January is when we all make goals and set intentions for the year. It can also be a really rough month- it’s cold, dark, and there’s this ennui that can set in after the hubub of Thanksgiving-New Year’s holidays. The winter doldrums, if you will. Since November, amidst the craziness of holidays and life, I have struggled to run and blog regularly. It almost felt like I had misplaced my spark somewhere. So January was a time to do some thinking and searching about that.
I’m super excited to announce today that I’ve joined the Oiselle Volée team! Community has long been important to me- in real life and online. This is one of the reasons I love my running group (shout out to Arlington Road Runners!), I enjoy group fitness classes (thanks Functional Fitness VA!), and why I blog and participate in link-roundups. I’m lucky that a number of the DC area running friends are already part of Oiselle Volée (Courtney, Becca, Deb, Jenn, Leanne)- so I’ve gotten to see the Oiselle community in action. Community lets me support others, and share lessons that I’ve learned, while also giving me people to learn from, the share the miles with, and find inspiration from when I feel stuck, slow, injured, uncreative. It’s not Red Bull that gives you wings- you already have them; but sometimes you need a little push from friends to spread them and fly!
Enjoy the moment! With some of my DC/VA Oiselle Volee friends!
This week was a better week in terms of running and training- even though I’m still not signed up for any spring races. I’m trying to pick one or two now, and then I can give this training cycle a name (and more importantly, a hashtag).
Wednesday: 3.1 miles run. Half a mile warm up, 2 x .5 mile at treadmill 6.6 (around 9:10 pace I think), 2 x .5 mile at 8:27 pace, .2 miles are super fast (treadmill 7.5 I think?) and then .3 mile cool down. I also did some body-weight squats, my PT exercises, 10 seconds of hanging from a bar, and foam-rolled.
Friday: I had the day off from work due to the Inauguration. When you office is blocks from the White House and Pennsylvania Ave, you get the day off. So I got myself up and went to a 6am bikram yoga class. It was a more self-directed class without the usual amount of pushing and instruction, which was a nice way to ease back into bikram after a few years away. I felt hot but rejuvenated when I left. I also went to a 30-minute lunch class at Functional Fitness VA. I never get to go to the daytime ones, and I thought it would be packed- instead it was just me. Each workout is trying to give it your all and not compared to others anyways, right?
Saturday: I wanted to avoid DC due to the traffic for the Women’s March, and my running group canceled our organized run, so I headed south with my boyfriend for a 7-mile out-and-back route that he likes. It was along a pretty quiet road, through some neighborhoods, by a creek/river, out to a power station, and back. It was a cool (48 degrees) and misty morning- perfect for doing some thinking. I worked on correcting my running form, so my hips and knees were pretty tired. 7.05 miles at an average 10:06 min/mile pace.
Sunday: 3.1 miles on the treadmill, 9:11 average pace, even though that included warmup, cool down, and over half a mile of running sub-9:00 pace. I also did a mile on the stair machine, and some weights. Stretching completed the workout!
Total week mileage: 13.25 miles, 4 days stretching/PT/foam rolling, 2 cross training classes.
I’m looking forward to the year ahead- Head Up, Wings Out!
Great job with your runs for the week! I always get nervous doing speedwork on the treadmill, I always feel like I’m going to fly off at some point!
Congrats on joining Oiselle Voilee! Looks like a fun running community 🙂
Thanks Janelle! I get nervous too- but doing it for just a short distance has made me feel a little more confident about faster running on treadmills. And at this point, my “fast treadmill” speed is just a touch faster than my target 5K pace. I stay pretty close to the front of the machine so I can hit the emergency stop if I need to!
YAY! I am so happy you’ve joined the team – you will love it!
I’m excited!
YAY from me, too! Nice recap – incidentally, I noticed last Saturday we ran together you definitely have picked up the pace some. Something is paying off there. 🙂 See you Sat!!
Thanks friend! I think shorter distances have helped speed too. I was in marathon training for basically a year and a half straight, so it’s nice to have a break to focus on shorter and faster. See you Sat!
Awesome job with your runs this week! I really need to get in some speedwork! It’s just so much hard work! I can never muster the motivation to go out and do it as I know how much I hate it! 😉
Thanks Laura! I hate speedwork too. Which is why you haven’t seen me post about repeats (6×800) yet!