After paying for a gym + childcare membership that I was using only once or twice a month, I finally made my way back. I’ve belonged to this gym for years and love it. I’ve made friends there, the classes are hard AND fun, and it’s a clean and bright space. Once my youngest was able to go the childcare, I tried a few times, but it never stuck. She didn’t like it and I felt guilty and rushed having her there when I could run on our home treadmill while she naps.
Over the holidays I started my twice weekly physical therapy to rehab my shoulder injury. My mom was visiting so I was able to leave my girls home with her while I went to PT, with the plan the my youngest could go to the childcare there once my mom left. But it was difficult to schedule an appointment that worked out with my girls’ schedules, plus, I wasn’t impressed with the PT I was getting. I’m not sure if this is normal or not, but the PT would show me an exercise and then leave while I did it, so there really wasn’t much oversight to make sure my form was correct. I decided that I could go straight to my gym after dropping my oldest off at school, do the PT exercises on my own, and get back home before my little one needed to nap. A couple months older, and a fabulous new teacher who has her Master’s in child development, and the consistency of going every day, and my little one is enjoying the childcare! I can see her while I do my PT exercises and it’s fun watching her toddle all around playing with new toys and interacting with the other kids. I think going consistently has helped her get into a routine and adjust so I’ve started to do some of my runs there too.
Training plans vs. actual for the week
Weekly Training: January 4 – 10
Monday: First day back to the gym! I warmed up on the spin bike for 5-10 minutes and the completed my PT exercises: internal and external rotations, rows, & stretching. Strength and core work were seriously missing from my last marathon training and now that I’m back at the gym I plan to get back to it. I started with non-weighted clockwise lunges (8 to the front, 8 to the side, 8 to the back with my right leg, then 8 to the back, 8 to the side, 8 to the front with my left leg) and 20 squats. Followed with bicycle crunches, side lying legs lifts, clam shells, and stretching.
Tuesday: 5M @9:05 – 10 min w/u @9:14, 2×1200 @7:41 (120RI), 3×800 @7:30 (90RI) .6M c/d @10 I went to the gym in the morning to do my PT exercises and funny enough, ran into 2 of my sisters-in-law who were back to the gym after a long hiatus too! The social aspect of my gym and getting to see people is one of the reasons I love it. Did my run at home when my little one napped. Even though I didn’t hold any weights when I did lunges and squats the day before, my legs were really tired going into this run. Run Less, Run Faster recommended walking Rest Intervals for this workout which I did (and needed to recover in the time suggested), but to be honest I didn’t like. I’d rather do a longer rest interval and jog in between.
Wednesday: 6M @9:26 – Hit the gym for the same 30 minutes of arms + legs + stretching that I did Monday and ran at home during nap time. Run felt comfortable, but a bit boring.
Thursday: 3M @9:26 – Usually I do my tempo run on Thursdays, but my legs still felt really tired. Ran 3 easy miles to help shake them out. It’s amazing tired your legs can get from a few lunges and squats when you haven’t done any in months (and months and months). I ran on the treadmill at the gym and ran into a friend whose kids were in preschool with my oldest. It was so fun to catch up and chat. Followed with arm PT work.
Friday: 6.5M @8:55 – 1M @9:22, 2M @8:35, 1M @9:30, 2M @8:34, .5M @9:42 This was my first time doing a real running workout at the gym and would be the longest my daughter would be in childcare so I was a bit nervous about it. It definitely motivated me to hit my Mid Tempo paces. The workout called for a mile cool down, but I cut it short since I was worried about leaving her too long (she was fine.)
Saturday: off
Sunday: 10M @9:28 It rained all day with heavy rain off and on. If I were training for a particular race I would have run outside, but without a goal race I opted to stay warm and dry inside. This was my longest treadmill run ever and I wasn’t really sure I would make it all the way to 10 miles. But with the help of Netflix and my older daughter who came to talk with with me for awhile it actually wasn’t too bad. Since I run SO much on the treadmill (usually at a 0-1% incline) I decide that at the 2, 4, 6, and 8, mile marks I’d put the incline to 2% for .25 miles, 4% for .25 miles, back down to 2% for .25 miles and finally back to 1% for the time in between. Hopefully this challenged my legs a little bit more realistically.
Thank you, Scandal. You’ve made treadmill running actually enjoyable!
Weekly Total: 30.5 miles
running (Bos)s 