Monday August 3^rd—Running rest day! I love Mondays… a day where I don’t have to set an alarm, and I just naturally wake up by 7:30am. Monday’s are a work from home day for me with my kids in tow.

I decided to get out on my bike after work and rode 12 miles. I helped calm my nerves down. I was a little nervous because I was doing a podcast – my first podcast ever! I wasn’t sure what to expect but once I got the technology working (with the help of my husband) it went well and I enjoyed the conversation with Stephen. I’ll post a link to listen in my blog for next week if it’s available by then.

Tuesday August 4^th—Today I opted to run on my treadmill for a softer surface and no humidity. I love the hot summer running but the humidity is just so draining that I needed a break!

My run today was 2 mile warm up, then 8 x 200’s (6:45-6:30 pace goal), with 1 min easy recovery, then I cooled down to 6.5 miles. It felt good and I was happy with how this went!

Wednesday August 5^th—Decided to get back outside for my easy run today. I ran 7.25 miles, and this again went well! Got an email from the 5k race that I was supposed to run on 8/14 that it was being CANCELLED. Bummer. I was really looking forward to running an actual race. But I get why they had to do it.

Later in the day I decided to take my kids for a walk during a break from work, while they scootered and noticed a bit of tenderness in my right heel.  I then went out for a bike ride at night and rode 10 miles. I figured that biking wasn’t going to hurt the heel since there’s no pounding and it’s more of the top of your foot that is used for biking. Trust me that if I had felt pain while biking, I would have stopped. I know not to push when I could rest. 

Thursday August 6^th—When I got up today, I still had that tenderness in my right heel so decided to not do my run and rest instead. As the day went on the tenderness almost went away. I also realized that I had stopped using my orthotics that I normally would have had in my easy run shoes. I guess I thought that I didn’t need them anymore? Lesson learned. So, I put them back in my shoes.

When I got home from work, I decided to still go out with my mother in law’s dog Daisy for some miles. There was no pain and we went slow so I was happy to still get to go out for my dog miles. It’s become our weekly thing and I didn’t want to miss it.

Friday August 7^th—Got up again today and decided to skip my scheduled run again. Taking a few days off or altering your schedule when something hurts should not be a big deal. If you are in it for the long run, then you shouldn’t mind taking proper care of yourself when that time comes up. And so, this was another complete rest day. I made sure to ice and baby my heel as much as I could when I was home.

Saturday August 8^th—I woke up today and my heel felt much better. I decided to go for an easy run and see what I could do. I kept the pace VERY easy and felt no pain other than the humid weather which made me a sweaty mess. I ended with going 8.25 miles. I was supposed to run 13 miles but again, no big deal if you need to alter your run! You need to do what’s best for you in the moment. Since there are no races happening it really doesn’t matter.

Then I was scheduled to finally get my hair done. I haven’t gotten it done since December so it was long overdue. I had been putting it off but figured now they were set with proper procedures and overall I was pleased with how it went. There were maybe 6 total people in the salon and I felt very safe there. Now I’ll put off going again until next year LOL. That’s just how I roll. I’d rather be running or biking than at the salon for hours on end.

Sunday August 9^th—Today was the last day to run the 5k for the virtual track event that I’m in right now. I was considering just telling them to put me as DNS (did not start) but then as my heel started to feel much better with the rest I decided to head to the track today to see if I could pull it off. I did a 2-mile warm up then went for it! I ended with 20:39, which is way better than I thought I was going to given my heel pain and being off, etc. For a 5k on the track, I’ll take it! It was actually enough to pull me into the last and final round.

The last round is where you have to run the 2000m, or 5 laps around the track!