Weekly Wrap — Page 12

Weekly Wrap – RtR week 7

April 25, 2016 by Michelle 14 Comments

‘Twas spring break week here for my youngest son – so it was a crazy week of juggling work, playdates, a full lax schedule (honestly…when is it not full?!?) and, of course, some workouts. So here’s how the workouts went…

Monday 4/18: Boston Marathon Volunteering! Almost 7 hrs on my feet plus 3 miles run to get to the team meeting place.
Tuesday 4/19: My legs were toast – rest day!
Wednesday 4/20: An hour and half session with Trainer Stacey – glutes, abs, hips – oh my!
Thursday 4/21: Return of the irritable stomach along with a headache – pushed the run to Friday.
Friday 4/22: Chasing the sun again with 3 miles.
Saturday 4/23: 4.25 miles in light rain – all good.
Sunday 4/24: Planks and PT exercises.

A decent week despite the scheduling madness. One of my goals for April was to make some real progress on my weight loss goal – well after watching the same pound or two come and go on the scale, I decided to start keeping a food journal this week. Hopefully it will shed some light on why I’m not shedding pounds…sorry I couldn’t resist 😉

I’m looking forward to more of a regular routine this week – though Mother Nature is threatening to wreak havoc with my planned runs with…believe it or not…snow and sleet!

Anyone else facing the prospect of crazy weather? Have you ever kept a food journal?

I’m joining Holly and Tricia for their #WeeklyWrap – This link-up gets bigger every week and is full of fun bloggers. Be sure to stop by and join in!

Filed Under: training, Weekly Wrap

Weekly Wrap – RtR Week 6

April 17, 2016 by Michelle 16 Comments

I swear I blinked and the week was over! Overall I was pretty pleased with how this week went.

Monday 4/11: Rest Day.
Tuesday 4/12: Strength work and PT exercises.
Wednesday 4/13: 3 mile run.
Thursday 4/14: An hour session with Trainer Stacey.
Friday 4/15: Legs were very sore from Thursday’s workout so just did some core work and PT exercises.
Saturday 4/16: I had planned to run 6, but I woke up with a very irritable stomach which did not settle as I started running, so I settled for 4.
Sunday 4/17: 3.5 mile run.

While I would have liked a little more mileage, Trainer Stacey continues to remind me that progress may be a little slower as I work on correcting my imbalances….but it’s still progress. I’m really enjoying training with Stacey – it’s super challenging and I love how positive she is!

The goal each week is to make it better than the last! I’ll also be drawing some additional motivation this week from my volunteer gig at the marathon tomorrow – hard to not be motivated, right? Wishing everyone running Boston the best of luck!

I’m joining Holly and Tricia for their #WeeklyWrap. There are so many fun bloggers linking up, be sure to stop by!

What are you looking forward to this week?

Filed Under: training, Weekly Wrap

RtR Week 5 Wrap-up

April 10, 2016 by Michelle 30 Comments

Another week of Run to Remember training is in the books – boys these weeks are just flying by! I’m joining Holly and Tricia for their #WeeklyWrap – once you finish here, be sure to stop by and check in on how this week has treated everyone.

Monday 4/4: Rest Day.
Tuesday 4/5: Back to work with Trainer Stacy – 1 hour of ~~torture~~…er.. strength work.
Wednesday 4/6: Afternoon run of 3 miles.
Thursday 4/7: A 5K with the sunrise….and then a 90 minute sports massage later in the day – just perfect!

Friday 4/8: T25 Beta – Core Cardio.
Saturday 4/9: Another early morning run for 4.25 miles.
Sunday 4/10: Mostly a rest day with some core work and 4 hrs of standing at both of the boys’ lacrosse games.

My runs this week were ok. The frigid temps returned (again!), but I made the transition back to early morning runs (one of my goals for this month) – a good thing for sure.

I was very excited to get back to work with Trainer Stacey! While I have been fairly diligent over the last couple of months to keep some strength training in the mix, this session was both eye-opening and hard! After talking about my running and goals for this year, she put me through a full assessment. And let’s just say I have some work to do! But, it’s all good and I’m looking forward to our next session this week. I’ll also be looking to bump up my mileage – fingers crossed my legs cooperate 🙂

So now your turn – how was your week?

Filed Under: Strength training, training, Weekly Wrap

RtR Week 3 recap

March 28, 2016 by Michelle 18 Comments

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? For those who celebrate, a belated Happy Easter!

Week 3 of Run to Remember training is in the books and I’m joining Holly and Tricia for their #WeeklyWrap. Be sure to stop by and check in on how last week treated everyone.

Monday 3/21: Strength workout – legs and abs.
Tuesday 3/22: 44 minutes on the Arc Trainer.
Wednesday 3/23: 3 hilly miles on some very tired legs.
Thursday 3/24: Rest Day!

Friday 3/25: Family run – while I didn’t run as far as I’d planned, nothing beats the whole family running together!
Saturday 3/26: The plague hit…seriously I felt horrible – there was no running, just couch time and movies with the kids.
Sunday 3/27: Still not feeling fabulous by a long shot, but that little voice in my head kept nagging me that I was going to be more unhappy if I skipped it vs going – 3.5 miles done.

Thankfully after a very quite weekend, I’m feeling more or less plague-free today. As I run-fessed I’ve been feeling a little uninspired by my runs, but I’m focusing on an attitude adjustment for this week!

How was your week?

Filed Under: training, Weekly Wrap

RtR Training Week 2

March 20, 2016 by Michelle 22 Comments

Wrapping up another week of training. So let’s take a look at how things went, shall we?

Monday 3/14: Strength workout – legs and abs.
Tuesday 3/15: 3 mile run – I just couldn’t bring myself to run in the cold rain so headed to the gym to face the treadmill. I admit that I went into this run with the wrong attitude and it showed.
Wednesday 3/16: Rest day! Sports massage – 90 minutes of unknotting muscles.
Thursday 3/17: T25 Beta – Core Cardio.
Friday 3/18: Strength work – legs and abs.
Saturday 3/19: 4 miles – This was a hard run. Legs felt heavy and I just had no energy – the heavy winds probably didn’t help.
Sunday 3/20: 3 miles more.

While I did hit all of my workouts I felt like I was all over the place this week and completely out of rhythm. I’m really not sure how missing one extra hour could have such a big impact but I swear Daylight Saving threw me for a loop at the beginning of the week and I never really caught up! It was one of those weeks that between work and home life, I felt like I was always trying to squeeze a workout in.

This week should be quieter, and hopefully I can settle into more of a groove.

I’m linking up again for the #WeeklyWrap with Holly at HoHo Runs and Tricia at Miss Sippi Piddlin

Ever have a week where you just feel out of sorts? How was your week?

Filed Under: Boston's Run to Remember, training, Weekly Wrap

RtR Training Week 1

March 13, 2016 by Michelle 34 Comments

Training for Boston’s Run to Remember is officially under way. As I mentioned over coffee, this will be my first half in two years – so my goals for this training cycle are simple:

Hit all of my workouts
Build my mileage slowly
Reach the start line injury-free

I want to use RtR to get back up to the half distance and lay the foundation for more rigorous training this summer. So how’d the first week go?

Monday 3/7 — Given how crazy my Mondays have been because of work lately, I’ve decided to make Mondays a strength day. I broke out the resistance bands and did a lower body workout I use to do when I was working with a trainer. My legs felt like jello when I was done!

Tuesday 3/8 — Woke up with a really upset stomach that stayed with me all day. So I decided to push my run to Wednesday and opted for some yoga.

Wednesday 3/9 — An absolutely gorgeous day – temps in the 70’s! I still didn’t feel great and actually dressed too warm in a long sleeve shirt, but just didn’t care. 3 miles done.

Thursday 3/10 — Still feeling really off – decided to listen to my body and took an unplanned rest day.

Friday 3/11 — 3 miles more.

Saturday 3/12 — As the weeks go on, Saturdays will be my long run day. For today, just 4 miles…with too many hills!

Sunday 3/13 — More yoga.

All-in-all not a bad first week, especially since I didn’t feel fabulous for most of it. I rolled like it was my job every night – and while that lacrosse ball is a little slice of torture, I do think it’s helping. The good news is whatever bug I was dealing with didn’t take hold and I’m feeling pretty and looking forward to week 2!

Linking up with Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap.

Filed Under: Boston's Run to Remember, training, Weekly Wrap

Weekly Wrap – February Rewind

February 29, 2016 by Michelle 24 Comments

Happy Leap Day! (Is that a thing?)

The days continue to fly by at an alarming rate, and we’re already at the end of another month. So it’s time once again to do a quick wrap-up the month and see what March has in store.

Good things for the month:

Really enjoyed Mar’s 14-day Self Care Challenge (you can read more about it here).
T25 – Have enjoyed mixing up my workouts, though as I run-fessed, the double workout days are proving to be a bit much
Met my goal of increasing my mileage over January
More outdoor runs vs. treadmill — Gotta love seeing 50+ degrees in February!
Another massage was had – always a good thing!

Things I could do without:

The events of this month left me feeling stressed and distracted

On the decks for March:

Start training for Boston’s Run to Remember half
Returning to yoga classes – at least I’m hoping to try to fit this in. There’s a studio near me that I’ve been wanting to check out.
Fingers-crossed the weather continues to cooperate and I’ll not see a treadmill again for a while 🙂

I’m joining Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap – be sure to stop by and say hi and see how #RnRNOLA turned out for them!

How did February treat you?

Filed Under: month in review, Weekly Wrap

Weekly Wrap – Return of the Polar Vortex

February 15, 2016 by Michelle 18 Comments

A huge thank you to everyone who checked in with kind words last week – much appreciated.

I was grateful for my workouts last week – while not always pretty they were a good distraction!

Monday: Another snow day for the kids and more shoveling for me
Tuesday: 3 mile run
Wednesday: T25 Speed 1.0
Thursday: 3 mile run plus T25 Cardio
Friday: T25 Lower Focus — holy squats and lunges Batman!
Saturday: 4.25 mile run
Sunday: Opted for yoga over T25 Stretch

Thanks to the return of the Polar Vortex, the temps around here have plummeted. With the windchill, it reached negative double digits this weekend, so aside from trips to the gym, I just enjoyed some much needed down time with the family. Saturday was all about video games, movies, reading – and of course I watched the Olympic Trials! While I was disappointed for Kara, I loved watching the teamwork of Shalane & Amy. And, watching Meb run always makes me smile! Valentine’s Day is always low-keyed here – we celebrated with our traditional sushi dinner, and of course a little chocolate!

It’s school vacation week here for my youngest son, so I’m definitely going to have to be flexible with when I get to workout this week. In fact, I’m going to take advantage of my husband being off from work today and head to the gym now….

How was your week? Are you dealing with the polar vortex?

Linking up once again with Holly of HoHo Runs and Tricia of MissSippiPiddlin for the Weekly Wrap – be sure to stop by and say hi and check out the other weekly recaps.

Filed Under: weather, Weekly Wrap

Weekly wrap – Running, T25 and Shoveling

February 8, 2016 by Michelle 18 Comments

I swear I blink and these days are flying by! The first week of February is already in the books – so how did it go?

Monday: Started the T25 10 week program with T25 Cardio

Tuesday: 3 mile run plus T25 Speed 1.0

Wednesday: T25 Total Body Circuit

Thursday: Woke up feeling horrible so I skipped my run, but still managed to do T25 Ab Intervals

Friday: Lots of shoveling — A local weatherman explained that shoveling this rain soaked snow was like lifting 20 lbs with each toss – seriously!?! Yeah that explains why an hour of shoveling left me feeling like toast!

Saturday: 3 mile run

Sunday: 4 more miles, plus T25 Stretch

All-in-all a pretty good week! I liked the mix of the T25 workouts – and, I can already tell that those double workout days are going to be challenging as the miles increase!

And, after run-fessing that I hadn’t made any progress on my weight loss, my scale made nice and showed a 2lb lost!

Yes – a pretty good week 🙂

I’m linking up with Holly of HoHo Runs and Tricia of MissSippiPiddlin for the Weekly Wrap – be sure to stop by and say hi and check out the other fun bloggers in the link-up.

How was your week? Have you ever tried a workout series like T25?

Filed Under: T25, Weekly Wrap, weight loss

Weekly Wrap – January Rewind

January 31, 2016 by Michelle 34 Comments

Well January’s come to an end. I feel like these first 31 days of 2016 moved at a break-neck pace, leaving me feeling like I was constantly playing catch up. I got to this weekend and just wanted to exhale.

So today I’m once again joining Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap – but this time, I’m wrapping up the whole month.

Good things for the month:

Overall the weather for January was not too bad – New England actually avoided taking the brunt of a Nor’easter for a change and on many days the temps were downright mild — All this means more runs outdoors than on the ‘mill.
One of my 2016 goals is staying committed to strength training – This month was a really good start logging at least 2 workouts per week.
A return to the massage table – Say it with me…Ahhhh!

Things I could do without:

Thanks to a crazed schedule, more missed runs than I’d like to count. And, the runs I did log just left me feeling meh.
IT Band, while improving, is still a little moody 🙁

On the decks for February:

More miles – despite the schedule, Runs. Must. Happen!
Joining Mar for her 14-day Self Care Challenge – love this idea to remember to put yourself on the to do list. The challenge starts on February 1 – join us!
Time for some Focus – as in T25 Focus. I was ~~whining~~….mentioning to my brother the other day about how annoyed I was with myself to have let some workouts slide and he mentioned he was thinking about doing T25 again just to make sure he got in a daily workout. So I’ve decided to join him… for the next 10 weeks (Hello!)