It’s been a while since my last workout recap!

So I thought today would be the perfect Wednesday to give you a quick glimpse into what the past 7 days looked like for me in terms of fitness. I’ve been pretty hardcore about sticking to a strict schedule over the past few weeks and while I’m proud of myself, I can also feel my body lagging a bit to acclimate itself to the mileage that keeps growing as I get closer the first Half Marathon on the calendar. My sister Cassidy came across THIS article last week and it was super eye-opening for both of us. We realized that we’ve been running too fast for too many miles during the week and on Saturday I put into play some of the tips from the article and felt a lot better after my long run. One thing I’m really focusing on at the moment and especially in the upcoming weeks is stretching and foam rolling. I always seem to half-ass both of those and need to truly dedicate time to each because I know it’s beneficial in the long run. Now onto the workout plan below!

Wednesday, March 1 4.5 miles + Abs

I knew going into these miles that I needed to do them at my goal Half pace {8:15} but goodness gracious that is a lot harder on the treadmill than it should be. I’m not sure if it’s because our treadmill is in our small basement without a lot of air movement or if it’s more mental but I could only keep the 7.3 pace for 3.5 of the 4.5 and took it down to 7.0 to finish the last mile. It’s amazing was a .3 mph can feel like but I finished and felt good so I’ll take it. Afterwards I did a quick 5-minute ab blast because my abs felt left out. 😉

Thursday, March 2 OrangeTheory 

Class was a run + row combination and it was TOUGH. AS. SHIT. Think running .5 miles as fast as you can, followed by an 800m row and then repeating a similar structure over the course of about 30 minutes. And that was only half the class. Luckily I felt like the moves on the weight floor were a little easier and I was able to recover from the front-end of class pretty quickly. I ended up burning nearly 700 calories with 21 splat points. Oh and I completely sweat through my new favorite tank–and it’s on sale!

Friday, March 3 REST DAY

Oh was this day needed. Between getting maybe 5 hours of sleep max with Palmer the night before and lots of sore/tight muscles, I was beyond excited to just rest. P and I did walk the mall in the afternoon for about 20 minutes and I did a lot of stretching before bed but otherwise it was exercise-less bliss the entire day!

Saturday, March 4 9 miles

99% of my workouts are complete by 9:30am. This 9 mile long run wasn’t started until 1:30pm. So after getting over the mental hurdle of running distance in the afternoon, I took my pre-workout supplements and headed out the door. The temps were in the mid-60s and I was SO excited to be running on the pavement and not the treadmill. Jokes on me because as I turned South about 3.5 miles in, I realized it wasn’t just kind of windy but crazy windy. Between my watch {thus my music as well} dying at mile 5 and having constantly dust in my eyes–because I refuse to run in sunglasses–I called it quits after finishing up mile 6 and did my last 3 on the treadmill. Clearly not the kind of run I had in mind but I was super proud for knocking out the miles and for a 8:28 pace despite all the hiccups.

Sunday, March 5 OrangeTheory

It was ANOTHER Run + Row class. Not sure how I ended up with two (3 if you count the Augie-thon the Saturday prior) of these combo classes back-to-back but because my left knee was a little swollen and finicky, I decided to walk at an incline for the ‘run’ portions. While that might seem like no big deal, I despise walking during class because 1) I feel like everyone is judging me {they’re not, no one is worried about anyone else} and 2) I didn’t drive 20 minutes to walk. Well, I got a heck of a good workout in still, especially with the intense rowing so I was still sweaty after the first half of class was over. The weight floor was also pretty tough with lots of plyo-focused moves and squat & lunge variations. 612 calories burned and 14 splat points crushed.

Monday, March 6 4.5 miles + Abs

Despite my hips/butt/hamstrings being incredibly sore from the previous day’s OTF workout, my run felt smooth. I was in my head a little bit to start but was able to stick with my goal of increasing speed every 1/2 mile and finished at an 8.0 pace which was surprising but felt awesome. I was sweating like a crazy person but it was definitely worth getting done quicker than usual. Immediately following I did a quick 5 move x 15 reps/each x 3 round ab series and foam rolled my hip flexors before hopping in the shower and heading to work.

Tuesday, March 7 7 miles

Yesterday I knocked out 7 miles on the treadmill before 7am and they felt surprisingly great. My lungs and legs {particularly my left knee} and mentally I was without a lot of distractions like I had the day before. My treadmill automatically starts ‘cooling down’ after 60 minutes and because I start out each treadmill run with 2-3 minutes of walking to warm-up I knew I’d be cutting it close. Luckily because I was feeling pretty good, I upped my pace miles 4-6 so I could come in under the hour mark by a whopping 43 seconds. YESSS.