Two Weeks in Review - 7/3-7/16

I'm back from vacation and hoping to catch up on all of your blogs this week!  Since I wasn't posting last week, here's what I've done over the last two weeks.

Sunday July 3
Rest
This was a lovely (hot) day full of BBQs and a Nats game.  An excellent way to spend a day off!

Monday July 4
Run - 5.0 mi
Swim - 3050 yds
I got in a super sweaty run before heading over to WL pool to meet up with a large group of bloggers for a swim.  It was good to finally meet a lot of them in person and it ended up being a great pace workout.

Tuesday July 5
Run - 4.1 mi

Wednesday July 6
Swim - 3000 yds
I was really pleased by the pace work that I did on Monday so I tried to do a similar set again (and increased it from 8 to 10 100s).

Thursday July 7
Rest

Friday July 8
Bike - 28.5 mi (AM), 6 mi (PM)
I met up with Victoria for some early morning sprints at Hains Point.  This was my first time really trying to push my speed on the bike and I know it was good for me.

On the way home, I managed to fall off my bike once again.  I waited out the crazy storms and didn't leave work until after 6:30.  I was near the Jefferson Memorial where the bike path and sidewalk merge when I came up behind a group of tourists taking up the entire path.  When they didn't move over after I said "bike on your left" and other variations several times, I figured it would be easy enough to go around them in the grass.  Unfortunately, when I tried to get back on the path, I caught the edge at the wrong angle and wiped out.  It wasn't too serious though I did scrape up my arm and bruise my hip.  Of course, then the tourists stopped to point out that I was bleeding, but couldn't be concerned to move out of my way before!  For some reason it took me a long time to get my chain back on, but that was the worst part of the whole incident.

Saturday July 9
Run - 8.66 mi
My recent long runs have been about 30-40 seconds per mile slower than what I was doing during training for the National half marathon, even though they have been shorter.  When I first realized this I was frustrated, but I think that given the increased temperatures, this is probably a reasonable slowdown.  I've been meaning to go back and look at what I was doing last summer.  I'm pretty sure that this is an improvement over those runs, but I'll have to confirm that.

Sunday July 10
Rest
This was my travel day to Ocean City with my good friend Heather and her parents.  They invited me to join them on their beach vacation and I was more than happy to come along!

Monday July 11
Run - 0.5 mi
Yes, that's not a typo, I managed to run half a mile on Monday.  On Saturday evening my left heel started bothering me.  I didn't hurt during my run and I didn't remember hitting it on anything or stepping down particularly hard, but I was definitely noticing it when walking around on Sunday.  As soon as I started my run, it was painful.  I gave it a few minutes to warm up, but when that didn't happen, I decided to shut it down.  There was no point in pushing it.  I was also worried about injuring some other part of my leg if I changed my stride around to avoid the heel pain.  And since I was already planning to take it easy while on vacation, I decided not to attempt another run until I was walking around pain free.

Tuesday July 12
Bike ~ 16 mi
On Tuesday morning, Heather and I biked from Ocean City to Bethany Beach where we met her parents for breakfast at a tasty crepes place.  I was a bit nervous that the 8 mile trip would be tough on a beach cruiser, but it wasn't bad at all.  It helped, of course, that it was completely flat!  Heather wasn't feeling 100% after we ate, so her Dad agreed to make the return trip with me.

Wednesday July 13
Mini golf
It was only the most intense exercise for me during this vacation.  After a day at the beach (with a break to watch the US women defeat France in the World Cup), we played an exciting round of mini golf.  I ended up second, which sounds impressive until I say that there was a three way tie for first place!

Thursday July 14
Bike ~ 10 mi
Kayak ~ 90 min
In the morning Heather and I biked to have fancy donuts for breakfast (at the Fractured Prune) and went on ride around the bay.  Then in the evening we took a sunset eco tour in kayaks.  I could tell from the beginning that my upper body strength needs a lot of work!  Clearly swimming is not cutting it.  In particular, my right arm needs help.  It was sore long before my left one!

Friday July 15
Rest

Saturday July 16
Run - 5.65 mi
My heel was feeling pretty good by Friday, so I decided I would test it out with an easy run.  I didn't want to go crazy after a full week off, so I planned to run for about a hour.  I'm happy to report that everything was fine!  In fact, the most sore part of me was my right arm.  I think it was still sore/tired from the kayaking adventure and my bicep didn't like holding my arm in proper running form!