The Week That Was

Goodbye, Oregon!

Bill and I began the week on the West Coast, in Oregon, visiting my middle son Rob, his wife Ari, and her family. This is a photo of the alfresco farewell dinner we had on Monday.

Rob and Ari are excellent cooks. For this dinner, Rob smoked several chickens (organic, free-range, of course – this was Oregon), Ari make a lettuce salad and a cucumber salad, Ari’s aunt brought some delicious potato salad, and for dessert, fresh strawberry shortcake and home-made whipped cream made with strawberries we picked the day before.

The next day, we sadly packed up and began the long trek home to Pennsylvania.

The Weekly Workout Wrap-up.

My workouts this week leave something to be desired. The “something” desired is actually doing the workouts.

Oh, I did a daily routine of stretching for my hamstrings and glutes. I do not want a reprisal of the hamstring injury that plagued me for two years and hampered my running.

Most days I also do a few push-ups (just to assure myself that I still can do them) and planks. I used to try to hold a forearm plank as long as possible. Five-minute planks were the norm and my longest plank was eight and a half minutes. Now, I concentrate more on form and do two or three sets of two-minute planks.

The entire stretching and strengthing routine, however, takes about 10 minutes, not a big chunk of my day.

Running is what suffered most on our 20-day trip. There was always something more exciting to do – a trail to a beautiful waterfall to hike, or a brewery to sample, or a grandson to play with, or a family member to sit and chat with. Priorities, right?

This week, I ran three times so far for a grand total of 10.5 miles. On Thursday, Bill and I ran 4.26 miles, our longest run since July 25. And we are marathon training.

If you are reading this post on Sunday, the day it is published, I have just completed a half marathon. I hope.

The half marathon, The Hellbender, is run on a wide, flat trail through the woods in Northern Pennsylvania. We have run it before, several years ago, and it is one of our favorites. This year, I am going into the race feeling woefully undertrained. I will keep my fingers crossed and publish a race report soon.

What time zone is this?

I have to admit, one of the factors affecting my desire to run is my body’s lack of adjustment to passing through different time zones. We first began our trip with a visit to family in Colorado, a two-hour time difference.

It was easy for me to go to bed early each night since I usually hit the sack when my grandson went to bed. I got up early each morning for a little time to myself before we began our busy days.

It’s not difficult to be virtuous when you’re traveling west.

By the time we got to Oregon, three time zones west of our home in Pennsylvania, I had adjusted to the two-hour Mountain Time Zone difference and still got up an hour earlier than normal.

Now, returning East, my body wants to stay up late and sleep late. I’ve gone from virtuous to slovenly.

Sleeping late is not conducive to running in the Mid-Atlantic states in the summer, since by 9:00, the heat and humidity have already skyrocketed. By comparison, the first day I ran in Colorado, the temperature was a brisk 42 degrees at the start, with very low humidity.

Plans for Next Week.

We are leaving directly from the race today (sans shower) to travel to Boston, where we will meet friends for several days of exploring that historic city.

One of the friends we are meeting is Nancy, who has completed a marathon in each of the 50 states, plus around 50 additional marathons. She is currently pursuing the goal of running each of the World Marathon Majors (Tokyo, London, Boston, New York, Chicago, and Berlin) and should complete her quest in 2020. She will make sure I run. Long distances. Every morning. I need her “gentle” (and I write that with deep irony) encouragement.

On our way home, we plan to stop on Cape Cod to visit my sister and brother-in-law. At least there are no time zones to cross.

 

I am linking up with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner for their Weekly Rundown.