Sunday, September 20
We slept in today–last night we watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix, and it took awhile to calm our brains down. In the evening, I went for a 5km run–again I didn’t feel amazing, but it was overall okay/not terrible.
I also made a small New Years resolution, inspired by watching The Social Dilemma: I decided that I am going to read a little bit at night before going to bed, rather than scrolling Facebook or Instagram right before falling asleep. I have a book of short stories by Israeli author Etgar Keret, and reading a few pages before bed is a nice way to quiet my brain.
Monday, September 21
After work, I joined a zoom Pilates class, which I enjoyed. I then went for a run–I covered 5.4km in total, but it was a struggle, because unfortunately I did sprints at the beginning of the run and I pulled a muscle in my groin. I took ibuprofen and iced the area before I went to sleep–hopefully this goes away quickly!
Tuesday, September 22
My pulled groin muscle feels better–not 100%, but it’s more lightly sore than painful. I decided to not run today, in order to rest the area and stay safe. I did get in a 4.4km walk, dropping off my absentee ballot with someone who is flying to the US tomorrow. This way, it has much more time to make its way to the NYC voting precinct, and hopefully be counted in the election!
Wednesday, September 23
In order to be COVID compliant, I walked to my group run today, which was 3.6km. The workout itself was an additional 3.8km. I felt fine throughout the day, and tested my leg by lightly running 1.5km of the commute. I could feel my groin muscle, but it wasn’t too terrible. I told my coach I didn’t want to sprint. We ended up doing a race activity as a warm-up, and my groin muscle was NOT happy. The rest of the workout (4 * 2min slow, 2 min faster) went well. I went home, took ibuprofen, and iced the muscle.
Thursday, September 24
Today I stared my day with a zoom Pilates class! It was focused on the glutes/abs, and included opportunities to both stretch out my groin area (which feels better than yesterday but is still sore), and also my outer glute muscles. I need to strengthen this area in order to improve my running stability and my PT exercises also focus on this area, so it was a nice addition.
As the pulled groin muscles still feel a bit stiff and sore, I decided to not run today. In the evening, Lior and I ran some errands, to make Friday less hectic.
Friday, September 25
Today I went shopping (2km walk), and in the afternoon I had physical therapy. I now have the green light to run 10km! I’ve more or less gotten to the distance that I’d willingly want to run. Next month I’m supposed to run a 12km trail race, and I feel pretty confident that I’ll be able to do so. My PT also said that if I continue to do my twice daily exercises, I only need one appointment per week. Hooray for improvement!
In the late afternoon/early evening, with Lior’s encouragement, I went for a run. I did NOT want to run 10km. Instead, I decided to run 6km and to break it up, I decided to do an interval run:
1.6km warm up 5 * (2min fast, 1 min slow) 1.8+km cool down/until I got home
In total, I ran 6.09km in 39:59, and I felt really good about the effort! During the fast parts I sometimes felt muscle soreness–it was much better than the initial pain on Wednesday! I’m going to hold off on running faster for a day or so, and see how things improve.
Saturday, September 26
We had a very chill day–Lior made lunch, then I chilled and listened to podcasts while he worked. In the evening, we went for a 5km walk along the boardwalk (allowed physical activity), and it was very relaxing and nice to spend this time together. During the walk I talked with Lior about some of my goals for the upcoming year, and I found this especially helpful. We then went home, ordered takeout sushi, and watched a movie (Zombieland 2–cute) and a documentary (Circus of Books, which I highly recommend–Lior got a screenshot of me making a ridiculous face because I was so enraptured.
Total Distance: 35.2KM, challenge 24/25 complete, 2 Pilates classes, 1 physical therapy appt
This was a good week mental health-wise, and I think the increased levels of physical activity helped with this!
Comments