weekly wrap + puppy pics!

...in which I learn, yet again, not to taunt the universe.  When will I learn?


Last week was a tough week.  I wished out loud on the blog that maybe this week would be easier.  "Sure!" said the universe.  "Here's your cold back!  Did you miss it?  It's so bad that you'll spend two days in bed!"  So that's what I did.  Yes, haters, I took a rest day.  And then, in an unpredictable move, I TOOK ANOTHER ONE.  THE VERY NEXT DAY.  I'm walking on the wild side.


In the good news column, I took the week completely off from anything that might piss off my pulled intercostal muscle, and it actually seems to be healing.  Ridiculous.  I did go back to yoga on Sunday, but I was really careful the entire class.  I skipped a bunch of spinal twists (how we got here in the first place) and some vinyasas in favor of child's pose.  The Lululemon posse tried to intimidate me into pushing it in some poses, and I said, "No, crazy-matching-all-clothes-including-special-yoga-socks (why?) people, I will lay here with my face in the mat and NO CALORIES WILL BE BURNED."  (UPDATE: my problem is not that anyone is dressed in head-to-toe lulu, as I am definitely often found in head-to-toe Nike or C9 of Target.  My problem is that it is a class of 40 people all wearing the SAME outfit, as if there was a pre-yoga-class field trip to lululemon that I wasn't included in because I don't shower enough.  The end.)  My back was pretty tight afterwards, but after a round of icing and cupcakes, seems to be doing all right.  My PT approved certain upper-body lifting and gave me a few exercises to start strengthening around the pull (I think? or maybe just random torture), so the arms/chest/back lifting you see is really just that.


Since this was a step-up week, my long run was 9 miles, and I rocked the face off of it.  Okay, my legs were heavy and my chest felt tight from my cold and I coughed and snotted all over my favorite Nike half-zip, but I got in the groove and knocked it out, and kept it in my target long run pace window.  My recovery run the next day felt pretty crappy as every joint I have feels all bejankled when I run two days in a row, but I think that's mostly the point of the recovery run.  I also ended up skipping both pool runs this week, one from being sick/snow closing everything and the other from still feeling a bit under the weather and not wanted to spread my germs all over W-L.  Y'all are welcome.  Also, it's probably better because I definitely would've wanted to test out my back by swimming, which is the opposite of leave-it-alone-so-it-will-heal.


I also have started adding more cycling in, because I've really missed having a chafed crotch.  No, really.  With only 7 weeks in between the National Half and the Kinetic Half, I need to be maintaining at least a decent swimming and cycling base through this training cycle.  Getting to the starting line of the National Half is my A goal, and with that in mind, I'll be structuring my weeks that my running workouts are getting priority in terms of recovery and what I do around them.  So (hopefully) from here on out, my Saturdays will include a reverse brick - to prioritize the long run but get in another solid day of cycling.  I'll do my run tempo on Thursdays and a short bike tempo on Fridays - which is how it is laid out in my IM training plan anyhow - and I'll hopefully be able to add Monday/Wednesday swimming back in pretty soon as easy active recovery following the weekend workouts and the track workout.  It's my life, people, I live it, I love it.  Don't try this at home.


Monday: 55 minutes lifting (L), 1:30/25M trainer ride
Tuesday: PT and then home to complain on the internet about how sick I am
Wednesday: Lay in bed and cough weakly when people call, read multiple blogs from start to finish
Thursday: 20 minutes lifting (a/c/b), 52 minutes/5.62 miles, including miserable attempt at 2x2 miles tempo
Friday: 60 minutes lifting (L), 1:20/19M trainer ride, including 30 minutes tempo
Saturday: 1:26/9M long run, 60 minutes/14.7M easy trainer ride
Sunday: 28 minutes/3M recovery run, 75 minutes yoga


Also, for those of you that have government jobs a lot of unstructured free time, I've added a page on the blog collecting all the editions of Random Friday Facts.  If you find duplicates, feel free to gleefully email me to let me know that I suck.


After all of that, we thought it would be the most fun thing ever to take both puppies to the dog park so they could play in 8 inches of melty slush and mud.  Molly finished her vaccines last week so she can go play with other dogs now.
Where are we going?
What is all this?
I'm going to go stomp in the biggest puddle I can find.
I was not doing anything bad.
Can we go swimming please?
I love mud!
Molly, there's mud on your nose.

How was your weekend?  Did you run?  Or play in the mud?