Weekly recap (3/27-4/2): Bad news, good news, and a biking adventure

So I have bad news and good news. 

The bad news...I didn't run 4 times this week and was dealing with an annoying cough that has turned into what I think is a bit of an upper respiratory mess - I coughed for an hour last night, then woke up again in the middle of the night coughing - ugh! 

The good news...I still got in 3 runs and 2 barre/yoga classes plus a 14 mile bike ride adventure (more on that in a bit). So I'm still doing okay. 

And more good news...I went back to get rechecked for my iron and vitamin D levels and everything is back within the normal range! YAY! 

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Workout summary

• Monday: Barre
• Tuesday:  Hot yoga 
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Run/walk  - 3 miles (10ish pace)
• Friday: Off
• Saturday: Easy run - 3.02 miles (8:58 pace)
• Sunday:
  • Bike ride - 14 mile (7 miles pulling toddler trailer)
  • Easy run - 5.01 miles (9:25 pace)

Yoga/barre: 2
Runs: 3
Bike: 1
Total miles: 11.03 miles
Total workouts: 5

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And a little more bad news...we had a sick dog this week. Someone raided the trash and ended up with pancreatitis. Good news...it was a fairly mild case and they could treat it via a short outpatient stay rather than admitting her overnight. And by Monday, she was back to her old self. 

Sick Beagle, trash raider

And one last bit of fun (good) news...I did a fun photoshoot with Melissa Griffin Photography to get some good photos (of me) for my blog. I added some of them to the banners here and I'm excited to have some for branding and stock photography. 

And about that biking adventure...we like to go on family bike rides around town. D usually pulls B's trailer and usually we do somewhere between 7 and 8 miles. Sunday morning, we decided to head out for a ride. We stopped at the coffee shop to grab donuts and were feeling extra motivated so we rode further back into some of the neighborhoods than we usually do. 

Bike ride scenery

On our way back home, around mile 7, one of D's pedals fell off his bike. We had no way to fix it, so it was stuck with a uni-pedal for the rest of the trip. We were only about 2 miles from home at that point, but we also live right across the street from a bike store, so we decided to go there and get it fixed. 

There's something missing here

Since we didn't feel safe with uni-pedal hauling the trailer, we hooked it up to my bike and headed to the bike store (and also picked up some smoothies at Tropical Smoothie Cafe). D needed a whole new pedal replacement (both sides), so after that was fixed, we planned to head home. But as soon as we put B back in his trailer, he fell asleep. So we ended up riding around for about 5 more miles (and I pulled the trailer instead of D) while he slept. 

The trailer didn't seem heavy to me, but it's definitely more than just biking without it. I ran later in the day and could feel it in my legs. So, I went ahead and called Sunday "leg day." I think I just found a new leg workout. Trailer pulling a 30 pound toddler. #momlife

Other than that, not much new here. I feel like I just can't get caught up on anything outside of my work life right now because it's been so busy, so everything else (including blogging) has been fairly neglected. I hope to get this under control soon!

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I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin'  for their Weekly Wrap post.

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Weekly recap (3/20-3/26): Back up and running (I think)

These past two weeks have been crazy. Work has been so incredibly busy that I've been up before the sun to work and have been logging time in the evenings after my son goes to bed when I usually have time to blog. It doesn't show signs of letting up, either, so I'm in this craziness indefinitely. It's all I can do to get workouts in.

Last week, I didn't have time to get a recap written for two weeks ago. Don't worry, you didn't miss much. I mostly rested my back since I didn't feel like it was completely better, did some yoga, a little barre and some short runs. 

But even though I slacked on my blog, last week was a good week for workouts. It was the first time I ran 4 times in a week in months and the first time I've run a "long" run of 5 miles since January, I believe. And I still got in some barre and yoga! Go me!

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Workout summary

• Monday: Barre
• Tuesday:  Easy run - 3.02 (9:10 pace)
• Wednesday: Barre/yoga flow combo class
• Thursday: Easy run - 4.06 (9:16 pace)
• Friday: Off
• Saturday:
  • Easy run - 3.01 (8:20 pace)
  • Bike ride - 7 miles
• Sunday:
  • Easy run - 5.08 (9:21 pace)
  • Yoga/running photoshoot on the beach (my Fitbit logged this as 50 minutes of "sport," so I'm calling it a workout)

Yoga: 1
Barre/strength: 2
Runs: 4
Bike: 1
Total miles: 15.17 miles
Total workouts: 8

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B had a cold and croup last week and decided to share that with me. I ended up with a mild cold. The good news: I shook the cold off without it turning into a sinus infection or upper respiratory infection. That hasn't happened in years!

I'm so used to colds turning into sinus infections that when I had congestion last week, but my cheekbones and eye sockets weren't painful, I didn't know what to do with myself! I'm so used to sinus pain that it's become the norm for me. I'm so glad the allergy shots seem to working for me! 

I've also been feeling a little squishy and out of shape lately. Even though I continued to work out while I was attempting to recover from low iron, I couldn't push myself at all. And of course, running was slow and sporadic, too.

And even though my workouts were easier, my eating habits remained as though they were still hard, which resulted in not exactly weight gain, but squishiness. Basically, I lost muscle. But with the past few weeks of harder workouts (except the week of the back issues), I started to feel a bit better. My clothes are even fitting better again. Hopefully it won't be long before I'm back to my old fitness levels. 

Outside of working out, last week was a good week despite work life insanity. I managed to squeeze in a mid-week happy with friends and then over the weekend we went to an oyster roast (the season is almost over, you guys!) and the South Carolina Aquarium. B loved the sharks, otters, and sea turtle. 

Sunday night, I did a yoga/running photoshoot at the beach, which my FitBit logged as a solid 50 minutes of "sport," so I got an extra workout in this week! I figured I needed some better photos for my blog and I'm trying to up my game a bit, so I enlisted the help of a local photographer. I can't wait to get the pictures back! The shoot was so fun and now I have photographic evidence that, at 37 years old, I can do handstands, splits, and cartwheels. It's the little things, you guys. 

How was your week?

Posts you may have missed:

The Invisible Successes
Weekly recap: Rest
The Odd Life of the Work-from-Home Mom

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I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin'  for their Weekly Wrap post.

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The Invisible Successes

Most of life's successes don't happen in one fell swoop. Overnight success, if it exists at all, is rare. Overnight luck like winning the lottery? Sure (and sign me up). But true success that's a combination of hard work and some lucky breaks along the way? Not overnight. It's incremental, sometimes invisible to the naked eye (or at least invisible to people other than the person putting in the work). But it's there. 

I have lots of goals - big ones, small ones, running ones, design ones, life ones. All of them require time, lots and lots of patience, and a series of small successes to get to the one big one.

Last week, I moved one little step forward in the jewelry line that has been rattling around in my head for years. I used to design and make jewelry on the regular. I had an online shop, had my designs in boutiques, and set up stands at local markets. Those days haven't happened in a while (and by a while, I mean almost a decade). Because life. And other priorities. 

My small success last week: I wrote out a list of the prototypes I want to make along with all of the supplies I need to do that. I did not make a list of supplies for the entire collection of sketches I have in my mountains of sketchbooks. Only a few. Bite-sized. (How do you eat all of the sushi at a sushi buffet? One piece at a time, right?). And then I scanned my original sketches of those designs and hung them on the wall behind my computer. They stare at me all day now. 

So, in my mind, I'm one step closer to getting those designs off the paper and into a real-life piece of jewelry. I'm going to go ahead and call that a success.