Week 23 – Reality Hits

Here we are, another week has passed.  is it me or is this year flying by already??? GEEEZ.  I have titled this “reality hits” for a few reasons:

1. The last trip for a little while is in the books, unless something drastically changes, I’ll be at home all of June and July and the first week of August.  If you have been following me for a while you know this is kind of a long time.
2. Marathon training is about to start
3. Work isn’t going to get less busy, now that vacation “season” has started

 

This is the reality, I may as well accept it now.

Week Totals:
Biking: 53.4 KM
Running: 11 KM
Steps: 52209
Gym: 3x
One lunch walk
No AM workouts done

Planned vs. Actual is just Actual vs. Actual – I made no plans last week since I wanted to just go with the flow for my last week prior to marathon training start.  Here’s what it looked like:

Monday–   Travel day.  Sadly we were up at out the door of our lovely Málaga airbnb apartment by 7:30.  The flight was uneventful (thankfully) and we arrived safely back to Düsseldorf.  And, bonus, we actually remembered where we parked the car (sometimes it’s a challenge and getting to the airport was stressful this time around so the chances are higher that the memory doesn’t work as well).   We arrived back home, and the laundry cycles began, plus food shopping and getting ready for the week at work.

Steps: 8550

Tuesday – I had an appointment at the neurologist before work and basically she told me what I already knew;  no neuropathy.  So that’s a good thing but also bad because it still doesn’t explain anything.  She does think that something went wrong with the operation and that explains the problem with my toe (they are two separate issues) She wants me to take medicine to manage pain and tingling.  She’s given me two weeks to think about it, but I think I already know- I don’t want it.  I want answers, not pills!   Another crying session in the car on the way to work (it’s very frustrating to be dealing with this for so long and no one knows what is wrong!).  Work wasn’t that great either- had a stressful day so I decided to go for a run.

Steps: 8658
Running: 4KM (not incl in steps)

Wednesday –  More work stress, but still (finally) managed to get out at lunch for a walk. Planned to go to RPM with Vincent, so after work I gathered my things and picked him up to go to the gym.  Super sweaty session – felt really good afterwards!

Bike: 5km (commute)
Steps: 15,107
Spinning: 45 min

 

 

Thursday – Ugh, super stressful day at work.  Had an appointment with my lifestyle coach and my manager said to go ahead and go (it was as 12:30) even though we were having issues (glad to have understanding managers!).  Very good chat with my coach – she was also really pleased to see the result on the scale – 3.3KG less than the last time I saw her but also a reduction in my body fat %, my organ fat, my muscle mass and my fitness level.  I’ll check in again with her in a month.

Back at work though it was very busy and high stress to get everything done.  I finally left at 6pm, got home and quickly ate something and then changed as Ron and I had already discussed going to bodypump that evening.  Didn’t feel like it, but went anyway (knew it would help my mood).

Bike: 5KM
Steps: 8829
Bodypump: 55 min

Friday – Day off.   BUT… back to my doctor to talk with her about the orthopedist and neurologist findings.  I want to go to a private clinic now for my foot because I’m fed up!  But first I want to have blood tests done to rule out any deficiencies or other problems (but WHY I have to ask for these things and my doctor doesn’t suggest it, AFTER 5 YEARS, is beyond me).  So, good news, I got the blood tests done right after our appt, but bad news is… I can’t get a referral for the clinic until the blood tests come back.  Grrrrrrrrr.   I can’t complain too much – health care is amazing here, it’s just sometimes quite bureaucratic.

After the doc and blood tests I came home, did laundry, planned out my month, and did some tidying and cleaning.  Then I got ready for one massage client but also prepared my bag to go directly to Runiversity afterwards.  I’m not in training yet, but I paid for the month so I decided to go for an interval session. AFTER bodypump Thursday…. talk about DOMS!  (in this case I think DOMS means DIRECT instead of DELAYED haha!).

Good interval session, messed up the first interval but the rest were good.  Thought my heart rate was going through the roof at one point though! Surprised I could run so well with such sore quads and glutes!

Bike: 18.70KM
Steps: 10,453
Run: 7KM (not incl in steps)

Saturday – As I am a glutton for punishment, I decided that sitting around wasn’t going to help my muscle soreness so I got up to go to the gym to do RPM again.  Ron wanted to run to the gym and do some exercises while I was spinning.  So that’s what we did.

In the afternoon I went over to a friend’s house.  She runs Arnhem Life and is interested in adding bike tours to the city walking tours she already has, but… she’s not super fond of biking!  I mentioned to her last year that bike tours could be interesting for us – that we may be a smaller city but there is life outside of Amsterdam and what better way to showcase your city than by bike!  Anyway, we decided initially on a few tours, but I need to map them out and see how far they are and approximately how long they would take.    That means… not only did I do RPM in the morning, I biked to her place, did one round of one of the tours (have to tweak it a bit) and came home with another 18.3KM on the books.

Bike: 18.3
Steps: 6730
RPM: 45 min

Sunday  Pretty much toast today, legs are still trashed from Thurs/Fri/Saturday.  Did some stuff in the house, minimal steps, only went outside to ride my bike to town for dinner and back! That was needed!!

Bike: 6.4
Steps: 2432 (OMG that is so low!!)

 

 

SO MUCH FOR RESTING UP AND GOING WITH THE FLOW BEFORE MARATHON TRAINING STARTS!

Coming up in week 24:
Monday – AM Workout
Tuesday – AM Workout, Training @Runiversity
Wednesday – double duty; BodyPump and Spinning with Vincent
Thursday – REST
Friday – AM Workout, Training @Runiversity

Also:
Minimum 3 lunch walks
Get my 10,000 steps in each day
Check off my to do list (practical stuff like paying some important bills and calling about my blood test results)

 

How was your week? Have you ever said you were going to rest and then pretty much proceeded to do #allthethings ?  What’s your favourite part of your city?  Do you have cows in town?