A week training – What my down time looks like

I didn’t get all the workouts in that I had planned for this week, but I’m still happy with the level of activity. I am giving myself a lot of grace this month and allowing myself time to get back into the routine of things while remembering what it’s like to run purely for the fun of it. I’ve been in constant RACE MODE for the past three months, I am not interested in forcing anything right now and I really want to give my body and mind ample time to recover for the next season. I have a handful of hard races coming up through March and April, so February is going to be an easy month for me.

Monday:

•  4 miles, untimed
• Easy jaunt with mom, we ran our usual route in her neighborhood.

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: 

• Weekly session with our trainer: legs/lower back + core
• HOLY CRAP. This was my first *hard* leg workout in 2 months almost, I had been doing legs but very lightly due to having so many long distance races back to back. This session was madness, and had me sweating and shaking like crazy. We did barbell squats and deadlifts for the first time in ages and my legs were SO FREAKING SORE. They are still a little sore. On Sunday.

Thursday:

• 4 miles, untimed
• Another run with mom, I was hoping this would work out some of the soreness I was having. My legs were so incredibly heavy that I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it, I was soooooo sloooooow and somehow I think this made me more sore.

Friday: REST (I got my first tattoo!!)

The elevation profile from Mountain Mist + one of my favorite John Muir lines

Saturday: REST (But I spent all day volunteering at a race and doing manual labor, which totally counts as a full body workout in my humble opinion)

Sunday: 

• 8 miles, untimed

• My weekly trail run with our Sunday group. We visited another Land Trust park since we are trying to give our usual trails a bit of a break after taking such a beating with the combo of bad weather and 200+ racers trampling through them. It was fun and easy and I enjoyed the company and the scenery most of all, as always

Getting my tattoo on Friday was so fun and exciting and also painful and sort of nerve wracking, ha! I have had plans for a larger, more detailed tattoo for a long time now, but I was afraid to get it as my first since I had no idea what it was going to be like. After the Grand Slam I decided to get something small to mark the achievement, and also to give myself a bit of a test run before getting a bigger one. Suffice it to say, it was painful in some parts, REALLY painful in others, but all in all worth it and nothing I couldn’t sit through to get my body art of choice. 🙂

Friday night was spent camping out pre-race with some of my favorite people. I love camping but don’t get the chance to do it often, so when I *do* get the opportunity, I jump on it, even if it’s going to be freezing cold outside, ha! I had so much fun chilling around the fire with my running buds and getting to hang out with their whole families; it’s not often we get to see each other’s spouses and kids. The best part was getting to surprise Colleen with a birthday cake, since it was her birthday weekend. The night was COLD, and frost formed on all of our tents, but I slept just fine all cozy in my one person tent inside of three sleeping bags, ha! The next morning was race day and I spent it working the finish line, setting up equipment, and pulling tabs for race timing. It was fun and entirely exhausting, just as a good weekend should be.