Last week was a weird one. A good one, but still little weird since I was dealing with a sore achilles on my left ankle and running itself wasn't awesome.

Normally, I wouldn't be pleased with a week that had so little running, but I got ton of good workouts in and did a few runs with some new running friends. And that made it a success.

Workout summary

Monday:
- Strength training on a Juvo board (class)
- Barre class
Tuesday: Easy run - 5 miles
Wednesday:
- Yoga on a paddleboard
- Easy run with friends - 3.06 miles @ 9:03 pace (achilles still sore, taking it easy)
Thursday: HIIT workout using FabFitFun TV
Friday: Rest - assisted stretch session at Stretch Zone
Saturday: Easy run with my running group - Almost 3 miles
Sunday: Bike ride - 8 miles

Last week's totals

Total miles: 11.06 miles
Total runs: 3
Total strength: 4
Total bike: 1
Total workouts: 8

While I came up short on my runs and was really nursing my sore achilles to avoid a longterm injury, I got in lots of other workouts and I finally got back on a paddleboard. Yeehaw!

I also had some allergy issues this week. These allergy flare ups used to manifest themselves major congestion followed by a raging sinus infection and likely an upper respiratory infection. Now that I've been on allergy shots, it's much more manageable. Since all the chronic sinus inflammation is gone, everything now drains back my throat (yay?) and I end up coughing up phlegm for a few days (yay?).

But really, I'd rather be coughing that nasty stuff up and getting it out than having it clog up my sinuses. So that caused a bit of asthma trouble. Nothing major, and again, nothing like I've experienced prior to allergy shots, but enough for me to feel it when I was running and have to use my inhaler a little more frequently.

Monday
I did a double workout. I'm trying to get back to double workouts several days a week so I can get all of my strength work in as well as running and double workouts are the only way I can do that.

In the morning, I went to a new gym in my city, Hylo Fitness and did a strength workout on a Juvo board. Juvo boards are sort of like indoor paddleboards and they make all the moves harder because you have to balance.

I loved the studio and I loved the class, but it's a bit far from my house to be practical on a regular basis. They need to open one up on my side town because if they did, I'd be there all the time.

In the evening, I went to barre class. The double strength workout felt good and barre class always helps loosen up my tight muscles.

Tuesday
Tuesday I did an easy 5-miler. It was grossly humid, but cool enough that it didn't feel awful. My achilles was really tight and sore so I wanted to avoid pushing too hard. I took this run really, really easy and walked when I needed to just to give my achilles a break.

Wednesday
Another double workout day. I started the day with yoga on a paddleboard! The class is about 40 minutes of paddling and 20 minutes of yoga.

I'm so glad to be back on a board and doing yoga outside on the water is the perfect way to start the day! My achilles was still sore, but it felt better after yoga and stretching.

SUP Life - That's my husband - he came out for the class, too

Wednesday evening, I met up with the local chapter of She Runs This Town/Moms Run This Town that I started. We had 7 people, which I thought was a good turnout for a new group, and we ran just over 3 miles.

We did our run in ridiculous heat (85 degrees) and humidity (90%) - at 7 pm. But at least we ended our run at a pub with some cold beers. I had some pain again during this run, but, it wasn't as bad as the prior few runs.

I iced my achilles and foam rolled when I got home.

Thursday
Even though this was a scheduled run day (speedwork), because of the achilles issue, I skipped running and did a FabFitFun TV HIIT workout video.

I also spent some quality time with some ice and the foam roller to try to loosen up my calves and soothe my achilles.

Friday
Complete and total rest day! I went to Stretch Zone to try out their assisted stretching. They have a free 30-minute stretch session so you can try it out and I have been meaning to go but hadn't found the time. After this achilles trouble that I know is caused by my insanely tight calves, I decided to get in there. Oh holy wow, you guys, it was amazing.

It was so good that even after one session, I'm no longer having pain where I didn't even know I was having pain before. I'm serious. I'll save the details for a full review later, but seriously, I feel better than I've felt in years. And this was just a demo session where they didn't even do everything they normally do!

I love barre, yoga, and the foam roller, but at this point I need some extra help to keep things in line. I signed up for a three month plan with them and I'll go once a week. I'm excited to see (and feel) the results.

Saturday
I woke up with much looser calves on Saturday than I've had in months. I decided to give a short, easy run a go and see how I felt.

I met up with another runner from the running group for an easy run and we did just under 3 miles followed by smoothies. It was another super humid run, but the company made it so much better!

I had no pain in my achilles while I was running, but I did have a little bit afterward. I came home and used the foam roller for a few minutes and the pain was gone.

And I felt totally fine the rest of the day when we took B to swimming lessons (and I had to be in the pool with him) and then walked all over the South Carolina Aquarium. Yep, we were there again.

Sunday
I woke up on Sunday feeling even better than I had on Saturday (Stretch Zone for the win!), but I felt like I should give my achilles one more day of rest instead of risking a long run, so we did a family bike ride instead.

Then we celebrated Father's Day by going to the pool and attempting to see Cars 3. We didn't quite make it through the whole movie because B thought it was too loud, but we still had fun and seeing B's eyes get bigger and bigger when Lightning McQueen showed up on the big screen was awesome.

And that was my week - lots of workouts, but not a lot of miles.

How was your week? Are you surviving the summer slogs through the humidity? Do you like to run with friends or alone?