Week 5-18: Let the training commence!

Well, as I mentioned in Week 4 ,  week 5 was kind of going to be a doozy so I had to really focus on what I could and couldn’t do and promptly let go of the latter so I could get sh*t done.

One of the reasons I use a bullet journal is precisely for weeks like this.  I have things I want to do, small goals I want to accomplish and sometimes that means tight planning.  Sometimes it means I have to give up something as well.  In the case of last week, it was clearly my lunch walks and steps.  Not all was lost though.

Monday  – I had a team event and dinner straight after work, and I was pretty busy during the day but still managed a 3km walk during lunch.  Our event was also in town, near the river, which meant I biked to work, to the event (in the miserable pouring rain without my rainsuit … will I ever learn???) and back home for a total of 9km.  I opted to not drink alcohol at the event because to be quite honest I didn’t want to start off the week with wine and going to bed late.  I just don’t recover well these days.  Total steps for Monday:  11,898.
Tuesday – Today was Week 1 Run 1!  But also massage night. So… no walk at lunch, only my regular 4.4km bike-commute to work and I took the bus to the physio practice.  I had two clients and then I put my running kit on and did my first run on the dreadmill.  As much as I dislike the ‘mill it is handy to be able to use it when necessary.    I did a 5 min warm-up, 40 minutes easy pace (around 6:45 per km) and then a 5 min cool-down.  Thankfully I had some music with me to distract from the fact that I was literally running in place for 50 minutes and 6.7km.  Total steps: 17,431.

Wednesday – Another busy day at work, skipped my lunch break all together so that I could be sure to leave work on time.  I had a date with Vincent to do intervals and I needed to be at his place around 4:45 so we could run at 5pm.  Luckily Vincent lives even closer to work than I do so I was on time for Run 2.    Vincent basically took control of my training and set the tone and pace for the intervals.  I had no idea how fast I was running.  He started off talking about me running the 800 meters at 6:15 mpk but I thought “no way is that going to happen”.  BUT… not only did it happen 4 times, it happened even faster.  Can I just have Vincent or Ron with me on all my trainings and races???    Anyway, it was a good training and I’m very happy with the result.  I really should let go of doubting myself!   I went home after a cup of a coffee (and a slice of cake :D) and a chat (his wife/my friend Wendy came home as well so I hung out a bit longer) and then it was time for the last of the Burpees, Planks and Push-ups Challenge – that’s right, 100 burpees, 100 push-ups and 5 minutes of planking. And… I was toast.    Total run: 6.35km, no biking, no walking, but total steps:  17,759.

Thursday – ANOTHER busy day at work, but actually more the morning than the afternoon.  At 3pm I had to go to a Psychologist appointment – apparently there is a link somewhere with mental health and tinnitus and I was offered 7 or 8 (I can’t remember) sessions with a psychologist to see if I need help to handle situations that may make the ringing in my ears worse (stress is a factor).  Of course, they start asking me questions about traumas, etc., and that’s like opening a can of worms but I’m not against talking about stuff.    My appointment was literally a stone’s throw from my office, so afterwards I went back and finished up some stuff that needed to be done.  I then went home, had something to eat quickly and got ready because it was SPINNING night and we had to pick up Vincent at 7pm.  Incredibly, Ron actually agreed to go to spinning as well!!  He isn’t sure he likes it, but he was sweating buckets and thought it actually was a good cross-training.  Afterwards, the guys wanted me to do a strength circuit in and I said I would only do it if they would add 30 Supermans to the mix.  Why?  Well, because February’s Challenge is Supermans, Squats and Twists and we were starting off with 30 Supermans!   Of course, they agreed!  Such agreeable men in my life!  No walk at lunch, normal 4.4 bike-commute, Total Steps:  10,691

Friday – Usually my day off but I offered to come in for half a day.  A colleague that I didn’t really work with had been ill for quite some time and we found out at the beginning of the week that he had died.  Many of my colleagues did work with him for a long time so quite a few people really wanted to go to the funeral.  I knew it would be a burden if there wasn’t someone to take up the slack for a few hours and they were grateful I could be there while they were not.   Anyway, it wasn’t so busy as what I did on Thursday afternoon was partially what I normally do in the morning.   I went home and I was pretty much done for the day.  I had a rest day on my schedule, but since I was going to be out all day Saturday I thought I’d try to do Saturday’s run.  Didn’t happen.  No walk done, 4.4km bike-commute, 30 squats. Total Steps: 8,419
Saturday – Seemed like a good idea when I signed up, but I was dreading the early morning start and the 1 hour drive to Rotterdam (as you know, I would rather take my bike or the train rather than drive but it couldn’t be done reasonably any other way than by car) to my Hot Stone Massage workshop.  In the end I’m glad I went, though I don’t see myself doing full 1-hour long hot stone massages.  I think I’d rather incorporate the stones for clients who really have very stiff back and neck muscles.  Could be tricky to do so, since the stones have to be heated up about 1 – 1.5 hours in advance.    Once I got home I was done for the day.  I also didn’t have my vivofit on most of the day (you can’t massage with any sort of jewellery on so my steps weren’t tracked.  No walk, no biking, I did to my russian twists in any case (30).  Total steps: 2,563 (oops)

Sunday–  RACE DAY!  I only had a 1 hour and 15 minute run on the schedule but the Mid-Winter Marathon was happening in Apeldoorn so Ron arranged a 10 Mile bib for me (I waited too long to decide and was too late with registration.  This race you can transfer ownership of bibs before the actual day of the race, so my bib said my name was “Maaike” but I’m in the results as my own name) and already had a 25k bib for himself.  It was a very crisp winter day and we even had a light dusting of snow earlier in the morning but it cleared up and was nice and sunny (but cold) during the race.  My goal was to run without taking any walk breaks and I did just that!  It felt so good to not have any issue with my foot too!   I kept my pace steady so that I could keep going.  My time was 1:52:59.  If I’m going to do a marathon under 5 hours I will need to pick up that pace just a little bit, but for a first race of the year I’m VERY happy with this result.    This is the fourth time I’ve run in this event – I’ve done the 25k twice, the 8k last year and now this year the 10-mile.  I would have loved to take photos along the way but as I didn’t want to stop at all, it just wasn’t happening.  You’ll just have to trust me that it was gorgeous!  Ron also had a very successful race;  he ran it exactly as he wanted to – 25km in 1:51.  If he can run this pace in Boston he’ll have a pretty sweet PR.    I did no biking this day.  Total steps:28,529  

this green slop is traditional cold weather Dutch Pea Soup!

Summary:
Biking – 22.2km (includes biking to work)
Walking – 3km (I used mapmywalk to record my walks)
Running – 29.05KM
Spinning – 1x
Gym strength training – 1x
Total Steps for the week: 97,290 (so I still made up for a few days under 10K)

Week 1 of training was not exactly as the schedule called for but I feel good that I made my first two runs a priority with my crazy schedule and that I was able to do my long run at a steady pace and take no walking breaks.  I’d call it a successful first week!

Week 2 will be a bit more complicated – we are off to Poland (Warsaw and Łódź) on Wednesday.   I looked at my schedule though and Ron contacted a local running club to get some tips on where to run, so it will be happening!  At least, that is the intention for both of us.  There is no reason we can’t be a tourist and go running at the same time!

So goals for the new week:   moderation (food and drink), and RUN in two places I’ve never been before.  Oh yeah and enjoy the heck out of Depeche Mode on Saturday!! WOOT!

How was your week?  Do you count steps that you’ve run (I do)?  Do you ever feel like if you didn’t plan a really busy week out it would all go to pot?  Have you ever been to Poland?