So this week felt very blah. After logging in 50+ kilometers every week since the stay-at-home order started and after the virtual devil dog double 18 miler, it was time for a rest/cut back week. I planned on doing fewer and shorter runs, while still going out for at least a mile every day since I am doing a May running streak. And I must say I really struggled this week. I had NO motivation, all my runs felt sluggish and I had a hard time just getting out the door. The annual return of Ms Humidity didn’t help! Challenges and virtual races have given me a bit of purpose as well as the feeling of community that I love about running and crave more than anything right now but I’m also kinda done with virtual races right now too. So that’s for the down this week. On the upside, I took my brand new paddle board for its first float this week and I *loved* it. More of this below, as well as a recap of the week:
MONDAY
I was still recovering from the Devil Dog Double 18.2 miles so I just did 2km around my neighborhood for my May running streak. I’m also participating in the November Project DC‘s QuaranTEAM challenge as part of Team Dazzo so I did a lot of squads, sit ups and push ups. Still no burpees but our team won this week (though to was close!)
TUESDAY
I did my 30 minute run as part of Tammy‘s QuaRUNtine challenge. To be fair, I didn’t follow her training plan and do any of the speed work I was supposed to do since I was getting ready to run an 18 miles run the week before so it’s fair to say I’m off the wagon for this one. I may try and follow the plan later on my own but I’m pretty much out for the challenge. Didn’t feel like really trying for this 30 minute runs and logged in 4.84km.
WEDNESDAY
Work was really busy so I was actually glad to get outside and run my usual 8.2 km to Crystal City on the Mount Vernon Trail (there are just so many bikes at 5-6PM!). My run was pretty sluggish/slow but on the plus side I started listening to Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld and I was really into it!!
THURSDAY
The run back to DC Thursday morning was slightly more pleasant. If anything there was NO ONE on the trail 😉 I also loved listening to Rodham and I bumped into my friend Nathan by the Tidal Basin. He was biking and wearing a helmet, sunglasses and buff so when he first stopped and waved at me I had no idea who he was but then we chatted at a safe distance for a while and it was SO NICE to just talk to another person in real life. I miss people (and I’m an introvert, so I can only imagine how extroverts feel lol).
FRIDAY
It was supposed to rain all day Friday and I was kinda looking forward to a wet mile (sometimes running in the rain isn’t so bad!) Caitlin and I took Tammy‘s noon online workout and it was great as usual.
But then I waited a little too long to get out for a run and before I knew it it was sunny (again, it was supposed to storm and rain all day) so I was like ok, no excuse to do 3 miles instead of one. I regretted that decision. It was SO humid and gross. That was a disgusting 5.4 km 😉
SATURDAY
So Saturday, my friends Molly, Emily and I took out our inflatable boards for the first time. We decided to stay close to home and try Columbia Island Marina by the Pentagon since we were just testing things out. The weather was beautiful (and I didn’t put sunscreen on my back so I’m totally sunburnt now!) and it was so nice to be out on the water. As I thought, Stand Up Paddleboarding is a very social distancing friendly activity since it’s hard to get that close to people on the water. My board felt great, I would have never known it was an inflatable board (though inflating and deflating it is kind of a process!). We’re already plotting our next outing and I can’t wait to discover new spots in the area to float!!
Later that day, I ran 2.5km around his neighbourhood to keep the streak going. I was *shocked* to see SO many people out on 23rd street. I guess restaurants are allowed to serve outdoors drinks and food now in Virginia but I was just not expecting to see such a party scene so soon after re-opening. This is just my opinion, but people who act so carelessly like nothing has changed or happened over the past 2+ months are making a mockery of the 100000 people who lost their lives as well as the 35 million + Americans who lost their livelihood. Like, is getting drunk with your friends so important?
SUNDAY
I meant to do a long-sh run, maybe 8 miles, but I just didn’t feel like it and barely made it through 9.2 sluggish kilometers to wrap up a sluggish week at 40.2 km/25 miles. The highlight of this run is that it tipped me over the 1000km (621 miles) for the year so far!! My goal is to run 2020km in 2020 so I’m almost halfway there and a bit ahead of schedule which feels great. It’s always great to hit milestones and feel like you’re doing good on the goals you’ve set for yourself! At least it was a nice, positive way to wrap up the week.
What I’m reading/watching/listening to: I’m not a big fan of what-if types of stories and I’m no Hillary Clinton fans but I loved Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld’s fictional account of what would have happened if Hillary Rodham had not married Bill Clinton after they dated in law school. Would he have become president? Would she have? I couldn’t stop listening to it until I knew what happened!
On Tuesday, my friend Calla put together this super fun activity that I want to mention. She’s been spending some of her extra at home time getting a feel for different creative activities and she bought herself, me and Nicole a water coloring kit from the Shop Made in DC. It featured a basic set of watercolors and 4 illustrations from Marcella Kriebel (I have some of her prints already on my wall) and we spent some time colouring them while chatting on zoom. It was actually super fun. In regular times, we would probably have just gotten together at a bar and not done something like that. So I appreciate that this crazy time has enabled us to do slightly more interesting and different things together… even if we’re apart.
What I’m eating/drinking: My friend Justin posted a picture of his Ethiopian take out order on Monday so I picked up dinner from Habesha Market And Carry-out. I didn’t think I ordered *that* much, just the Regular Kitfo (I’ve been craving steak tartare!) and the taste of Habesha combo and I had food for the whole week. Like, literally all I ate was Ethiopian left overs all week lol. I also got lunch at Chaia Tacos. Love that spot.
What I’m looking forward to on week ?: Hopefully just getting a bit of my working out mojo back. I’ve gotta figure out something that motivates me again… and maybe that’s going to be more stand up paddle boarding for a bit… and I’ll have to be ok with that…
How was your week? How are you staying motivating? And how are you feeling about whatever stage of re-opening you’re at in your area? We’re still under stay-at-home orders in DC though there’ s increasing talks those could start getting lifting as early as the end of next week and, honestly, I don’t know how I feel about that….
Back to linking with Kim of Running On The Fly and Deborah of Confessions of a Mother Runner for their weekly wrap-up. Check out everyone’s posts and join the community if you’re blogging about your fitness journey too!!