This summer is all about getting back into track, strength and crosstraining rather than adding a ton of overall weekly miles. I'll be doing that in the fall while trying to maintain the speed workouts and strength/crosstraining. But I'm trying not to pile it all on at once in hopes that I keep injuries at bay, so I'm slowly ramping my miles up while also building a solid speedwork base.

This week's workouts:

Monday: Walk at the Ravenel Bridge - 2.5 miles

Tuesday: Track workout - 2 miles: 5 x 1 minute fast followed by 1 minute slow plus warmup and cool down + Strength - 30 minute CxWorx class

Wednesday: Strength - 30 minute 9 Round (kickboxing circuits) class

Thursday: OFF

Friday: Easy run - 4.17 miles (9:05 pace)

Saturday: Green & Lean 5K plus 2 mile(ish) cooldown

Sunday: "Long" run - 5 miles (watchless)

Total miles: 16.25 / Total runs: 4 / Total core/strength workouts: 2 / Total crosstraining: 1

Monday was Memorial Day and I was still feeling a little tired from starting back with harder workouts the week before, so D, B and I packed up the running stroller and headed to the Ravenel Bridge for a family walk. It was still a decent workout since it's a long incline and we were walking pretty fast, but it gave my tight calves a needed break from running. I also spent some quality time with the foam roller on Monday to try to work out the knots in my legs.

Tuesday was the first real track workout of the season and we did short bursts of speed followed by slower recoveries - 1 minute on, 1 minute off. My speed splits were a little uneven, coming in at 6:40, 7:05, 7:08, 7:55 (oops), and 6:54. I followed up my track workout with a CxWorx strength class. It's so good to be back at the track (and strength training, too)!

Wednesday, I tried out a new (to me) place called 9 Round, which is a 30 minute circuit workout (9 circuits) that incorporates lots of kickboxing elements. I liked a lot of the workout, but wasn't a huge fan of the boxing part. I'm more of a weights, kettlebells, medicine ball, body weight type of workout person. And the punching hurt my wrists. I may give it another try, but I'm not sure it's the workout for me. The owner was super, super nice and extremely helpful, though, and if you're into kickboxing, this is one awesome gym!

Friday was just an easy run in the blazing heat. It's really starting to get hot here and I think the best time to run is probably at about 2 a.m., but that's not going to happen, so I'll just be sweating it out for the rest of the summer. I wore a way-to-warm and too fitted t-shirt on Friday, too, so I felt like a stuffed, sweaty sausage. Definitely need to get out and buy some looser tanks and t-shirts ASAP.

Saturday, I ran the Green & Lean 5K and used it as my tempo run. Since it's so hot, there's really no point in racing (for me, anyway), but I love 5Ks and I'm more motivated to run a little bit faster in a race, even if it's not race pace. So I got a nice little tempo session in and took home 2nd in my age group, too. Not a bad Saturday morning.

Sunday was a naked run - no watch! Because sometimes it's more about time on your feet instead of the time on the watch. I ran late in the day and it was (of course) hot. Thank goodness most of my route was in the shade because the sections that weren't were utterly miserable!

My body obviously remembers harder workouts because recovery was much, much faster from everything this week than the previous week. No crazy soreness or knots in my calves. Looking forward to another week of double speed sessions (another tempo 5K on the calendar for Saturday!) plus getting back to Bodyflow!

Weekly workouts (5/25-5/31): Beat the Heat + 10K training (week 2)