Fitness Friday - First Week of June

Happy Friday!

I'm posting my Fitness Friday post earlier today. Busy day coming up! It has been a busy week, so I'm a little behind on my usual Friday running series post. Be on the lookout tomorrow!

In the meantime, I'm keeping it going with Fitness Friday as part of the Talk Less, Say More link up. As always, the button below will take you to this community where you can see what other bloggers are doing this week.

As for me, the themes of the week were running faster, lots of strength/circuit work, and surviving the heat.

Saturday - Ran 3 mi with RunKNOX. I'm trying to push my pace on my "easier" runs to under 12 min/mi pace (my current "easy" pace). I ran 3.16 mi in 37:38, just barely under 12 min/mi pace. Then it was "Lunge-apalooza" time, as we did a very lunge-heavy circuit workout afterwards.

Sunday - Lazy day with B and the cats. My legs were killing me from the lunges!

Monday - back to the gym after skipping last week for Memorial Day! I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, then went to my usual Body Pump class. I enjoy it as it lays out circuits of different strength exercises (squats, lunges, biceps, triceps, core, etc) and all I have to do is follow along. The instructors also check our form, which is helpful!

Tuesday - Focusing on speed at RunKNOX! I'm working on a goal pace of a 9:40 min/mi pace, which will get me to my 30 minute 5K goal (#30by30, pass it on!). Right now, that pace is VERY taxing to me!

We were tasked with running 800 meters (1/2 a mile) multiple times with breaks in between. #$&%##$ 800s. I don't know why, but I find them to be SO hard! I mean, they only take me 5 min or less to complete each one, but they get me every time! I think it's because we push ourselves to aggressive paces and they feel like they go on forever. I suppose if I only had an hour to live, I could do 800s and it would feel like an eternity (okay, someone else came up with that, but it's still fitting).

Anyway, I kept up my pace at first but struggled throughout the workout. It was hot out there! Towards the end, I was careful to recognize early warning signs that I might be overheating a little despite all of the water and electrolytes I had consumed (another benefit to having a program with coaches - they are very cognizant of safety and keep a close eye out for any warning signs). I made sure to recover and hydrate even more.

Be careful out there! Hydrate! Get electrolytes! I drop these in my water. If running alone or with friends, be sure to know the early warning signs of heat related illness, and look out for yourself and each other.

Wednesday - It was National Running Day! I ran early to beat the heat and the rain. I ran 3 miles. I was still feeling a little tired and dehydrated, so I kept my pace easy (12:17 min/mi) and carried water with electrolytes.

Thursday - That evening, I did a core circuit workout with RunKNOX. That's sort of a misnomer - we worked everything! We did some really tough squats that involved touching the ground on the way down. My natural tendency was to bend forward at the waist instead of staying upright to make touching the ground easier. Obviously, that's cheating, as your legs are supposed to do all the work. So I discovered that looking up at the ceiling forced me to do them correctly. Now I'm super sore!

Friday - I couldn't make my usual morning yoga class, as I need to get to work early. I did have time to squeeze in a mile ar 5:45 AM. It was nice and not quite as humid, and I was able to stick to a pace less than 11:30 min/mi. Now I'm off to work, but the fitness isn't over! Today we'll be doing some outdoor team-building exercises (I imagine similar to a ropes course) as part of our professional development. I'll get a lot of activity today!

That's it for this week! Check back tomorrow, as I post my final post in my Running Newbie to Half Marathon series - running my first half marathon this April.

How did you stay fit this week?

-Amy