July 2018: Did I pass?

~ Chocolaterunsjudy

bgradejuly18

I completed State #17 & Half #19 in July. I started the month strong with a course PR at my annual 4th race, despite very hot conditions (read the recap here). We finally had a very much-needed vacation (aka my racecation). But . . . how did July really go?

Getting in scheduled runs
I did really well with this, despite crazy travel shenanigans. It wasn’t always easy, a few were shortened up, but there were no skipped runs. And a shout out to my SIL who dropped me off and picked me up on my long run while we were visiting (and got me a post race treat — well, maybe that was Mr. Judy, but she drove).

Grade Earned:  A

Recording my runs
I did a great job while I traveled, I can tell you that! Maybe I fell off a bit before and after, but overall I think I’m doing pretty good with it.

Grade Earned: A

Dynamic Warmup
Most of the time I do really well with my warm ups. Sometimes I do a very abbreviated one. There really wasn’t one before my half this month, but that was circumstances beyond my control — if I’d had enough time, I would have done it.

Grade Earned: A-

Foam Rolling
I’m usually quite good with this. I feel the difference if I don’t, I really do. Even though I had my Original Worm (Amazon Affiliate link & read my review here) with me during our vacation, and I did use it, I also skipped it. A lot.

Grade Earned: B

bid6
Ok, I needed this the next day because all I could eat after the half was a baked potato. ID, right? And I did share it with Mr. Judy

Nutrition
Seems like almost every upcoming racecation (all two of them plus this past one) are right before my monthly WW weigh ins. To “normal” people it’s no big deal, but I almost always see an increase in weight after a longer race. So I’m again on the edge of will I or won’t I be free in August. There have been a fair amount of treats, but also a fair amount of miles.

Grade Earned: B-

Support

  • Massage? Not yet.
  • Chiropractor Appointment? Yes. I had to cancel the one I’d made prior to our vacation (and ran into the chiropractor at the airport, of all places!) but I just had one this past week and made an appointment for before the next big race.
  • Do I need a hair appointment? Yes, still, but I like my hair a bit longer in the summer so I can braid it.
  • I had my PT appointment. Too early to tell if it’s really helping — and of course, some of the issues had already seemed to improve on their own. Apparently I have a really tight sartorius muscle. I’d never even heard of it.

Grade Earned: A-

id5
Hiking is good cross training, right?

Cross Training
Oh boy, when you fall, you fall big. Cross training? What’s that? At least two weeks with no strength training or yoga or swimming — nothing, really, other than running, hiking, and walking.

Grade Earned: C

June 2018  gets  . . . 
. . . a B+. It would be super easy to give myself an A. I know pretty much everyone has a hard time juggling everything as they get close to a race and a vacation. What can I say; I’m a hard grader! Don’t get me wrong, July was a good month. But letting little things slide can come back to bite you.

July Goals:

    • Continue to Prehab. As always, something is always better than nothing. On and off — not enough, but thankfully everything went okay. I guess it was enough!
    • Strength train 2-3 x week. I started out the month really strong on ST, but fell off majorly before, during, and after my vacation!
    • Foam roll — really foam roll. Sometimes. Again, not enough.
    • Chiropractor visit. Y.
    • Run a 4 mile race. It looks to be even hotter than usual. Take it easy-ish. Y. Easy-ish, bwahaha! But it went well.
    • Greens daily. Y. Mostly. Although that might have gotten me into trouble after my race. Stay tuned for the recap next Tuesday.
    • Berries daily. Y. Mostly. Even on vacation I often was able to have some.
    • Shoot for a couple of classes at Wellnest Studios. N. A big, fat N!

 

Which leads me to August Goals:

    • Continue to Prehab. As always, something is always better than nothing.
    • Strength train 2-3 x week. Thankfully this is my peak week and I finally get to taper! Strength training has been seriously lacking and it’s definitely going to help me with my 1812 race.
    • Foam roll — really foam roll.
    • Chiropractor visit.
    • Join my friends for a fun race — although I’ll be doing the longer distance — if the weather isn’t horrible (which is usually is). Watching & waiting to pull the trigger!
    • Greens daily.
    • Berries daily.
    • Shoot for a class at Wellnest Studios. I’ve paid for them — now I need to make time for them!
    • Hopefully keep all of my toenails. 🙂

 

I’m linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup.

Tor-box

This week I am also joining up with Running on Happy, Suzlyfe, Crazy Running Girl, and Coach Debbie Runs each week for the Coaches’ Corner linkup

coachescorner

34 thoughts on “July 2018: Did I pass?”

  2. I would say that you had an awesome July! You’ve been super busy with traveling and running, so don’t be too hard on yourself about the cross training. I’m sure you will find a happy medium when it comes to this and running.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. I’d give you an A+.

    Running when on vacation (your hubby is a Saint).

    And completing 15 miles the week after a half marathon race!!!

    A super hilly half as a taper? You are a beast!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Trust me, Mr. Judy is not a saint. And usually still sleeping while I’m running.

      I haven’t made up my mind about Chingacook yet. Depends on the weather. And I’m supposed to run 12 miles that day anyway, plus 1812 has plenty of rolling hills.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Alyssa is running it. I considered it too (for a second) but i’ll be away that weekend. Plus 12 easy miles would not be the same as 13 race miles. At least not for me.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. As an experienced hiker (lol), I say with 100% certainty that hiking and walking are EXCELLENT cross-training options. 😀 I’m glad you’ll be back to strength training this week but I still wouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You were busy!! And sometimes, life just has to be about fun, right? 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Sometimes life definitely has to be about fun! We needed that vacation!

      However, I wasn’t carrying any weight at all (the hydration vest is really very light). Although there was a lot of scrambling over downed trees & lava rocks.

      Like

      Reply

    1. Feel free to steal my goals. 🙂

      So what works to motivate you . . . praise? drill sergeant? Food? It’s all about knowing what motivates you — for me, it’s getting to the starting line prepared.

      Like

      Reply

  7. It is so tough to keep up with training when you are on vacation. I am away for 2 weeks visiting my far-flung kids. I have not done anything other than run, and precious little of that! And I have a marathon in less than 3 weeks!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Usually I really am pretty good about it. At least with getting some yoga in!

      But we were busy and by the end of the day I’d just be too tired. Maybe the elevation had something to do with it, but we were in UT last year at pretty much the same elevation . . . actually then I totally skipped most of my runs in favor of hiking, but I had no big races afterwards.

      This time I do, so I knew I had to keep up with my runs!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  11. Well, even if you didn’t make all your goals, you still were very active! Foam rolling is a tough one to keep consistent with (says the gal who currently is “not injured” so hasn’t been very diligent on the rolling).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Looks like a very strong month to me! It’s very tough to keep the ball rolling on crosstraining when you’re traveling and have so much else going on. I’ve been good about dynamic warmup but my post-race stretching may have been a little lax in July.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I don’t stretch post run as regularly as I ought to. It’s something I’ve really been working on!

      I run mostly by myself, and I actually find that can help — when you run in a group, it’s so easy to skip the stretching & just chat.

      Like

      Reply

  14. Hiking is absolutely cross training! I’m impressed by your consistency with warmups and foam rolling – I know they help, but they’re still things I slack on often.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s