Happy 2018 everyone! How did your first week of the new year treat ya? New year but same (ish) blog routine for me, it’s the first Weekly Wrap of 2018! I am arbitrarily naming this Weekly Wrap 10.  I’ve participated in 10 of these now, right?  I could go back and check… but the sooner I can write this blog post the sooner I can get back to watching the Great British Baking Show on Netflix.  Priorities.  So Weekly Wrap 10 it is!  Linking up with Holly and Wendy (a new host!) for the first linkup of the year.

Lots of things happened this week. Found out that work is cutting us all to 32 hours to save some money. That’s not the best way to start the new year, especially one with so much travel planned (LA and Berlin marathons).

32 hours means I will have one day a week completely open. While I am excited about the time I’ll have to continue growing the blog and taking on running clients, bottom line is I need to find part-time work. Brainstorm so far: get a group fitness certification and teach at a gym, pick up a shift at a store like Fleet Feet or Lulu, go out to the ‘burbs and tutor, apply as a substitute teacher… there are options, so I’m not terribly worried, but it sucks.

Aside from that, this was peak week for me in training for the F3 Half Marathon. T-minus 13 days! I felt good this week mentally, even though most of my runs had to be on the treadmill (hello deep freeze in Chicago). We were at negative degrees for basically the entire week, only today was above zero.  I’m just glad that we didn’t experience the Bomb Cyclone that the East Coast had.  (Side note… if you want to do something about global warming, go plant based… SOURCE)

Weekly Wrap 2018

Monday 1/1/18

Run: Supposed to be an 8 mile easy run BUT the windchills felt like -16 AND my gym was closed.  With no treadmill access I wasn’t going to chance frostbite for an easy 8 miler.  I took the day to recipe test instead.  Double Chocolate Vegan Cookies anyone?

Tuesday 1/2

Run: 1.5 mile repeats on the treadmill.  This actually felt REALLY good.  It was the first item speed felt so good on a treadmill!  I’m wondering if it was because I took Monday off?

Other: I met up with my friend Luke for some afternoon rock climbing.  One of my 2018 goals is to “say yes more” and this was the perfect opportunity.  The last time I was rock climbing, I was 13? Man did I have fun!  Rock climbing is a deceptive leg workout, although my shoulders also hurt the next day.  Jeremy joined us a bit later too and snagged some great photos.

Wednesday 1/3

Run:  Supposed to be just a strength class today, but I moved Monday’s run here.  It was “nice” enough to go outside (2 degrees) so I ran 8 miles on the 606 after the class.  My watch died halfway through because it froze!

Thursday 1/4

Run: Posture class and long 6 mile tempo.  Since it was negative temperatures (again), I did this on the treadmill.  The first 4 were fine, but then I had to change it up.  Since my goal is the 50k later this spring, I raised the incline to 10% for the 5th mile and did a mix of hiking and sprinting.  Then the 6th mile I dropped it to 4% incline and went back to tempo pace.  I forgot how much I love to power hike on the treadmill!

Friday 1/5

Run: I woke up at 4:30 for my run to November Project and saw that it was -15 degrees.  Doing the math, I would have been outside for 2 hours between my run and the workout.  It doesn’t matter how weatherproof NP wants to be, that’s just not safe.  So I slept in, made some AMAZING tofu sweet potato waffles and went for an easy run later in the morning.

Saturday 1/6

Run:  Peak Week for F3!  Again, due to the cold, we pushed back the start of the run to 10am because windchills were -15ish early in the morning.  Even at 10a it was 0 degrees, and it’s so hard for me to run with all those layers on. I ran 14 miles with Janette and AJ.  First 4 miles were easy, next 5 gradually pick up to goal half pace for last 5.  Let’s just say this was NOT time-based due to the cold, we just ran by effort.  When we finished Janette had pigtail icicles!

Other: Randomly I got a text from Sarah, and old college friend, that she was in town.  I was at Edge chilling in the boots at the time, in my yoga pants and sweatshirt, but I only had a 2 1/2 hour time window where I could meet up.  So I jumped up and headed to Lagunitas, yoga pants and all.  It was so nice to see her and Kathleen too.

Sunday 1/7

Run: Easy 7.5 mile trail run with Nez and Jeremy.  It was WARM today, 17 degrees!  We were in high spirits as we crunched through the snow.  A trail run is the best way to start the day as far as I’m concerned.  I am excited to ramp up again for my spring 50k!

Other: Mom took Jon and I to Costco.  I was in pursuit of baking ingredients.  It was my first time there and OH MY GOD I am in love.  Is it weird to love grocery shopping?  That’s something that never used to happen.  Is that a sign that I’m getting old?

Total miles:  50.4 First 50 mile week in a LONG time, which is nuts given how last year was!

And that’s a wrap or Weekly Wrap 10! Or 10 ish. If you missed my 2017 Year in Review post, check it out here.  I also did a roundup of my 2017 best vegan recipes in this post.  This year, my goals are to publish 2 recipes a month, officially podium in Earth Day, take on more running clients, and say yes more.  There are a few other intentions I have, but those are the ones that I foresee guiding me the most this year – all four of them have come into play this week!

How did you kick off your 2018?  What do you do to keep the treadmill from feeling like the dreadmill?  

Happy running,

Becca

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