Last week my big focus was on sleep. After having my blood tested and getting the feedback from Inside Tracker, it was clear that my stress levels were too high and that I was not getting enough sleep. When I looked at the data from my Garmin, some nights I was only clocking in around 4 hours. I switched around a couple of my early morning workouts, tried to leave work on time (ish) and went to bed earlier. Instead of multiple morning runs, I did three evening workouts, two early morning runs and and a couple of weekend workouts. The result, I managed all my workouts, drank less coffee and feel a lot better on Sunday evening!

My Weekly Workouts 18th-24th January 2021

MONDAY

After not having a full rest day last week, I took Monday fully off!

TUESDAY

3 mile at 9.51 min mile pace

Easy run with Liz along the River. I am SO looking forward to seeing those sunrises again on my early morning runs, for now it’s pitch black throughout! There is something that I love about those dark pre-dawn runs, they make me feel so powerful. I need to get a balance between early training runs and enough sleep though…a work in progress!

After work I had strength training with my PT (via Zoom). You can check out my workout on instagram this Tuesday!

WEDNESDAY

30 minute Pop ride with Cody Rigsby on Peloton. Kept it towards the lower end of the resistance but still worked up a sweat (and those Peloton endorphins!)

THURSDAY

2 miles at 10.26 min mile pace

Another lunchtime run that didn’t happen… But I did jump on the treadmill for a 20 minute Peloton run – the Wicked themed run for those with the app, topping it up to 2 miles total

FRIDAY

2.73 miles at 10.06 min mile pace (was meant to be 2.5 miles) I messed up my route and I would have been late for work if I hadn’t run all the way back home/added more mileage. Ran listening to the Up and Running podcast – I’m LOVING running podcasts for motivation right now. If you’re not already downloading my weekly podcast, Cook Eat Run – I’d be super grateful if you would! New episode coming tomorrow morning…

SATURDAY

I pushed my Thursday strength session for Saturday when work wouldn’t be able to get in the way! I completed the same workout that I posted last week – check it out here. Followed immediately by a 30 min Peloton ride virtually with my friends Emily and Amanda. We did a 30 minute 2000’s ride with Tunde, plus a 5 min post-ride stretch.

SUNDAY

A snowy 4 mile ‘long run’ – I debated whether to run on the treadmill or outside, knowing I did not want to fall and hurt myself. Ultimately I decided to run on the trails in the snow to reduce risk of slipping on ice – but it did mean my pace was slower. 4 miles at 10.26 min mile pace. It was so pretty though, I miss the snow (and skiing!)

TOTAL WEEKLY MILEAGE: 11.73 miles

This week was a success! Four runs, two strength workouts, two spin workouts and lots of sleep. The only thing missing this week was the stretching and yoga that I was so diligent about the week before, just need to balance the sleep and stretching going into next week.

I’m also starting IVF treatment next week, as long as all my hormones are in range. That means we’re cutting back in mileage next week and only I’m only doing three runs. I’m going to listen to my body, skip any workouts if I feel too uncomfortable and pull back on the intensity of my Peloton rides.

So the theme for this week is EASY…. something that came up in our Boston Project facebook group (you can join here) is people not taking their easy runs easy enough. And I realise that sometimes I’m guilty of that too. This week I covered my watch for all of my runs and just tried to keep my breathing comfortable. That meant runs from 9.51- 10.26 (my easy run pace *should* be 9.22-10.18 according to VDOT but remember, VDOT does not know what your lifestyle stress is!