Weekly recap (7/4-7/10): Beating the heat (sort of)
Well. I ran more than 10 miles last week. Sadly, that's a milestone for me the past few weeks with the way I've been feeling. I'd much rather be up in the 20-25 mile range right now, but I also need to get well.
So, I'm slowly easing back in, but I'm also heading into the 4th week in a row of allergy/cold/sinus illness. Yay. I kicked the cold by mid-week last week, but unfortunately as colds often do for me, it turned into a sinus infection, so I'm still feeling pretty miserable. I'm waiting a few days to see if it runs its course or if i need some meds to get rid of it. The good news is, it didn't turn into an upper respiratory infection, which it also usually does, so I guess my asthma meds are doing their thing. Small favors, I suppose.
Another thing I started to get back on track with last week is eating. With all of the stress and insanity of the past 6 months, my eating habits went down the tubes. I was feeling gross and bloated and just not healthy. So I went back to starting my day with a protein pancake and my apple juice/apple cider vinegar/cinnamon/cayenne pepper drink and eating more healthy and balanced meals throughout the day. I'm already starting to feel better from that! I did indulge in crab legs, though, but refrained from dipping them in butter, so that's not too bad, right?
Bike Ride break! B needed to stretch his legs.
Last week, I got in 3 runs, a nice long bike run with the family, and one barre class. I was supposed to run the I'on Club Firecracker 5K on July 4th, but I just did not feel up to racing in the heat with being sick, so we went on a leisurely family bike ride instead.
I came up short with my strength workouts last week and I'm missing paddleboarding, but I'm glad for the workouts I did get in while feeling sick (and while the heat index soared to 113). Yep, my crazy, sick butt was out running mid-day with three-digit heat indexes. And I spent Saturday's run with friends and chatted the entire way, so I guess I'm not doing too bad to be hitting okay paces in this insane weather.
Workout recap
Last week's workouts
- Monday: Family bike ride - 11.60 miles
- Tuesday: Off
- Wednesday: Easy run - 3.01 miles (8:57 pace), heat index 103
- Thursday: Barre class
- Friday: Easy run, still not feeling great - 5 miles (no watch), heat index 113
- Saturday: Easy run with friends - 3.12 miles (9:19 pace), heat index 98
- Sunday: Off/sick
Last week's totals
Running miles: 11.13 miles
Total runs: 3
Biking miles: 11.60
Total crosstraining (biking, paddleboarding, etc): 1
Barre/strength: 1
Total workouts: 5
I've had about enough of running while feeling like there's a wet towel wrapped around my face, so I got myself a gym membership to O2 Fitness. I now have indoor track and treadmill access (hallelujah!). There's just no way I can do reasonable speedwork right now outside with these temperatures, so I'll be taking it indoors and just doing my easy runs outside. I feel like that's the only way I'm going to get in any decent running at this point. Outside is just a slog to the finish right now. O2 Fitness also has an array of classes like BodyFlow and BodyPump, so I'll be able to take advantage of those, too. I'll still keep up with my barre classes at Barre Evolution, though, because I love that place!
In related news, also made an appointment to see an allergy and asthma specialist this week. It's my last ditch effort to try and feel better. I've never been so sick and so tired (and so sick and tired of being sick and tired) as I have been since I moved to Charleston. As much as I love it, I'm definitely highly allergic to this place. I'm hoping the allergist will help get me some relief. Fingers crossed, y'all.
Next week's goals
Since I'm sort of, kind of feeling marginally better, I thought I'd try for some goals again for the week. I'll be back on a paddleboard, and I need to get in my barre workouts.
I'm running the IOP Beach Run 5K (health permitting) on Saturday. This was the scene of my first (and so far only) did-not-finish (DNF) race. Last year, I did the 10K and just about died in the heat. I actually did finish in just under an hour, but didn't go through the finish chute to record the time since I had stopped to do some yoga stretches mid-race (and some beachcombing) and then walked the last mile. Given how I've been feeling and the weather conditions lately, my goal for the 5K is to finish. I'd like to do it in sub-25, but who knows what will happen out there. For me, summer running, and especially summer racing, is a complete crapshoot. So we'll see.
Otherwise, I'm just looking at getting back into a solid schedule and getting my weekly mileage back over 20 miles.
| Goal 1 | 4 runs |
| Goal 2 | 2 barre classes |
| Goal 3 | 1 SUP session |
| Goal 4 | Finish the IOP Beach Run 5K |
So, how do you beat the heat with summer training? Do you maintain your running miles or do you back off a bit and crosstrain?
PS - I've been linking up for the past several weeks with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin' for their Weekly Wrap post and I really love it. You can check out all of this week's posts here.