July Recap

Miles: 60.94

X-Training: 11 (7 bike, 4 swim)
Biking Miles: 182.11

Rest Days: 9

Race(s): Culpeper Sprint Tri on July 31 (race recap coming soon!)

New gear: I made a trip to some local outlets over the July 4 holiday weekend when there were some great sales and came home with two new tops.  The only unfortunate thing is that they are both long sleeve (super cheap!) and I probably won't be able to wear them for a while.  Come on fall!  All things considered I was proud of myself for my relative restraint.  There was plenty more that caught my eye, but I stuck to the really good deals. :)

Workout goals: 
Increase my running mileage over June - This didn't happen, but I also hadn't planned on a full week off from running.  I had hoped to do a few runs on my vacation, but when I was experiencing some heel pain I decided the smartest thing to do was take a full week off from running.  It seems to have paid off as I have had no pain.

Take some extra rest days (marathon training is coming and I should take a break now) - I had planned to make sure that I had two complete rest days a week and I achieved this and then some! 

End July motivated and ready to train for Philly - I had some motivation lows during the month (particularly when it came to the bike), but I am excited to start this marathon training cycle.


Non-workout goal: More new recipes.  The first two CSA deliveries have really motivated me to try new things in the kitchen and I want to keep it up once the new, excited feeling has worn off.  I tapered off a bit at the end of the month, but I did manage to try a couple of new things.



Ice cream flavor of the month: Red Velvet Cake

July was an interesting month.  I started off feeling somewhat unmotivated and pledged to take extra rest days.  I struggled on the bike, but finally broke through with a great ride the weekend before my tri.  I didn't manage to run as much as I had hoped, but some heel pain led me to take some extra days off, just as a precaution.  I'm hoping that the extra rest, along with all of the cycling and swimming as a part of tri training, have put me in a good position to tackle marathon training.  I think I definitely needed the last 2-3 months away from intense running, both mentally and physically.


August Preview

Workout goals: 
Be smart as I start my marathon training plan - I was hoping to have a few more miles under my belt in June and July than I actually managed.  I don't want to ramp up too quickly, so I may swap out the 5th running day for cross training for the first few weeks to ease myself out of tri training and back to running.  I know that being smart now will help me avoid injury.

Keep swimming in the rotation - I have really enjoyed getting back in the pool this summer and I don't want to abandon it completely when my focus shifts back to running.  I have Sunday as a cross training day so my goal is to making this a swimming day as often as I can.

Plank a day - I keep saying that I want to be/should be doing more core work.  Since I currently do absolutely nothing, I figure a good way to get started is to commit to a plank a day in August.  I know I won't last long at the beginning, but hopefully I see some improvement in 31 days!

Races: Right now I have nothing on the schedule.  We'll see if I actually make it through the month race-free.

Non-workout goal: New recipes. For some reason I had a hard time coming up with a goal for August so I'm going to stick with a cooking related one.  I dropped off a bit last month, but I'd like to get back to trying at least one new recipe a week using my CSA produce.