5/16/2016

The Monday Report - PiYo Week 1

by Heather on 5/16/2016

Happy Monday!!

This first week of training went great! I ended up sore, and feeling muscles I'd forgotten I had. I do not enjoy being sore, but at least I know that I put in some work. Work that I don't usually do.

I may or may not have avoided coughing one day, because my abs were so sore. Oh, and not to be left out of the party, my hips have decided to throw a tantrum. I need to find an in-network chiropractor to get them adjusted. The pain that they decided to grace me with yesterday was less than welcome. I still made them work though.

So enough of my rambling, let's get on with the show.

THE RUNDOWN

Tuesday - My very first workout since Nashville. Spin was awesome, and I really focused on staying in control and keeping my core engaged. Transitions were a bit difficult, because my right hip was starting to cause trouble, but I did eventually figure out that if I transitioned with my right leg first, then my hip didn't hurt nearly as bad. I should've known then that my hips were going to be problematic this week.

Wednesday - The first PiYo workout of this week, Define: Lower Body. It's an easy workout for me, but I did focus on deepening the stretches and really trying to make my legs work. When we got to pigeon (love pigeon so much), I made sure to focus on really deepening that stretch and working the kinks out of my hips.

Thursday - My first official double of the week. Tuesday is also, usually, a double workout day, but today's double was my first real intro to doubles. Define: Upper Body was up first, and I knocked that out, with minimal groaning. I really dislike push-ups, especially tricep push-ups. Push-ups, in general, are difficult for me. I broke my arm, pretty badly, in a car accident years ago, and when the arm was reset my elbow got rotated a bit, and the arm is about an 1" shorter than my other arm. Keeping my left arm tight against my torso during tricep push-ups is difficult, but I'm trying to not let my elbow pop out. So after getting Upper Body done, it was time for a 4-mile run.

I ended up only running 3 miles, because I compromised with the boys over how long I'd be gone. We had a somewhat busy evening planned, and they were each determined to make sure they each got their fair share of time. So even though I cut a mile off of my plan, I did push it the entire run. The run itself wasn't great. I felt like I was running in molasses the whole time, and I never fell into a groove, but it felt so great to be outside and not getting rained on. We've had a lot of rain lately. 18 straight days or so of it. Done with rain. I did end up averaging an 11:03 pace, which I'll take any day of the week.

Friday - I was dreading this workout a bit. I've done PiYo before, and I know that Sweat is aptly named. There are also push-ups. Ugh. Push-ups. Anyways, I give it my best, and true to it's name, I work up a really decent sweat. When we finally went into child's pose at the end of the workout, I couldn't help but snapping a picture.

Sunday - I heard an alarm go off, and I smacked my husband on the shoulder and told him to turn off his alarm and get up. It's Monday. He proceeds to roll over and tell me to turn off my alarm because it's Sunday and I have my long run to do. That's how my Sunday started. Talk about feeling off kilter. So I turn off all 3 alarms, and go back to sleep for 10 minutes, then I drag myself out of bed, because I have a running date, and she'll call me if I don't get up. I check the weather. I wish I hadn't. Doesn't Mother Nature know its the middle of May, and not March? 46 degrees is not May weather. I should've taken note of the winds. I didn't. I get up, dress, eat my oatmeal, because 46 degrees warrants oatmeal. I decide that I'm not going to take my pack or snacks on the run with me. I pack up a water bottle of gatorade, and decide that I'll take a break between loops to hydrate and stretch, and then I'll treat myself to coffee after the run. My running partner and fellow MRTT'er had the same thoughts. So after complaining about how dagon cold and windy it was, and deciding that we both really needed to keep our jackets on, we head out and start our run. The overall run was great. The 2nd loop being much more fluid and easy than the first one. The first loop my hip was angry, and telling me about it. I stretched whenever we stopped. I had to take walk breaks and really work on extending my stride. It short, it was a pain in the posterior. The 2nd loop was magical, comparatively. My friend upped the pace a bit, and I kept up. The left hip was starting to complain, but between the wind and my hips, the wind was earning my attention. At one point the wind was so strong that we weren't sure we were actually moving forward. I'm really glad that I went out with a friend, because I'm not sure I would've pushed the way I did. I feel bad when I have to walk and I'm running with friends, but she definitely spurred me to put in the work and I'm really happy with how we did over the 8 miles.