how fun Hocking Hills is! Looks great. Love the kitty pic. 18 weeks is hopefully plenty of time to sort out any potential injuries!
I agree – no rush to start training at 18 weeks. More important to get any issues sorted out!
Hocking Hills is really pretty. It’s about 3 hours from where we live, so a good distance for a camping weekend.
Ugh, not the dreaded hamstring/glute pain!!! What is up with that area? Mine is still hanging on, despite lots of PT type exercises and short runs. Well, hope yours is short-lived. You have a lot of other fun activities to fall back on so you can give it a break if you need to.
Those hiking photos look beautiful! I was wondering how bad the smoke is up there- I guess fairly bad. Glad you got out of town.
The discomfort happens when I lift my knee and cross it over my other leg (moving it sideways). The pain is in my rear. Just raising my knee doesn’t hurt, so maybe that’s more of a hip flexor muscle and hamstring? I’m not sure yet, haven’t really Googled it… because if I don’t think about it maybe it will go away. haha!!
Have you ever had piriformis issues? The pain you described (above, to Jenny) sounds like it may be in the vicinity. I had it years ago…total pain in the a$$. It’s right near the glutes and hamstrings, though, so anything in that area is annoying. That was might generous of you to (and the other gal) to let the riders draft off of you 😉
I have had piriformis pain in the past. Struggled with it for years!! It is a deep pain, but it feels a bit different. I really hope it’s not that again!
What beautiful places to hike! Those are some super cool rock formations.
But the coolest of it all – a pencil sharpener museum??! That’s class!!! I had almost forgotten they even existed!
How disappointing about your hamstring/glute pain! I hope it can go away with some taking it easy and PT.
The funny part was that I remembered having some of the pencil sharpeners that were in the collection! There were some very interesting ones. Also funny, they gave my daughter a coloring book at the visitors center. She said “they probably thought I am 12 years old!” (she’s 22) 🤣
I’ve never been to Hocking Hills, but it sure looks amazing! And a pencil sharpener museum? Sounds like a must see! I love random stuff like that.
I’m sorry to hear about your injury…I feel you on that one!!
Injuries, who’s got time for that?! Hopefully it’s just a random pain. Fingers crossed!
I love Hocking hills! We were just there last summer but other than that I haven’t been nearly enough. Looks like the trails weren’t that crowded? Hopefully you’re feeling okay and not having any hamstring issues next week. Columbus will be here before you know it!
I think we planned our trip pretty well to avoid the crowds. The parking lot for Old Man’s Cave was only half full the day we went (Friday) but it was overflowing on Saturday!
what beautiful views! I’ve only been to Ohio once and it definitely did not look anything like these pictures. I was in Cincinnati for work. I think. It’s a blur.
I’m sorry you injured yourself but sounds like you have a plan to move forward. Fingers crossed for your marathon.
A pencil sharpener museum! How interesting!