I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap again this week from HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin – check out their blogs as well AND the links that others have dropped in the link up!
Here’s the recap from last week – week 8 of 2017:
Monday – Another grumpy start of the week. I really don’t know what it is lately. Well, could be that lack of sleep thing. I stuck to my food plan and at least that and my water intake created a positive aspect. After work it was time for group training. To be honest I never look up the training before I go because I’m afraid it will create a panic and/or negative self-talk. So when Chantor told us we were going to do 20 x 200m intervals at 130% HR I nearly had a heart attack. We started the training, did the warm up and various exercises and I was told that my target was 53 seconds for each round. 20 times!!! UGH. However…I really wanted to do it, so I did. 20 times all averaging around 40 seconds. That ‘s the good news. The bad news is, the round was not 200 meters… it was 130! Oops! It’s ok though, the exercise made me push and push I did. Successful training? √
Recently I bought a new (for me) protein shake to try, so after training I actually remembered to drink it! (It’s not a habit quite yet, to have protein directly after training, but I’m trying).
Tuesday – Still struggling to get out of bed early enough AND get out as soon as the alarm goes off. Today I actually managed getting out at 6am so I could run some laundry and fold some of the never-ending pile of clean (sports clothes) laundry. Work was work and as soon as 4pm hit I was more than ready to get to the gym. Did a bike (cardio) warm-up and then did my hip -ad & abductors and glute exercises. Once I was home it was time to try and work on my school paper. Frustrating and feel like a deer in the headlights just thinking about it.
Wednesday – Uneventful day in general but in the evening I planned on going to Runnersworld in Arnhem as they were having a special event called “Runners’ Prep Night” which was presented by the writers of the book Sportables. The book is definitely on my “to buy” list. It’s filled with tips and tricks and on-the-go recipes for runners that actually are healthy and the right combination of carbs, protein and natural sugars. I’m always interested in learning more about sports nutrition – I find it still very tricky to know what to eat / what not to eat during training and what to use as fuel during a (half or full) marathon. I didn’t buy the book yet, I have no time to read it right now and it would just end up on the growing pile of motivational books I already bought and haven’t read yet.
Saw lots of runner friends there; was a nice evening!
[ctt template=”3″ link=”73Gv1″ via=”yes” ]week 8: bad weather, running, training and protein shakes – Just another weekly wrap![/ctt]
Thursday – Could the weather be any worse? I almost got blown off my bike like 10 times going to work and I only live a mile away! Work same as usual, packed my bag for the gym afterwards and eventually left around 4:30pm to start my workout.
Not impressed with this weather at all…
Good workout, actually did some extra cardio as I logged my dinner in MFP before going and with the food that I had eaten during the day (including a snack to get me through the workout) I didn’t actually have much to work with for dinner. I don’t normally like to exercise to eat dinner but it simply turned out that way. And actually I enjoyed it, so it wasn’t a punishment or anything like that.
After the gym I quickly went to the supermarket to pick up a few things and this is what the shelves looked like! Luckily dinner was sorted but I didn’t have much for lunch items the next day!! (I think they were cleaning and changing the shelving but COME ON, put some signage up!!)
Friday – My normal day off. Got up fairly early as I planned on meeting my friend Sheena in Utrecht to watch T2 only to discover at the last minute that it was the original Trainspotting playing at the time we agreed to meet rather than T2. It was playing where I live at 1:15pm but as she lives far away (or rather I do?) this was the reason we planned to meet in the middle of the country. Lucky for me, she decided to come to me anyway! So we met up, did a wee bit of food shopping, had a coffee and a sandwich and then hit the cinema. For someone who doesn’t see a lot of movies, I’ve been to the cinema a lot lately! I’m a huge, huge fan of Trainspotting and I loved T2! There were definitely a few things in the film that I did NOT expect.
After the film, we both went back to our respective homes, I picked up some things for my dinner, and before I got to cooking I did some speed-cleaning in the house. On Fridays I have training, so I headed out around 6:30 to the planned location.
There were only a few of us (many people are on vacation due to school vacation + carnival) and the plan was some warming up (suicide sprints – see the video), then 1KM at 85% max HR and then every 500 meters we had to go 0.5KM faster (if that makes sense) up to 5KM. Which, was like, uh, no, that is not going to happen!! However, I decided I would just try anyway and after 3KM I just could not go faster. I had to take a tiny walking break. I picked it up again, went as fast as I could and ended up with a 5KM time of 28:50. Which is already faster than the last 5KM PR I just had!
After I got home I had a little bite to eat and pretty much vegged out the rest of the evening.
Saturday – not a great day at all. Did get a chance to sleep in a bit, worked on my paper again for school and didn’t really do much the rest of the day. Actually things got progressively worse, but I’ll spare you all the details (challenges with one of the stepkids). Ugh. Tried to shake things off before I went to bed so I would be able to sleep. Still, it was rough. Too many things floating around my head.
Sunday – somewhat better day. slept in a bit again, had my breakfast and then at around 12pm I started getting dressed to go out and run. I did not look at my training schedule, I just needed to go out and run. Clear my head a bit! Since I’m “only” training for a 10KM improvement on speed, I haven’t had any trainings longer than 8KM. This run was not about any of that though. Just needed to run and be outside.
The first 5KM went fairly ok, I had a couple of really decent kilometers. The second half my back was starting to hurt to I pretty much just ran and walked. I didn’t need to prove anything to myself and I didn’t have to be anywhere at a certain time so I took my time, took a breather now and again and took some photos, as you can see.
I got home, took a shower, refueled and at some point Ron was back from the gym. Since he was leaving Monday morning for India, I decided I would give him a good leg massage in case it would help with sitting for so long in the plane.
Afterwards he made us a lovely dinner and after he was ready with packing we decided to watch Carrie on Netflix (sidenote: I can’t believe that movie is 40 years old! FORTY!).
To sum it all up:
FOOD – 5/7 days logged on MFP
WATER – 7/7 days target met
EXERCISE – 5/7 days
HOUSEHOLD – 6/7 days something done
NO ALCOHOL – 6/7 days
SCHOOL 3/7 days (it’s vacation week)
I also made a small note in my journal about the day.
How was your week? What’s your favorite protein shake? How do you challenge yourself at the gym? Is your mood affected by the weather?
I read the book Carrie in my early teens (I’m OLD) since I was a huge Stephen King fan back in the day. I eventually saw the movie after it had been out a few years. It was pretty disturbing (back then anyway). Congrats on a strong week of training and on an even faster 5k this week. Our grocery shelves look like that when they say a hurricane is coming. LOL. Thanks for linking, Renee!
hey Holly, I’m old too, believe me! hahaha!
Looking forward to linking up again next week!