#UnCanceledProject

Mid-month check-in

June 14, 2020 by Michelle 24 Comments

Happy Sunday!

While things have been fairly quiet here on the blog lately, if you follow me on Instagram you know that I’m still plugging along with my workouts. Working out continues to provide a much-needed escape from all that continues to challenge our country at the moment. It provides a quiet space to process thoughts and feelings and is also a very important piece of self-care.

Today is Day 14 of the Summer Streaker Challenge – the goal is 1 mile or 20 minutes of working out each day. I’m happy to say that I’m still on track. Over the past couple of weeks, running has been a fairly low-key affair with most runs hovering around 3 miles. My right hip’s been fairly cooperative until yesterday’s run – a reminder to not neglect my PT exercises or foam rolling! After some extra care yesterday, I had a solid 5 miler today to complete another Un-canceled 8K.

My husband, brother, oldest son and I just signed on for The Great Run Across Massachusetts. We’ll be running out and back across the state for 235 miles, which nets out to 58.75 miles each, but I know we’ll each be vying for bragging rights to see who’s going to carry the team. I’m still looking for my running mojo to kick in so I’m hoping this challenge will be the added boost I need, plus it supports some worthy causes.

Aside from the running, I’ve made good use of the Peloton app for strength training, found my way on to my yoga mat a couple of times, and got out for a few walks with friends. All-in-all it’s been a decent couple of weeks of workouts. The plan for the next couple of weeks is more of the same, except that I’d like to start to stretch my weekend runs a bit longer.

How is June treating you so far? Do you use challenges or virtual races to stay motivated?

I’m linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Run Down.

Filed Under: #UnCanceledProject, Updates, Weekly Run Down

MAYhem Done – Hello June!

May 31, 2020 by Michelle 26 Comments

It’s the last day of May and my first thought is Hallelujah! Somehow I went into this month believing that without all of the traditional school events and both of my sons’ lacrosse schedules to contend with that this would be a low-keyed month…Boy was I wrong! This month felt hella long, and the events of this past week just about pushed me to my limit – I am ready to say buh bye to this edition of May Madness.

Before I move on to setting some June goals, here’s a brief rundown of the last week of May…

Monday — 30-min Slow Flow Yoga courtesy of Peloton
Tuesday — Lower body strength training on the Bosu

Wednesday — 3 miles, plus 1 hr session with the physical therapist
Thursday — Rest day
Friday — 3.5 miles
Saturday — More yoga – seriously, who am I?!
Sunday — Uncanceled Project 8K. After suffering through ridiculous humidity all week, being outside this morning felt glorious! The peace of the early morning was also a welcome retreat from the heaviness I feel every time I think about all that is consuming our country at the moment.

With a major work project still kicking my arse, this week’s workouts were nothing wildly exciting. But they were done! And, I’m happy to say I hit my May goals of getting back to running at least 50 miles/month (I eeked out 50.6!) and completing the Family Plank Challenge!

So what’s on tap for June?

Continue daily planking (hopefully, I can get my family to keep playing along!)
Continue PT exercises 3x’s/week (This was also a May goal that fell apart as the month wore on)
Increase my monthly mileage to 65
Complete Run the Edge’s Summer Streaker Challenge (1-mile run or 20 mins of working out each day)

How did May treat you? Any big goals for June?

I’m linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Run Down.

Filed Under: #UnCanceledProject, goals, Weekly Run Down

Weekly Run Down Memorial Day Edition

May 24, 2020 by Michelle 27 Comments

Happy Sunday!

Wrapping up week 10 here on the Corona trail. While it was another stress-filled work week, knowing that I had the 3-day weekend coming helped to make it more manageable.

I’m happy to say that the Family Plank Challenge is still going strong. Here’s a quick rundown on this week’s workouts…

Monday — Triple Tabata workout courtesy of Marcia’s new YouTube channel. If you haven’t checked out her workouts yet, you really should!

Tuesday — Rest day. This was not planned rest day, but a restless night of sleep put me behind the eight ball and while I kept promising myself I’d find time for the workout later in the day, it just didn’t happen.
Wednesday — 2.5 miles plus PT exercises. I wasn’t able to connect with my PT this week for our usual Wednesday session so I made sure to dedicate a solid 30 minutes to try to keep the hip happy.

Chasing my shadow on an early morning run

Thursday — 3 miles.
Friday — Yoga.
Saturday — Strength training in the form of yard and garden work. J and I planted 19 plants plus started beds of lettuce, trimmed a couple of overgrown decorative trees and shrubs, and took out one monster of shrub with a root system that seemed to go on forever! (Note~ this is what happens when you neglect all gardening in favor of marathon training like I did last year – everything gets unruly!)

Sunday — Virtual 5K for the Un-Canceled Project. Oh my goodness everything hurt when I got out of bed this morning. I like that I had this 5K scheduled or I might have punted on running. There were certainly no land speed records set with this run, but it felt good to complete my third Un-Canceled run.

Some positives for the week…

…this week was a wrap for my high schooler and now he’s officially a senior! My eighth grader will wrap up this upcoming week and his school finally announced plans for the virtual graduation ceremony for the first week of June.

…our new washer arrived on Wednesday. Delivery and installation were easy peasy. At some point, I’ll have to make time to figure out what all 14 cycles do! 😉

…one more week of madness and some major work projects will wrap-up. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

How was your week? Taking on any major house projects?

I’m linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Run Down.

Filed Under: #UnCanceledProject, gardening, Weekly Run Down

Looking for calm in the chaos

May 17, 2020 by Michelle 45 Comments

This week was a roller coaster for sure! Work has been super hectic and really will be for the rest of this month. Add in our washing machine checking out on us and sleep being super evasive, and yeah…this week was about finding calm in the chaos.

In addition to the Family Plank Challenge, here’s a quick rundown on this week’s workouts…

Monday — Rest Day
Tuesday — Strength training
Wednesday — 1-hour physical therapy session. I swear these sessions get more and more challenging!
Thursday — Virtual 5K for the Un-canceled Project plus a 5-mile walk with a friend. This was definitely the highlight workout day of the week. I had gone out not expecting too much from this run, but my legs felt really good, so I decided to push the pace and see what happened. I was rewarded with negative splits! Best of all my legs & hip felt good the rest of the day so I met a friend for a social distance walk after work and we logged another 5 miles. It was so good to see her and catch up!

Friday — PT exercises and core work
Saturday — 3-mile run followed by a couple of hours of hauling mulch around our yard.
Sunday — PT exercises, a 2-mile walk, and 20 minutes restorative yoga via Peloton.

The lack of quality sleep really did a number on my run motivation, but overall I’m glad I stuck with my workouts despite the chaotic week.

More new kicks!

My Mother’s Day gift arrived on Friday! My boys had spied me drooling over these limited edition Adrenalines and ordered them for me! I took my first run in them on Saturday and love the way they feel…to me these GTS 20s are an improvement over the 19s, and I think they will complement the new Ghosts I picked up a couple of weeks ago nicely!

How was your week? Do you rotate your running shoes between models or wear just one style?

I’m linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Run Down.

Filed Under: #UnCanceledProject, Brooks Adrenaline, Weekly Run Down

Weekly Run Down – Mother’s Day Edition

May 10, 2020 by Michelle 32 Comments

Wishing all my fellow running moms a big Happy Mother’s Day!

Another week of the “Corona life” is a wrap. A couple more races on my schedule for this year were postponed or canceled, leaving me with just a few fall holdouts. At this point, I’m taking it all in stride and keeping my expectations very low. On the positive side, I’ve got more time to strengthen my hip and rebuild my mileage base with zero pressure of a goal race on the horizon.#glasshalffull

Here’s a quick rundown on this week’s workouts…

Monday — Bosu & Bands workout and Family Plank Challenge Day 4
Tuesday — 3 miles, plank day 5
Wednesday — 1-hour physical therapy session, plank day 6

My son is taking this family challenge seriously!

Thursday — PT exercises, plank day 7 and 20 minutes of yoga via Peloton
Friday — 5 miles with the first 2.23 dedicated to Ahmaud Arbery. My heart was so heavy during this run. Thankfully I got to walk and FaceTime with Kim in the afternoon which definitely put a smile on my face. Day 8 – plank challenge.

Saturday — Strength training, including two workouts from Marcia’s new YouTube channel (Lower Body Burn followed by Iron Core Tabata). It was great to have Marcia as a virtual workout buddy!

Sunday — Virtual 5K for the Un-canceled Project. When I received an email from Run the Edge at the beginning of the week announcing that they were extending the Project for a second round through the week of June 21st, I knew this was something I wanted to do for a little extra running incentive.