Weekly Wrap 12

What’s going on in the life of Becca?  How was January?  What’s next on the horizon?  Time to break it all down for the Weekly Wrap #12 (I think it’s #12, I’m not very consistent with numbering) with Wendy and Holly.

 

 





The week post-half marathon started off blah but ended on a high note.  It was my last full week of work before my new schedule starts.  ICYMI (post): work reduced our hours and salary, so I now have one full day a week off.  I am trying to be optimistic and think this will be good for growing my running coaching business in the long run (yeah pun!), but at the moment it’s bad for my wallet and stress level.  That was one of the blah aspects.

 

The other blah part was still having murky emotional feelings after the race on Saturday.  I am the kind of person who needs to write things out in order to clear my head.  Hence the initial reasoning for this blog.  I let go of all that emotional muddiness by writing my F3 Race Recap and felt so much better. If you haven’t read that yet, it was probably my favorite race recap that I’ve written, read it here.  That post totally turned my week around.  First of all, I felt loads better mentally/emotionally.  But the best part was the response I got from all you readers.  Thank you everyone for your support and kind words.  Ending the week on the up!

 

F3 Half Marathon – photo cred Brian Berman

 

Overall, January went pretty well.  I found myself saying yes more (one of my resolutions) and I worked on staying present.  That’s hard to do!  Before I get into all the running from the week, I want to point out that January was great for the blog!  It was my highest visitor month ever (woo!).  My most popular January post was the vegan chive cream cheese recipe I posted earlier this week, but my most searched posts overall were a tie between my sweet potato breakfast cookies and the 2017 Tokyo Marathon race recap.  Note to self, post more cookie recipes and do more international marathons.  I could get on board with that!

 


 

 

Weekly Wrap #12 1/28/18

 

Monday 1/22

Run: Rest day. I’m TRYING to add in one more non-running day for this 50k cycle, and Monday’s make sense.  Instead, I went to a 45 min core class in the pm.

Other: Published the recipe for vegan chive cream cheese.  Common question: Do I need a dehydrator to make the cream cheese? Short answer: No, but I have not tried it in the oven.  I would put it on warm and only let it go for 2-3 hours.  But I highly recommend the dehydrator, Aroma is the brand I have (affiliate link).

 

 

Tuesday 1/23

Run: Speed.  Did 8x .5mi descending pace.  I ran a negative split in F3 (meaning I ran the second half faster than the first), and want to continue that trend because I felt great at the end.

Other:  I met my friend Emily at the sneak preview event at the new Roti Mediterranean Grill Lincoln Park location.  I tried a rice plate with falafel, grilled veggies, pickled onions, and hummus.  The falafel wasn’t as flavorful as I would have liked, but I did like their carrot tea.

 

 

Wednesday 1/24

Run: Another non-running day.  Just strength class.  We did plie sumo squats with an upright row to work our calves, inner thighs, shoulders and upper back.  HOLY BANANAS my upper back was so sore later that day and Thursday.  But it was that good kind of sore, that sore where I knew I worked out a muscle that needs more love.

 

 

Thursday 1/25

Run: Posture/Upper Body class and tempo on the treadmill.  Goal for this was to start my elevation gain training.  It was only 6 miles of tempo – 4.5 at tempo or 10k pace and 1.5 worth of running at 6% inclines.  Felt really doable.

Other: The account @Inspiringwomenrunners featured me on Instagram and I may have had a happiness heart attack.  Check it out here.

 



Friday 1/26

Run: FINALLY made it to my first November Project workout of the year.  Easy run of 5 ish miles down there and then a telephone workout.  It was such a great way to start my morning, I had missed everyone!

 

 

 

Saturday 1/27

Run: 15 miles.  Initially I was going to drive out the Morton Arboretum with AJ and Janette but then the day was so nice (in the 50s!) that I didn’t want to spend a good amount driving.  Instead, we joined in the Freezing 50, Lululemon’s charity fundraiser run.  Two of their workers were running 50 miles by doing loops between the 4 Lulu store locations in Chicago.  It was so fun! There was a good 30-40 people by the time I left. Lulu did a great job hosting and made sure to have food and drinks at each store.

 

Sunday 1/28

Run: Easy 9 miles.  Only got through 8.5 before heading to hot yoga class.  I love this hot zen class because it stretches out my muscles from the week and sets me up with good intentions for the week ahead.  It was all about going inside yourself to have a moment to connect and reflect, no matter how small that moment is.  I’ll be mindful to carry that forward for the week ahead – connect and reflect upon what I am feeling and how I am dealing with things that may spring up.

Other: Meal prepping, blogging, catching up on athlete logs and in the evening heading to a Thoughtluck on disagreement and respect.  Should be an interesting conversation!

 

Mediterranean parsley salad for tonight’s Thoughtluck

 

Total miles = 43.7.  3 strength classes and 1 yoga class.

 

And that’s it for Weekly Wrap #12! So what’s next for Becca?  This week kicked off my 50k training, with my goal as Earth Day 50k 2018.  So lot more running ahead!  Blog wise, continue with 8 posts a month, I think that is totally doable. Find a part-time job to make up for work. Potentially participate in a vegan bake sale around Valentine’s Day (TBD, I haven’t heard back from the organizer yet).

 

 

How was your week?  How did you end January?  What’s next for you?

 

Happy running,

Becca

 

 

Weekly Wrap 2018

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HoHo Runs
6 years ago

How exciting to start training for your Earth Day 50k. I look forward to following along with your journey. I read your F3 race recap. Very well said! I think we all (me) get wrapped up in the numbers sometimes. It was a wonderful reminder about not letting comparison steal the joy from what we love to do! Thanks for linking.

Judy
6 years ago

Your parsley salad looks great! Is barley your grain in that? I need to get back into yoga for those exact reasons – I love the stretching but mentally it does so much as well.

Kimberly Hatting
6 years ago

That Saturday run sounds fun…I like doing repeat laps (sometimes). Breaking up a big distance into smaller increments makes it so much easier (mentally).

Lacey@fairytalesandfitness

That run on Saturday with a bunch of people sounds so fun. How nice that they offered food and drinks at each stop.

Deborah @ Confessions of mother runner

The vegan chive cream cheese was really interesting! Glad you had a great month

Wendy
6 years ago

I’m still stinging from Lulu’s “prize” of a coupon for the 80km challenge, so while I”m glad you all had fun running their charity run, I would have skipped it…

I’m heading over to read your F3 recap!