Training Week 4: Cutback
Hi hello. Another week has gone by. It was a cutback week on the training schedule, which my body was already craving. As I wrote about last week, my hip was bothering me a lot, mainly from a lot of forced pavement running. I spent more time focusing on PT and yoga and finding soft trails (from the house!) wherever possible.
Colorado is officially on lockdown so I’m trying to run on non-busy trails that I can reach from my home at off-hours. It’s not ideal, but what can ya do? As I also wrote about before, I’m just inconvenienced by the current state of affairs — something I’m grateful for.
In other random news, I blew through the book Just Mercy. It was so sad, enraging, and inspiring. It helped me pick The New Jim Crow back up. I also ordered five books off of Thriftbooks.com and am desperately waiting for them to arrive.
I’m also working on an essay, finally! It’s about moving to the suburbs. Here’s a very short and unedited, out-of-order excerpt:
In the blink of an eye, we went from living in the small city utopia land which is Boulder to a suburb of Denver, caught in a web of cul-de-sacs and sidewalk alleys, stuck between townhouse villages mysteriously “protected by the covenant.” It took us only a few days to learn we were outsiders; the neighbors were either our age with at least three kids, or well into their retirement years. Many of them went to church together. When I somehow ended up on a neighborhood group message thread, young moms would ask who wanted to go to the zoo the next morning, who had a certain toy for Roy’s play therapy, etc.
In the suburbs, walking to places feels wrong, even if there are sidewalks, even if it’s the same distance as my favorite coffee shop in Brooklyn I’d walk to. Something about a sidewalk on a busy street in a suburb feels wildly different than a sidewalk alongside 5th avenue, one of the busiest roads in Manhattan. Why walk when you can drive? I first resisted the idea of driving to the grocery store, so I’d bike the two miles to Natural Grocers, shoving delicate herbs and 28 oz cans of whole peeled tomatoes in my backpack. I’d always run out of room and have to balance reusable bags on each handlebar, which kept swinging into my front tire, slashing open the bags and forcing me to slowly meander off curbs.
Ok, to the training:
MONDAY
Yoga x2 (a gentle class and flow class) and PT
TUESDAY
4 miles, trail
Yin yoga
Notes: This was an easy test run on soft dirt near my house. My hip was bothering me over the weekend so I was worried it would be an ongoing issue. While something is not “right,” it feels way better on trails <3
WEDNESDAY
5 miles, speed
Notes: Hi who am I? Wanting to stick to soft surfaces but not wanting to drive to a TH for hill work (#lockdown), I decided to do some speed work on the track next to our house. I don’t think I’ve done speed work since high school, LOL. I did a 1 mile WU, 3xmile (6:37, 6:33, 6:32) followed by a 1 mile cool down. It felt hard but very exhilarating. Now I want to add some track workouts back in the mix! 200 repeats? Yasso 800s? Maybe some longer stuff. Should at least do some strides eeeek.
THURSDAY:
7.2 miles, trail
Notes: Bear Creek was EMPTY so I didn’t feel bad about heading to these trails - they’re really close to our house. Seems like this will be my trail home for awhile. The sun was out and the hip felt good.
FRIDAY:
Yoga, PT
SATURDAY:
11.5, trails
Notes: I woke up to snow and knew the weather was warming quickly. I got on the trail immediately so I could run on snow before it turned to mud; I wanted to avoid a longish pavement run. Success for the most part! Everything was either icy or slushy, but trails were in ok condition and I got in almost 2 hours on soft ground. I didn’t bring fuel though and by mile 10 became very hangry. See pic for what our backyard trail entrance looked like :)
SUNDAY:
5 miles, flat dirt
Strength
My plan called for “active recovery,” which means x-training or yoga. But my heart called for at least a few sunshine miles. I’ve been feeling so cooped up that I needed it. Did 5 easy miles from the house followed by a heavy dose of glute work
Total Mileage: 32.7 miles
Total Hours: 4 hours 55 mins
Total Gain: 1,745 ft - lol
Overall Emotions: Happy for this cutback week, since it gave me time to do some solo yoga, a good amount of strength work, and mind-clearing runs. Things are starting to ramp up soon — excited to get back to higher mileage!
