I am trudging along with my workouts and battling the short days, lack of sunlight, carb & sugar cravings.
I made individual apple crisps twice this week because I have to taste test what I’m serving on Thanksgiving, right? The second one won. Although i do have a third recipe pinned . . .
I’m joining up with Holly of Hoho Runs and Tricia of Misssippipiddlin to recap last week.
You don’t have to be a runner to join in & tell us how your week went! So how was my running last week?
- Monday: Yoga for Pain Relief Align & Alleviate, Dog walk (2)
- Tuesday: Dog walk (2); 4 mile sloooow recovery run, ST from RFRL
- Wednesday: Yoga for Pain Relief Restore & Rebuild,
Dog walk(rained out), Physique 57 Barre Yoga - Thursday: Dog walk, 4 miles? speedwork on treadmill
- Friday: Dogwalk, Physique 57 Butt & Thighs
- Saturday: Yoga for Runners Back & Hamstrings, 6 miles LSD, Dogwalk
- Sunday: Yoga for Pain Relief Rebuild & Restore, Dogwalk
Mileage: 14 (-1.3)
SAD but chugging away
The short days really get me down. Throw into that a mostly cloudy, sometimes rainy (sometimes sleety) week, and my runs this week just seemed like a struggle.
Good thing I’m not training for anything.
After last week’s 15k I know I probably could have run one more half this year, and live to tell the tale if I were smart about it, but I also know that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Tuesday’s run, a simple easy run, was slooooow. But it was just a recovery run, after all. I raced hard on Sunday.
Thursday was cold and rainy. If I’d been training for something, despite a busy day, I probably would have run outside. It wasn’t that bad. But because these couple of months at the end of the year are about rest and active recovery and maintaining endurance, I took it to the treadmill. And did some speedwork.
I finally got to test out the indoor function of my Vivoactive (the first couple of times I ended up having to stop and do something and forgot to pause it) and let’s just say it isn’t very accurate. Maybe my treadmill isn’t, either, but I’m pretty darn sure the average pace wasn’t 14.5 mm. I know what 14.5 mm feels like and that wasn’t it.
I did 2 miles of 1 minute fast, 2 minutes recovery with a mile warmup and cooldown. At least that’s what my treadmill thinks I did; the vivoactive thinks it was just 3 1/2 miles, but since I ran for 52 minutes, which both the treadmill and vivoactive agree on, I’m pretty sure it was more than 3 1/2 miles.
Saturday I met up with Darlene for the last 6 miles of her 11 mile run. Sure, it was cloudy, cold, and windy, and the next day was forecast to be quite a bit warmer. But I’d rather run with someone on a bad day than by myself on a good day. I run by myself enough.
I was hoping to persuade my husband to go to the park with the dogs (he did, a little grudgingly) on Sunday, because no one would have enjoyed it on such a nasty day — although I did walk the dogs in the afternoon.
I almost changed my mind when it started to snow, then sleet, early that morning, but we delayed the run a half hour and it was fine.
Of course the trail we were on was such a nice decline going out . . . but you know what that means. Running with Darlene means I kept a good pace anyway.
A little light on strength training again, good amount of yoga. My IT is telling me it wants more strength training.
Chester update
Chester actually seemed a lot perkier this week. He didn’t even have his normal Saturday meltdown (he tends to do really badly on Saturdays). Read 5 Ways to Know It’s Time if you don’t know Chester’s story.
I take him to a holistic vet for laser treatments twice a week. Is it helping? There’s really no way to know. She thinks he’ll make it through the holidays, but she’s been wrong before. It’s really just making him comfortable for as long as we can.
Weekend Favorites
I started to make some lentil burgers, but realized I didn’t have some of the ingredients that the recipe called for. So basically I threw in a bunch of ingredients from my refrigerator and they turned out great!
A bonus was that they were also quite large, and I’m a volume girl. I’ll have to try to take better photos so I can share the recipe with you. Mostly it’s take what you like, mix it all together, and pan fry it. I wanted to try to up my game and eat better, and that requires spending more time in the kitchen. So I can actually say do as I do!
And finally hanging this mirror — we bought it after my Gettysburg half last year. Since I had 2 orange & white tabbies (one gone almost 3 years but Gizmo going strong) it has great sentimental value to me. And it makes me smile.
Do you like to follow recipes or make it up as you go along?
Chocolaterunsjudy 
I’m not sure I’ve ever followed a recipe to the letter. My Mother taught me to cook and she didn’t use recipes very much. I’ll use one for something new and then end up changing this or that. That is a very cute mirror. I”m glad to hear Chester is perky this week. We had a mostly gray week here and my energy level reflected it. Does the Vivoactive use step count to calculate distance like a Fitbit would? I’ve never tried mine on a treadmill. It would be interesting to see what it comes up with. I appreciate you linking with us, Judy!
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My mom didn’t teach me to cook — although she’s a good cook. She didn’t want us messing in the kitchen. If I’d had kids, I would have hoped I’d let them cook with me!
I usually do follow recipes, especially if it’s the first time I’ve made it (although not the case in this instance).
I’m really good at picking good recipes, but I’m not that creative with making up my own, although it’s been known to happen. Obviously.
It will be mostly gray here until spring.It looked like it was going to be nice today, but it’s already clouded up. 😦 Probably why running actually seems like a chore right now (and I know exactly what you’re thinking).
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I too struggle with SAD during the winter, which is why I run outside even in the cold. The natural light and pushing myself through inclement weather really seems to help me a ton. We’ve had a great fall, and I’m dreading what’s to come…
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Our fall wasn’t quite as nice as yours. The last few days have been nice, finally — but struggling to get up to 50. Although I did regret not wearing a running skirt yesterday morning.
I walk the dogs every day unless the weather’s really bad, so I get my sunlight then. If any can reach through what little skin shows!
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I don’t know if I struggle with SAD, but my body clock is thrown off with the darkness. This weekend didn’t help, especially yesterday. It was gray and gloomy all day, and I didn’t do anything yesterday afternoon. I was falling asleep by 8 and struggled to get to 9. Once the first digit was a 9, I went to bed.
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I always get into bed around 8:30; lights our at 9 pm. But I’m typically up at 4-4:30 am, too.:(
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i love the sunshine which is why it was so nice yesterday. I hope the forecast is wrong about Sat and it is nicer than this past Sat. I definitely would have sucked more if you hadn’t come.
I usually follow recipes exactly. My mother didn’t teach me either. I’ve never had time to test them but I read the reviews on allrecipes.com and have never had a disaster.
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Oh, I’ve definitely had lots & lots of disasters. Some of my own doing, some just bad recipes. It’s kind of like racing . . . 🙂
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I’m glad Chester is doing well. It’s a bummer that the vivoactive is not good indoors. The apple watch is a little low indoors as well. Or maybe it’s just an actual stride difference between treadmill and outdoors. Yay for brownies!! That mirror is very cute.
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I really love that mirror. Sometimes I feel so sad when I look at pictures of Simba (and there’s that great big honking one on our wall), but the mirror makes me smile. So clever, too.
It’s not really a big deal to me that the watch doesn’t track well indoors, but when you pay that much it ought to be closer to right! I think my treadmill is actually pretty accurate.
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I’m not too impressed with my vivoactive indoors either. I usually just go by what the treadmill says and enter that manually. It’s not like I have any cool maps to upload. Love that cat mirror. I like how you can see their little faces peeking out! I do hope Chester makes it through the holidays for you, but the most important thing is that he’s comfortable, poor guy. I can’t cook whatsoever, but your treats look so yummy!! So my big question is what Yoga program do you follow? Are these on DVDs or you go to the gym?
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The yoga I mention are DVDs. I love both of those, but I have tons of them! I love yoga. It’s a matter of squeezing it in, of course.
Right now I’m waking up early so most days I figure I’m up I might as well do yoga.
It’s not really a biggie to me that the vivoactive doesn’t track well indoors, but still, when you pay that much . . .
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Yes, I agree! A lot of money! Would you have a recommendation for a beginner yoga DVD? Meaning easy-peasy with a good stretch? I need something to get rid of these aches and pains, hehe!
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I really like Christine Felstead’s Yoga for Runners (beginner version). It’s separated into 4 different segments, and most are just 10 minutes.
While not aimed at runners, I like Yogaworks AM/PM (in fact, I did it this morning). There’s a 45 minute “class”, and a 10 minute AM & 10 minute PM routines. And I’m always amazed at how much they get into 10 minutes! Definitely beginner friendly & shows modifications.
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Wonderful! Thank you! I’ll have to take a look!!
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Sounds like you need a few trips south during the winter. Winters here are usually mild, and the sunshine always feels amazing to me when it is 35 degrees. Summer sun is what kills me, it seems I may be the only person in the world who cheers up during winter.
Glad to hear Chester is peppy 🙂
I take it you gets lots of snow?
Love the mirror!
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It varies from yr to yr, but yes, typically we get a lot of snow. Not fun at all.
It’s easy to be happy in winter in the south. Part of what I loved about TX.
Traveling during the winter can be really dicey. Not fun getting stuck in airports! So we don’t do it that often. Last yr we had a family event & we got very lucky because it was one of the worst weeks of the winter.
Right now we can’t travel at all. Not til Chester is gone. I can’t even leave the house for more than a couple of hours at a time!
He’s really lucky I don’t work.
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I am not a very good cook so yea I pretty much follow it to a “t” unless it has something I don’t like in it. I agree running with a friend even in worse conditions is way better than alone I think. So nice you and Darlene can meet up to get it done together. If you saw my pictures from this weekend, I pulled in several friends! 🙂 Thanks for joining us Judy!
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Cooking just takes practice. I like to eat, therefore I cook. If I could just eat takeout and frozen foods all the time and feel good, I’d be all over that sometimes.
I’m lucky, though, I have the time to spend in the kitchen.
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Looks like you were very productive in the kitchen! I love to follow recipes, although due to me being terrible at stocking a pantry I often have to get creative and modify. Sometimes with good results, sometimes meh. I hate the shorter days, too. So depressing to drive home from work in the dark. Ugh. I feel like it is bedtime now and it isn’t even 7:30.
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Yeah, I really crash by the afternoons. Before you know it, it’ll be dark at 4:30!
I have worked really, really hard at organizing my small pantry and I’m almost finished and it’s a thing of beauty.
I still wasted 15 minutes yesterday looking for something I knew I had; I never did find it. Kind of po’d me.
More baking to go — now that I know what I’m baking, I’ve got to bake it! I am tired just thinking about it.
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cooking…well, I like cooking/baking, but I usually tweak the recipes. I’m not really a rebel, but I’m always trying to find a way to put my “spin” on it. We had beautiful weather this weekend, Iowa definitely has been nice. But Monday came, and with it came rain & cold. Ahhh, back to reality 😉 You have been keeping active with all the yoga and walking!
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I’d much rather have a nice weekend and not as nice on Monday! When I lived in VT, the joke was what follows 2 days of bad weather: Monday!
Saturday’s weather really sucked here. But the last few days have been nice — just chilly.
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Glad to hear that Chester had a good week! Lucky for me my husband does most of the cooking and baking around here. I never really enjoyed cooking. There’s only a handful of things that I can make well. When my husband got tired of eating those few things over and over again, he took over the cooking.
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I really do enjoy cooking, but I also go through phases when I really don’t want to. Lately I’ve been so tired by dinner time it’s been a struggle.
What I hate is the cleanup!
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Good week! I struggle with the limited daylight and short days this time of year, too. It was a very gray week for us last week. Luckily, I chose to do all of my workouts in the morning before work, which meant I got them done (inside, so the weather didn’t even matter – especially since the sun wasn’t up yet) before the weather of the day could affect my mood.
I am usually a recipe follower, and I think that comes from my Type A personality. But lately I’ve been taking recipes and using them more as guidance and then doing what I think is best. 🙂
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