Weekly Review April 18-24

From Wednesday's run (best run of the week!)

Welcome to another Weekly Review linkup with Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. My next race is this weekend's Nashville Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon... but I'm not really training for it. 

Week of April 18-24

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4 miles, 9:04 pace
Wednesday: 3.4 miles, 8:39 pace
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 3 miles, 8:40 pace
Saturday: Earth Day volunteering + gardening at home
Sunday: 4.7 miles, 9:09 pace

Total: 15.2 miles
2016 total: 362.7 miles

New stuff (left) & a cute outfit using old stuff (right)

Another low milage week and it feels goooooood! (Actually I'm really sore. More about that later.)

I had some guilt about cutting runs short or scheduling rest days since RnR Nashville is this weekend, but then I thought about my strict training schedule from November - April and decided I needed a break. I can't completely stop running, so I chose to run by feel. I was about a mile or two short on every run and I dropped one day, but whatever. As I've mentioned, I'm not running Nashville for time, but I do have a race at the end of May (Medina) and would like to do better than last year, so I'll resume my normal plan in May. Gotta take advantage of the downtime!

Tuesday's sunset

I had two rest days in a row after last Saturday's 12 miler. I don't like multiple rest days because I get into a lazy spiral, so I knew I had to get out and run on Tuesday. I began the run at 7:56pm and fit in 4 miles before dark.

That's a recurring theme this week: Wednesday's run also started late... at 8:05pm. I stuck to well-lit roads and wore a hi-vis top, but still got home before it was too dark. Our neighborhood doesn't have streetlights or sidewalks, so the last .3 of every run is dicey if it's dark - which I like to avoid.

I took Thursday off in favor of happy hour dinner + drinks with Alex. Afterwards we re-watched the new Star Wars.

Star Wars!

On Friday I made a mistake and ate a big dinner before my run. I thought I had enough time to digest, but I suppose leaving work late (where I had small samples of 5 different beers) pushed dinner back... and even though I started my run at 7:43pm it wasn't enough time. I felt okay for the first mile or so, had to stop and wait at a crosswalk for what felt like eons, and then when I finally got on the bike path my stomach felt terrible. Like we're talking worst marathon-GI-issue-race-recap-you've-ever-read levels. Ugh. I've never felt that bad during a run. I headed home, attempted to make it to a nice, round 3 miles then raced home. I blame the food. I'm just thankful I was close to home and it wasn't during a race!

Earth Day! My back hurts just looking at this photo.

On Saturday we volunteered with OSU and the Sierra Club for an Earth Day Columbus site at the Olentangy Wetlands Research Center. It was a large group and we were divided by tasks: research digging, trash pickup, and honeysuckle removal. Because we're both able-bodied adults and Alex knows how to ID trees, we chose the last task. It was hard work. I lopped and chopped the branches with my clippers and Alex yanked out the stumps with his fancy root puller. I wish I would have taken a before an after photo of our section. We did a lot of work. By the way, honeysuckle is an invasive species that takes over the understory, so we were removing it to make way for native plants like Buckeye trees.

Part of the Earth Day party 

Afterwards I was beat, but after a stop at home to change we headed over to the official Earth Day celebration at the Columbus Commons (downtown park). There were food trucks, musicians (luckily good ones!), tons of informational booths and vendors, and a small collection of farm animals. Each volunteer got a voucher for a free bubble tea or Jeni's ice cream, so after lunch we grabbed ice cream. We were there for a few hours (the weather was great), then drove home. Alex got the lawn mower out (so much energy!) and since I'd made a pact with myself that every time he mows I should do some type of yard work, I changed into gardening clothes and joined him. I ended up pruning our boxwoods and pulling weeds in our front garden.

Taking pictures gave me an excuse to stop...

Alex did side work on Sunday so I was alone for most of the day. I decided to run when it was hot to prep for Nashville. I watched movies on Netflix while I cleaned the house, groomed Tobias, and made a tasty soup for dinner. After eating with Alex I went out at 6:40pm for my run. It was 73 degrees ("feels like 77") and only 31% humidity. I felt great for the first mile, but somewhere between miles 2 and 3 I started to feel icky, plus I was very sore from Earth Day and gardening! I stopped 7 times in the last 2.7 miles and started to doubt my ability to run far in heat. I'm sure the heat played a part, but I think my poor fueling and hydration were the true culprits.

Overall, this week was relaxed, but I think I was too relaxed with food and drink. I ate snacks instead of full meals and drank more often than normal. My last two runs of the week felt pretty gross. Live and learn!

P.S. I'm still sore from Saturday. My arms and back have some serious DOMs!

How far do you run when you don't have a training plan? 
Do you like running in the summer heat? 
Did you do anything fun for Earth Day?