Oh man, it’s been so long since I’ve written more than a book corner blog. I should get better at this. I often feel that I don’t vary anything in training, and nothing happens in my life, and therefore I have no updates.
I am pushing through another round of JG40 for strength. I have to say; this might be my favorite strength program ever. I liked Jessie’s Home Edition, but JG40 is so flexible and works with my schedule so much better.
I’ve been doing pretty well with running. It’s definitely hot out, but I’ve cut back my long runs to 7-8 miles, which seems to be helping. It’s just too hot to be out for more than an hour and a half or so. I’m aiming to hit 95-80 miles a month and have been doing pretty well.
This month it may be hard for me to hit my goal. I’m at about 50 miles with eight (8) days to go. We took a week off for a social distancing camping vacation. We definitely stayed active, but I did not run. Either way, I hope to end around 70 miles.
Part of the slightly lower mileage was when we got back from camping; I was tired of planning my own runs. I miss my coach but haven’t really found anyone else. I decided to test the Garmin Coaching. It is supposedly adaptive, so it looks at your previous runs to plan the next week. I selected a 10k plan and Coach Greg McMillan.
I picked the 10k because I have a few virtual 10ks coming up, and I want to try to break my PR of 1:03. I picked Coach Greg because he seemed to be aimed more at my level of running. I entered all my info, including that I currently run 20-25 miles a week. This first week has had a couple of low mile runs. It appears to get a little longer for the last few runs of the week.
Plus, all the workouts are in my watch, so I don’t have to think. Or plan. Or input workouts. Easy.
That vacation I mentioned? Yes, we headed to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and it was AMAZING! I highly recommend going. We stayed at two different campgrounds. Both were spread out enough to social distance from others. They also provided hand sanitizer that smelled like Everclear outside the bathrooms.
We did two hikes. The first was the North Kaibab to Red Wall Bridge. Hiking down into the Canyon was a piece of cake. Coming back out? It was probably the hardest hike I’ve done. We took so many breaks. It wasn’t the heat (although it was a little warm but not bad). It was the climb.
I also had very little sleep the night before and was going to get my period the next day. I’m sure neither of those helped make me feel so out of shape! It has also made me question if I can do the famous Rim to Rim hike. It’s been a bucket list item for years, but this hike basically killed that dream.
We did a shorter, flatter hike to Cape Final. It was beautiful. I say do this hike if you are at the North Rim. Well worth it.
