This week was all about finding the sweet spot between exercise and rest so my legs will be fresh and ready to push for an awesome 10K on Sunday!
This was an incredibly relaxed week for me. My body has been demanding more and more rest the last two weeks so I gave it what it wanted. I did just enough that my body was pretty comfortable, but not a bit more. I’m not even convinced I did enough. But I really didn’t want to overdo it with my first 10K happening Sunday morning. I did my best to find a balance between exercise and rest and I was definitely ready to push for an awesome 10K!
Here are some of the resources I used to prepare for this 10K:
Getting Started with Cardio When You Hate Cardio
Mastering the 10K: A Guided to Training for Your Best 6.2
Tips for 10K Race Day: Pacing, Strategy and Fuel
5 Dynamic Stretches You Should Do Before Every Run to Prevent Injuries
Monday
Rest Day
Sadly I did not get to do a true rest day, complete with quiet resting meditation time. Between M’s swim lesson, a dentist appointment and everything else, I didn’t get my mid-afternoon rest time. I made up for it by going to bed early, including a nice long wind-down time with some chamomile tea, slow breathing and no technology! Every time I spend an evening this way, I wonder why I don’t do it every night. I get such wonderful sleep!
Tuesday
20 min Walk + Foam Rolling
Hubs and I were really tired and sore so we turned our cardio day into more of a recovery day. Walking felt great – a gentle exercise to get the blood flowing while letting those tight muscles work themselves out. After 20 minutes of walking, we targeted the problem areas with a foam roller.
Do you do body self-care days like this? They’re my favorite!
Wednesday
Hips and Core Strength Workout
Still feeling tired and really did not want to work out today. I know not to take it too easy or I start hurting so I dragged myself into the gym quite literally groaning and mumbling to myself the whole way.
After 3 sets of exercises at a slightly lower weight that was it! I’ll admit I felt better having done the workout, especially since I didn’t push very hard. Today was not a day for personal bests. Showing up was enough.
Thursday
Recovery Day: Warm Up + Foam Rolling
Some hip soreness showed up out of nowhere in my left hip – where I normally never have issues. Obviously, I did a hip and core workout yesterday, but I took it easy on the workout! It’s normal to get some soreness when doing a new workout or increasing intensity. But all I did different was add in the ball squeeze glute bridge exercise from my PT last week.
Maybe new muscles are whining because that exercise is correcting the postural issues and challenging some other muscle groups. Or maybe it’s just my body doing it’s thing and instead of trying to puzzle it out I should just take it as it comes.
So that’s what I did. I did a few of my warm up exercises to get the blood flowing and then foam rolled all those whiney muscles. I just want to make sure my body is ready to push for that 10k on Sunday!
Friday
Swimming with the Kiddo
Took my youngest swimming – a much needed Mommy-Daughter date. Poor H has been so sad watching M do her swim lessons. She’s been asking all week to go swimming so we made it happen.
We swam, or I guess I walked leisurely through the water supporting H, for a full hour. H completely wore herself out practicing climbing in and out of the pool, kicking, paddling, and back-floating.
The water felt amazing for my still whining hips. Moving through the water with H was light enough activity that my muscles could relax a bit while still getting my legs ready for Sunday.
Saturday
Warm Up Exercises + Rest
The day before a race is all about rest and making sure your body is ready to push for 10k. Hubs and I did our best to take it easy but that’s not exactly possible with a 4 and 2 year old running around! We puttered around the house and played with the kids. I did my warm up exercises a couple times throughout the day to work through the mystery hip soreness and make sure my muscles were ready.
Want to see how I split up my exercises into 10 minute chunks throughout the day?
10 Minute Butt and Core Workout
Sunday
Lavender Run 10K
This run was the hardest run I’ve done yet. But I did it! I even finished in the top 100 runners! The hardest part was getting my brain to toe the line so my body could do what it trained to do. Halfway through I was seriously questioning why I’d decided to try this crazy run. I questioned whether I could even do it. I considered walking.
Every time my silly brain came up with these ridiculous suggestions, I reminded myself that I KNEW I could do it. I could run as slow as I needed so long as I didn’t walk. And ultimately, I worked too hard to get to this race to not do my best. To have the opportunity to do this run meant too much to let my brain get the best of my body.
Because when I ignored my brain and listened to my body, my body was saying it WAS ready to push. I trained to get here. These last 7 months I’ve overcome my fear of injury by learning my body’s true limits. Not the limits I’ve imposed on myself because of a lack of confidence and fear.
This run was so hard. I learned so much and there are a lot of things I’m going to do different moving forward. But I learned all this because I was ready and willing to push both physically and mentally. I couldn’t be more proud of this accomplishment!
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