Spring Training Week 8 – Heat Wave

Week 8 was a doozy. As you probably know, a massive heat wave paired with incredibly strong winds hit San Diego and started a ridiculous amount of destructive fires. Luckily, I was not affected since both my work and my house were not near the danger zones. I had no friends or family seriously affected although I knew several people who were evacuated. It was a scary week!

I came off of Week 7 feeling tired. As I wrote in my last recap, I ended up taking a rest day and skipping my bike workout on Sunday because I was so run down from the previous week. In retrospect, I think those personal record breaking 1 mile repeats dug me into a hole and I probably dug it deeper with my tempo run. Luckily I did listen to my body and I’ve come out of it, but I had to do some adjusting to week 8’s schedule as such.

Week 8 was also P90X3 recovery week, which was perfect since I did need some R&R! The good thing about Brad Hudson’s training philosophy is that he truly emphasizes that workout plans are meant to be constantly changing based on how you feel so it made me feel MUCH better about moving my schedule around to make it less rigorous than planned this week.

This was also week 2 of my added sugar reduction and I’m happy to say that I did not cave! I wanted ice-cream or a soda so bad during the heat wave but did not succumb to temptation!

Here’s how it shook out:

Monday: 

I slept in after a long day Sunday and then after work planned to do a short run. It was hot – in the 80s – even at 6 p.m. I had little to no motivation to run but figured I’d feel better after a few minutes. As I turned the first corner and ran about 1/10th of a mile from my house, I literally almost turned straight around and went home. I didn’t want to run. I didn’t feel like it. But I felt ok so I kept going. I ran to the Kook (about 2.2 miles out) and turned around straight into a howling headwind. I had already been clocking ridiculously slow miles and they slowed down even more as I headed up the hill at the Kook into a headwind. My next mile was nearly 11 minutes. I clearly needed more rest! I don’t regret many runs, but this was one of them. The 2.2 miles home was miserable. I felt like it was the end of a 20 mile run instead of a 4.4 mile run. 

Tuesday: 

I had planned to do another speed workout today but I’m not completely crazy so I canceled it. I slept in and since I had a hair appointment that night, it was another complete rest day.

Wednesday: 

AM: Mike and I both got up to get on the trainers the next morning and I rode for 45 minutes. My legs were started to get their pep back and I felt much better.

PM: I met up with Asia for another VERY hot and slow run. We met in Del Mar to avoid some of the smoke coming from the north. This time, however, my legs didn’t feel as dead as Monday. They still felt a bit heavy due to the heat and wind, but not bad. We ran about 5.3 miles in total.  I was already very behind on my P90X3 workouts for the week so when I got home I did P90X3 Isometrix. I love this workout! It alternates between a isometric planking/ab move and an isometric upper body move (like chair or a one legged squat, etc).

Thursday: 

AM: I had gone to bed early and was feeling better when I woke up for my tempo/race pace run. This was really supposed to be my peak week of half marathon training but due to the heat, I knew that my run wasn’t going go as well as I had hoped. The workout was 1 mile warm-up, 2 x 3 miles at half marathon pace with 3 minute recovery between, and 1 mile cool-down. Even at 5:45 a.m. it was in the 70s and the sun came out almost immediately. It was still windy and my legs were a bit heavy so instead of focusing so much on my pace, I ran by effort. I ended up averaging 7:57/mile for the total of 6 miles at half marathon pace, which wasn’t too bad all things considered. Most of the miles were closer to 7:35-7:45 but one really bad one up a hill against a headwind brought the average way down. Mike also did his tempo run that morning and we ran the warm-up and cool-down together and met up in the middle. It was nice to have a running buddy out there to motivate me!

PM: P90X3 Accelerator. This one is a full body mix of cardio and body-weight resistance training.

Friday: 

AM: I started the morning with 30 minutes of jumping around the living room with a weight in my hand a’la P90X3 CVX. 

In the evening Mike and I celebrated being 100% debt free with a fancy dinner at our absolute favorite restaurant, a tiny Peruvian restaurant in Encinitas called Q’ero. I always eat the steak here (it has been 2 months since I’d had meat) and it was delicious as always. The wine was extra sweet knowing we are now debt free! We attended a 9 week class called “Financial Peace” in the fall which emphasizes riding yourself of all debt, including car loans. We’ve been chipping away at that loan and Mike paid off his student loan from his MBA and now we’re free and clear!

Saturday: 

I was thankful to have Asia to do my long run with on Saturday! It was still warm but most of the heat wave was behind us which was a huge relief. We ran 12 miles with the final 30 minutes at “moderate” effort, which to us was in the high 8s. The rest of the run was purposely slow and easy.

Sunday: 

Sunday was when I finally came out of my slump. I slept 11 solid hours on Saturday night and woke up feeling very refreshed. Mike and I took our time getting up and enjoyed coffee at one of the lookouts. By the time I started my workout I was wide awake and energized. I had two P90X3 workouts left to complete for the week (again, like last recovery week I skipped “Dynamix which is the alternative for rest day most weeks), so I started with those. First I did P90X3 Pilates and then headed straight into P90X3 Yoga. Mike was gone for a 2 hour run so as soon as I was finished I hopped on the bike for a spin. I was feeling good and in total rode 1 hour 15 minutes. At about 45 minutes I added four 5 minute tempo segments, with 2 minutes rest between. I felt great during the entire workout- apparently I needed some sleep!

Weekly Totals: 

• Miles Ran: 30
• Hours Biked: 2
• Hours Strength 2.5
• Total Time: ~9.5 hours