Dallas Half Marathon Recovery Week

Monday: Rest.

Tuesday: Rest and traveled back home.

Wednesday: 4 miles with the group at 605.

Thursday: 4 way too fast miles with the group that typically runs trails on Thursday night.

Friday: 4.26 miles at the coffee run while watching shooting stars!!



Saturday: 6 miles at the group run before yoga at WoodGrain.

Sunday: Rest. I really wanted to go out for 3-4 really easy miles, but I was so sore, that I opted for a rest day instead.


Total Mileage: 18.4 miles

Garry Bjorklund Half Recovery Week Training

Monday: Rest + foam rolling. I felt like I could run, but I opted for an extra day of rest and a little more foam rolling.

Tuesday: 4.24 miles with Toni. Kept it nice and easy.

Wednesday: I had every intention to run 4 miles with the group run, but it was raining cats and dogs and had been all day, with flash flooding. I opted to chat with runners about their Grandma's experience while foam rolling before yoga class.

Thursday: 5 recovery miles. Toni and I ran 5 miles after work. With less than a half mile left, I stepped weird and felt a yucky sensation up the back of my right knee. It dissipated after a few strides so I finished the run.



Friday: 4 recovery miles. Friday morning Toni and I met up for the coffee run and got in 4 miles. My knee felt okay during the run but after the run during coffee it started to feel really stiff and wonky.

Saturday: I had searched out local running groups to run a long run on Saturday. After driving to Des Moines Friday after our run, and then sitting in the bleachers for 7 hours, my knee was so stiff and felt like I had a ton of pressure under the knee cap. I iced it after the meet, and again after dinner.

Sunday: Still a lot of pressure under my knee cap, so I iced it before the meet. It was starting to feel better, but than I had to drive home. Grumble grumble.

Total miles: 13.38 miles

Recovery Week

Monday: Rest, doctor's appointment to try to sort out the gallbladder annoyance. Epsom bath....ahhhh.

Tuesday: Foam rolling + another doctor's appointment to try to sort out the gallbladder annoyance.

Wednesday: First run! 3 miles at the group run with Toni. Legs felt good, heart rate was crazy whackadoodle for the beginning but then it settled in.

Yes, she did follow me into a parking lot on our drive home to make me take a post-run post-yoga selfie with her. Next to a pawn shop. As one does.

Thursday: Rest + another doctor's appointment to try to sort out the gallbladder annoyance. A 3.5 hour doctor's appointment. I could've gotten in a good long run and drank a couple of beers in that time!

Friday: Coffee run with Toni! 4 miles.

Find out that my stomach issues are *not* my gallbladder. WTF.

This is my face both when I got the news and also when the barista was continually rude all through out our short stay at the coffee shop post-run. Woof.



Saturday: It was the first meet up for the 605 Race Crew, and I had wanted to run between 5-7 miles. Even though my gallbladder is supposedly fine, I still continue to have pain WHERE MY GALLBLADDER EXISTS. My stomach was super upset before the run, but managed to behave for 5 miles.

Toni was out of town and my replacement running buddy showed up with a matching shirt on! And I failed to take a picture. Probably for the best, I wouldn't want Toni to feel like she was being replaced.

There were donuts. God bless you 605 Running Co.

Sunday: Rest. I did some foam rolling and myofascial release balls during yoga. Bliss.

Ocean View Half Recovery Week

Week of November 6-12

Monday Actual: Rest + foam rolling + myofascial release and some targeted massage to my cranky calve.

Tuesday Actual: 60 minute yoga class and more foam rolling.

Wednesday Actual: 3 mile run at the 605 group run. Surprised at how good my legs feel. Also probably the last time that I'll get in a run in shorts in the near future. Sadsies.

Thursday Actual: 4 miles with the BRF after work. With full on WINTER in the house. Real feel of 12. Brrr.



Friday Actual: I meant to get up and do the coffee run, but after coming back from vacation and Kyle being out of town, I wanted to just SLEEP. I went to bed at 9:30 and slept until 7am! Uff.

Saturday Actual: I worked on Saturday and then went straight from work to the Foo Fighters concert. Does 3.5 hours of dancing and 5 hours of standing count as a workout, because then I did. Endurance standing? Is that a thing?

Sunday Actual: Skipped long run (see above concert fun and 1am bedtime). 90 minute miracle massage. Mmmmmm.

Total Mileage Actual: 7 miles. Feeling reeeeeal recovered over here!

Twin Cities 10 Mile Recovery Week

Week of October 2-8

Monday Planned: Rest
Monday Actual: Rest

Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest

Wednesday Planned: 3-4 Miles Recovery
Wednesday Actual: 3 Mile recovery run at the group run + some yoga.

Thursday Planned: General Aerobic 5-6 Miles
Thursday Actual: 6 Miles General Aerobic. Legs felt REALLY good. 



Friday Planned: 3-4 Miles recovery 
Friday Actual: 4 Mile recovery run for coffee!! Followed by an epsom salt bath before work.

Saturday Planned: 7 miles with 8x100 strides.
Saturday Actual: Unplanned rest day. I was exhausted and had to teach yoga, so I took another rest day. It's recovery week, after all! I did a 60 minute float at Escape Float Spa. Heaven.

Sunday Planned: 9 mile long run
Sunday Actual: I was starting to feel a cold or crud coming on, so I opted to not fully run long and take it easy for just another day. I forget that I'm usually broken after a race, and then I get sick. So with not getting injured, my body is just feeling run down.

Total Mileage Planned: 30 miles (ish, I wasn't fully committed to running any miles this week, just a  rough guide)
Total Mileage Actual: 13.1 miles

Brookings Half Recovery Week

Week of May 15-21

Monday: I was finally able to take a cycling class at the new yoga and cycling studio in town. I was super excited, but planned to take it fairly easy since I was recovering from the race. 45 minutes flew by.

Tuesday: 60 minutes of POWER. I had wanted to do another cycling class, but I was pooped after POWER so I didn't.

Wednesday: 4 miles at the group run. My left knee didn't feel good before the run, I had a lot of pressure behind my knee cap. It didn't bother me during the run, but teaching yoga after the run was a challenge. I realized on my drive home from yoga that I hadn't foam rolled since Sunday so I remedied that when I got home.

Thursday: Rest and more foam rolling + stick. Left knee was really sore, couldn't extend it all the way.

Friday: See above. Grrr.

Saturday: I taught a 60 minute yoga class at the brewery. My knee was feeling better, but still not 100%. When it hurts to kneel and do cat/cow, it's probably not a good sign. I foam rolled a LOT after class and took an epsom salt bath.

Sunday: Another cycling class. So much fun, and I felt recovered enough to push myself more than Monday's class.

Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon Training Recap Week 7

Week 7 was a recovery week, and thank goodness for that. After running my first 20 miler of the training cycle, as well as my highest weekly mileage thus far of training, I was ready for a break. And apparently so was my body. I started off the week being exhausted and fighting off a cold/allergies. Sinus headaches, congestion, nasal drainage while I slept. Blech.

I skipped two of my runs for the week, totaling 15 miles.

Friday I worked a split shift at work, and hit the bike trails during the lunch hour for 8 miles. I was way under-fueled, and it was hot, and I tried to quit 2 miles in to the run. I even started for home, and then felt better, so I turned back around and kept running. The run got better

Saturday I was tempted to squeeze in one of the missed runs, but ultimately decided not to. I did do core work. And I did Thursday too! Getting back to a routine!

Sunday I went out for another 8 miles. Before I started, I did my glute exercises in my apartment and was having troubles catching my breath. Ugh. Outside was much much worse. Not being able to breathe out of your nose, and running in 80% humidity is not awesome. I AGAIN, tried to quit my run at 2.5 miles. Instead I slowed waaaaaay down, and told myself I could stop at the water fountains to cool myself down. I also had some magical farmer blows that cleared out my sinuses a bit to help my breathing. 

Recovery Week Training Recap + DNS Race Report

Monday and Tuesday I took full recovery days. I went to bed crazy early to make up for my 3:30am wake up call for Sunday morning. Finally Wednesday morning I woke up well before my alarm and my legs were itching for a run. I did an easy 2.5 before I had to head to work. I had some initial soreness in my left knee but that subsided shortly after the run started.

Kyle always makes fun of my green hat, so I picked up this one that was super duper on sale. paaaaaaank.

Thursday morning I woke up yet again before my alarm, ready for some more miles. These clouds turned dark and ominous by the time I finished up my four miler.

I took this run as another recovery run on a hilly route. On one hand my legs felt WAY better than the previous day's run, as my legs didn't feel nearly as heavy, but the muscles I used for the hills on Sunday reminded me that they were still recovery. Holy hip flexors.

Thursday I didn't feel very well, so I ended up going home from work a couple of hours early. I made myself a watermelon slushie to counteract some of the dehydration I was suffering from. Ollie approved. Majorly.

My stomach was still feeling wonky Friday morning so I scratched my shakeout run.

Before I went to bed Friday night, I checked the weather yet again for race morning, and saw severe thunderstorm threats. Ugh. I told Kyle that if it was storming when I got up to get ready for the race, I was just going to go back to bed. Sure enough, I was awoken by lightning, heavy rain, and what sounded like hail. I turned my alarm back off, and conked back out.

Naturally, the rain cleared up about 15 minutes before the race started, while I was at home, comfortable on my couch in pjs. In retrospect, I should've just planned to skip the run altogether when I added the Swan Lake half marathon to my schedule. It's pretty impossible for me to try to "run for fun" and I will likely always let my competitiveness take over. Had I done that on Saturday, I would've  set back my recovery from the half even further as a best case scenario, and worst case, I would've ended up injured from pushing too hard on legs that were still recovering. 

With marathon training starting this week, a fast-ish 5k isn't going to do me any favors, training wise. 

It ended up storming on and off all day long, so I didn't get any miles in at all. But we did break a 24 hour rain fall record with 2.6 inches. And with only 14 days of the month down, already have the June rain fall record. So yay us?

Thank goodness I didn't have a long run scheduled for this weekend, because all of my routes are flooded out!

I went out for an easy four around lunch time on Sunday. It was hot, humid, and sunny. I ran my hillier route. The first mile felt awesome, and then my legs started to feel like crap. It made me super happy that I didn't race the previous day's 5k. Woof. 

Recovery Week Training + Weekend Shenanigans

Monday and Tuesday I spent foam rolling and eating all the food. That's how you recover best right? Good. 

Wednesday my legs felt great so I decided to give my speed work session a go at the track with Jenn J. 

We had 800s on the schedule, and I was excited to do some real speed work. We did our one mile warm up, stretched, and set out for our first 800. My legs felt like LEAD. I realized 200 meters in that I didn't do my dynamic stretches and hoped that was why my legs were so heavy and my hips so tight. After the first 800, I stopped to do those stretches and then got back to work. The next 800 caused pain in my left hip, so I threw in the towel after that one. No sense getting hurt with marathon training just around the corner!

We may have spent more time stretching/talking/race planning post-workout than we spent *actually* running. Oh well, you need those sorts of runs sometimes, right? We both left the track feeling defeated, but made promises to do the same workout + an additional 800 the following Wednesday as punishment!

Saturday I had to run to get my car after I had two beers too many to drive my vehicle home the night before. Thank goodness we chose a spot that was only a couple of miles from my place instead of a long run's distance away. Uff. I had a headache and Jenn telling me to hustle up and come hang out with her. Without realizing it, I was hauling and just kept pushing it. I let myself cooldown the final quarter of a mile.

Friday I counted down the hours until 6pm when I was done with work and could meet up with Jenn and Megan. We met for dinner and drinks and lots of catch up, and Otto snuggles.

Photos taken 10 months apart, from not even yet an inkling of a bump to a fresh new baby!

My favorite ladies.

Me and aforementioned giant beer. Mmmmm.

Two of my favorite people, Jenn and Otto.

Saturday I met Jenn at the lake and met up with Megan shortly after.

We had fancy celebratory bubbles. And in classy South Dakota fashion, the price tag was written on the bottle in permanent marker. 

More Otto snuggles.

She couldn't be a more gorg mommy.

NBD, Otto just fell asleep holding my hand. *i die*

Can every weekend be a Megan/Jenn/Jeri/Otto weekend plz??!?!