Soaking up the Last Days of Summer

It's another loooooong post as I recap 2 weeks of fun and fitness. I was out of town last weekend and wasn't able to post a recap. So bear with me as you scroll through!

I've been really enjoying our extended summer, with warmer than usual temperatures, no rain, and bright sunshine. Everyone seems concerned about our dry conditions, but trust me when I tell you we will make up for it very soon. In fact, it is raining in Wisconsin as we speak!

Me, I'm just soaking all the unseasonably warm weather up. I know what's coming...

Weekly Rundown

Sunday: Hype Fest--yoga

Monday: CrossFit

Tuesday: Fluid Running

Wednesday: Trail running 6.5 miles

Thursday: CrossFit

Friday: run 6 miles, travel to Alabama

Saturday: waterskiing

Sunday: rest, travel home

Monday: run 5 miles

Tuesday: Fluid Running

Wednesday: trail run 6.5 miles

Thursday: CrossFit, Brooks Let's Run There Tour event, 3 mile run

Friday: rest

Saturday: waterskiing

Sunday was the final day of Brooks Hype Fest. I considered going for a run, but between all the activity over the past 2 days and my difficulty sleeping, I was exhausted and decided to go to yoga instead. The class was billed as recovery yoga, but I soon learned this was a vinyasa class. It's been a long time since I've done any kind of vinyasa, but I'm glad I knew what to do. It felt great!

After yoga we had breakfast and then it was time to pack up and head home. I shared a full recap of the weekend in a separate post which you can find here. I was exhausted and after getting home, I spent most of the day with my feet up!

I woke up on Monday, feeling much better after 10 hours of sleep! After checking the CrossFit WOD, I signed up. The strength portion had us doing a 12 minute EMOM working on building to a heavy single power snatch. We started out with an extensive coach-led warm-up. I didn't realize we were building to one single and I did sets of 3. LOL. Because the wide grip used to do snatches is very stressful on the shoulders, I started out at 35# and built by 5# with each set, focusing on form and extending my left arm fully. I'm so much weaker on that side! I finished up at 55#. 

The MetCon was a 9 minute AMRAP alternating 10 power snatches and 10 box jumps. Coach told us that we needed to go lighter than we thought on the snatches and that we should shoot for 9 rounds of this. So I did 25# snatches and used an 18" box. I finished with 7 rounds. No complaints there!

On Wednesday morning, it was 58 degrees when I hit the trails. It felt just great. We haven't had much rain lately and the trails were really dry. The foliage is starting to die back and it was nice to have more room on the single tracks for running. I met a woman and her dog on one of the trails who complimented me on my shirt. It's always amazing to me how kind and friendly people are there. I felt pretty good on this run and was happy to be back in the woods after my weekend in the city.

Thursday's WOD was a 30 minute EMOM: 5 rounds of 8-12 cal on the bike, 10-15 kettlebell swings (I did 15 per round at 30#), 40 second bear hug hold (50# slam ball), strict pull-up/progression (I did 5 negatives per round),10-20 ab mat sit ups (I did 20 per round), 8-10 plate hop burpees (I did 8 per round). I was really consistent on the workout, but in the 4th round started to struggle with the bike and the bear hug holds. After we finished the workout, I felt like I was going to faint. I got really dizzy and couldn't catch my breath. I've never had this happen before and it was a little scary! I lay down on the floor until my heart rate came down, but I still felt off until mid-afternoon. I'm not sure why this happened. Most likely it was a combination of a really intense workout, a warm day, and the poor air quality.

With plans to travel to Alabama later in the day, I wanted to squeeze in my Friday run before I left town. Despite the cool morning temperatures-- it was 58F when I headed out, after the first 2 miles, I started to struggle. I'm not sure if it was residual fatigue from my episode the day before or what, but I once again needed to take multiple walk breaks. Kind of disheartening, but what's a runner to do but try to salvage the morning with a handstand!

In contrast to our amazing weather in Chicago, the weather in Alabama was pretty bad. A tropical storm rolled through earlier in the week and on Friday, we had some residual rain storms. It rained A LOT. So we watched Alabama annihilate Wisconsin at Wisconsin. It wasn't unexpected, lol. And then the rain stopped and we decided to take a chance on getting some waterskiing in. Conditions weren't perfect, but we had a great time being out on the water. That's all that mattered!

I decided to skip CrossFit on Monday and go for a run. I took my feet to a pretty preserve with limestone trails, hoping for a better run than I've had lately. No such luck. After my first mile, I started to use 4:1 run/walk intervals. That helped, but my heart rate was high for most of this run. I hoped for 6 miles, but I called it at 5. I am hoping that my struggles are due to the warm weather and poor air quality and will resolve once it cools off. 

It was 60 degrees when I hit the trails on Wednesday morning. We have had close to no rain this month and the trails were really dry. There were lots of exposed tree roots and even though I kept my eyes to the ground, I did catch my toe on a few! I stayed upright except one time when I hit the dirt. There's that split second when you know you're going to fall, right? I used that time to brace myself and luckily had minimal impact. I dusted myself off and got moving again. The bright sunshine and warm temperatures felt so good!

I woke up Thursday morning feeling as if I hadn't slept! I finally talked myself into going to CrossFit and I'm glad I did. The strength portion was a 12 minute EMOM, alternating between 12 goblet squats (25#) and 30 second plank holds. The MetCon was a 15 minute AMRAP with 12 ball over shoulder (30#), 15 box step overs (20"), 100m ball carry (30#), and 30 double unders (I did singles). Mindful of what happened to me last week, I didn't push myself as hard as usual, but I still completed 4 full rounds and a few BOS when time was called.

I attended a Brooks sponsored event in the Bridgeport neighborhood of the city and participated in a 3 mile run as part of the event. This neighborhood is on the south side of the city, anchored by the stadium where the Chicago White Sox play, and it was fun to run somewhere new! I'll share a little bit more about the event below. 

On Friday I woke up exhausted again, so I spent the day on the couch with Cocoa. I've been getting warnings that my iCloud storage was almost full, so cleaned out my photos and videos. I've been meaning to do it, and the thought of having to pay for storage was incentive enough. 

Saturday was my birthday and I was really excited to get in some waterskiing! I rarely get to ski in Wisconsin after Labor Day--I can only recall doing it once before. Mother Nature cooperated with a beautiful morning, calm waters, and no boat traffic. The water wasn't too cold. I know with great certainty that this will be the last ski of the season. Sigh. 

Off the road...

After morning yoga on Sunday at Hype Fest, Deborah and I met Cynthia Wheeler and Erica Agran for coffee! It was great to see them and catch up. I made plans with them to attend the Brooks Let's Run There Tour event later this month and then we said goodbye to Deborah, who was planning on meeting her daughter for lunch. 

So about that trip to Alabama...Holly's husband contacted Teresa and me about a month ago with the plan to do an 'early' surprise 60th birthday party. Mind you, her birthday is in December. We were both game and vowed to keep it a secret. Yes, I knew about this when I was there a couple of weeks ago and I kept it in the vault. It was fun to walk into her house and surprise her! Her sons and grandchildren were there and Teresa and I were very happy to be included! The family left Friday evening, but Teresa, Holly, and I had a really good time together, just hanging out and catching up. Who needs more than that? I love me some southern hospitality!

As I mentioned above, I attended Brooks' Let's Run There Tour event in Chicago. The tour is being held in 4 cities including Chicago, Washington DC, Nashville, and Sacramento. Several of my fellow Chicago BRC members planned to attend, and I also invited Erica and Cynthia to join me. There were all kinds of fun activities at the event: a t-shirt station, a caricature artist, a 360 video camera, food and drink, product demonstrations, and the ability to try several of Brooks' newest shoes on the run. It was a lot of fun!

We ended the week with a trip to the lake and dinner at a local supper club! The food and wine was great. Desser? I went retro with this Grasshopper. Made with ice cream and Creme de menthe, it was such a treat!

How was your week? Did you enjoy some late summer weather? Some late summer fun? How do you feel about surprises?

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown.