Week 7 in the pocket.

I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap from HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin as I’m trying very hard to be consistent with my weekly posts, AND it would be great to have a bit more engagement. With having not a lot of extra time it IS challenging to visit other blogs but I definitely would like to give as well as receive support!

Check out their blogs as well AND the links that others have dropped in the link up!

I suppose if I had a good week, with no stress there would likely be nothing really to report…

Here’s the recap from week 7!

Monday – Ugh. Honestly? Why do Monday’s just suck? I honestly try very hard to be positive when I start each day, but this Monday just was extremely irritating. And stressful. I skipped my lunch because the work I do has time constraints and I had a meeting at 2pm. At 1:50 the meeting was cancelled! That was it! At that moment I put on my coat and said “see you in a bit” to my colleagues and headed outside. It was either than or explode in some sort of dramatic Scanners way (don’t know Scanners? You are most likely (much) younger than me). The rest of the day was a bit better. Once I finally got home, I quickly ate something and headed over to Runiversity training. This time we were re-doing the Cooper Test. I had the feeling that it went much better this time but really I only made it 9 meters further during the 12 minute test. It’s ok, it’s not worse in any case, and I felt like it was easier than the first time. I do have the feeling that I’m finally getting the technique though so that’s a plus. Worked on school a bit afterwards as I was getting a bit of (healthy?) pressure from my project mate.

This kitty on my walk made my day!

Tuesday – back to feeling like a “normal” working day. I wanted to go to the gym and work on school stuff so I tried to be as efficient as possible to leave on time. We had a department meeting from 3:00 – 4:30 (ughhhh) so before 3pm I put half of my gym clothes on already! After the meeting I gathered my stuff and left. I did less cardio this time as my warm-up and just focused on my strengthening exercises. Got home around 7:30 and the man had arranged dinner for us and then afterwards I worked on my paper. I wish I didn’t feel so stressed out about school stuff. I would love to let go and kind of go with the flow but I get so uptight and anxious about it! Super tired so I went to bed after about 2 hours of schoolwork. Plan was to go to the gym Wednesday as well but not so sure about it so I didn’t pack my bag.

Wednesday – indeed, I figured gym wasn’t going to happen and it’d be way better if I just would head home after work and work on my school stuff. Sleeping was rough, getting out of bed was rough, work was “normal” rough (hahahaha) I threw in the towel at 9:45 and went to bed. In any case I had a good food and water day and I did manage a few things in the house as well.

Thursday – Though I prepped food for this day it still went a bit wrong. I think I just didn’t have enough to start off my day and I suffered the whole day for it. Lesson learned. It was also stressful again at work. By the time I got home I then had to eat something (again. I was eating the whole day it seemed) and then get ready to meet Vincent for running technique. We did technique for about an hour in total (Ron joined as well) and then home again. More studying and made a plan as well for Friday, my day off.

 

[ctt template=”11″ link=”C160q” via=”yes” ]Week 7 in the pocket! #weeklyupdate #weightloss #running #fitness #5KPR[/ctt]

Friday – up early-ish, and got cracking around 8:30 on my schoolwork. I promised myself 1 hour work, then a little breather (15min) then 1 hour work, then another breather and then the household stuff I wanted to do. And that worked out pretty well. At some point I also left the house for a bit. I needed fresh air and wanted to pick up a few things in town. One thing I picked up that I wasn’t planning on was gourmet fries. Oops! haha! Well, I *had* to see what the fuss was about! They were fine fries but not the best ones I ever had. So now I know. Once I got past that distraction I finished up what I wanted to do and headed back home. Ron went to the gym and came home later, made dinner and I continued basically studying until 10pm. What a nightmare. I still didn’t get all my schoolwork done but I was just absolutely spent. I then got a few things ready for being away the whole day on Saturday. I didn’t eat very well, I barely got all my water in and I didn’t go to training.

Saturday – school day! up and at ’em. Packed my lunch so I would not deviate from the plan. My schoolmate picked me up and we arrived in plenty of time to have a coffee before class started. While I still didn’t “get” everything that was going on, I at least felt like I understood more than the last few times in class. So I guess spending all that time on studying helped. There is still part of me that wants to quit, but I have to keep fighting. After school I gave my school stuff to my mate (she lives nearby) to take home and I headed for the train station. I had made plans with Babette to go see a concert and she bought me the ticket as a (quite late! haha!) birthday present. So I was off to Amsterdam to meet up with her and another couple we know from running. I had a GREAT night! But it was late, I did drink 3 pints of beer and I was pretty late at home. Luckily the other couple we know lives right around the corner from me so they offered me a ride back! YAY! The train, that late, after a concert, is kind of a nightmare! Ron was asleep when I got home, as he should have been, since he had plans to run with Vincent on Sunday morning.

Sunday – Ugh. did not sleep well. This is a common thread, did you notice? Was up around 9am, pulled myself together, had some breakfast and coffee, got dressed and then headed over to my schoolmate’s place to pick up my stuff. After a little chat I went back home and my intention was to get dressed and do my run as soon as possible so I wouldn’t somehow talk myself out of it (or at least try). The plan was to do a warm-up and then 5KM at a fairly high heart rate and tempo and then cool down. I don’t like running at high tempo much, at least, it takes me well out of my comfort zone, but then on the other hand that’s why I signed up for this training program… to get me out of my comfort zone! I programmed my watch and finally headed out on my run.

Lately my heart rate band is acting up. Usually when I start running my HR goes up to about 125 or so, but once again, just during my warm-up it was registering 165+. Which is just not possible. I run like a diesel, my HR is not that high, certainly not in the beginning. My marathon HR is usually somewhere around 165, so you can imagine, this was too high for a warm-up. My watch kept buzzing and beeping and I decided to stop the program all together and just use my watch normally. Of course, when I stop the watch, it syncs and sends the details to Strava so Ron thought I chucked it all in after 10 min! Ha! Not a chance!

What I really wanted to do was hit the desired tempo and just try to stay there for the full 5KM. I just checked it kilometer after kilometer. First one down, less than 6 min… ok that’s pretty fast for me… second one down… even faster… ok keep going… third one down, still under 6 min and, in fact, even faster! . At this point I took a 10 second breather and then carried on… fourth kilometer, still under 6 min (I never run this fast!!)… Fifth kilometer, ok, I’m dying but I need to stay under 6 now… I took breathers throughout the last one, but technically still made it in less than 6 minutes! Stopped the clock at 29:23. Officially the fastest 5KM I’ve run in training or a race (as a 5K).
As my cool down I actually just walked home. I was spent. But I felt GOOD! Holy running, Batman!

I got home, ate something, showered and got dressed and then Ron and I headed into town for a bite and a movie. I hardly saw him all week so we wanted to have a little time together. We ended up at a little burger place near the cinema so that we would be on time for the film. We saw “Split” – it was pretty suspenseful! I wasn’t sure in the beginning if I would like it or not but I actually really enjoyed it! So, if you like that kind of thing (and you like M. Night Shyamalan’s films in general) I would recommend it!

After the weekend I had, by the time we got home (around 9:30pm) I was just simply done. I was in bed by 9:45! I’m glad I spent the time with Ron but man this week was just a bit too much.

To sum it all up:

FOOD – 4/7 days logged on MFP

WATER – 7/7 days target met

EXERCISE – 4/7 days

HOUSEHOLD – 6/7 days something done

NO ALCOHOL – 5/7 days

SCHOOL 4/7 days (including all day in school Saturday)

I also made a small note in my journal about the day.

How was your week? Did you train or go to the gym? What’s the last movie you saw at the cinema?