Agility, Baby!

Will Spring ever come? It was a gloomy, cool week here in Chicagoland--at least until the end of the week when the sun finally came out! That didn't stop me from taking all my runs outdoors. I had a lot of fun on my trail runs leaping over puddles and fallen trees. It sure keeps things interesting!

Weekly Rundown:

Sunday: trail run 5 miles

Monday: Strength Training

Tuesday: Fluid Running

Wednesday: trail run 8.75m

Thursday: Strength Training

Friday: run 6 miles

Saturday: rest/work

In an attempt to get back on track after having to move things around last week, I ran at my preserve. I don't like to run 2 days in a row, especially after the hard effort run I did the day before. My legs were tired, so I slowed down. That's never a concern on the trails--there's just so much to take in. The woods were so peaceful, save for the birds singing. I saw a herd of deer running through the woods, but my favorite thing was this sandhill crane that was walking along the path. Usually, I see them in pairs, and I couldn't help but wonder if he was looking for his partner. I was happy to let him follow me as I walked back to my car. He continued on his way along the path.

The woods are pretty barren right now--the FPD is doing planned burns. I found some interesting tree trunks that were left standing after the burns were complete. Not much in the way of spring blooms yet, except for the greenish grass adjacent to the trail. Soon!

Monday's strength training had us once again rotate through 4 different activities, 10 minutes for each:

-Rotation 1: Weighted step up with leg drive, 4x 8 per leg--I used a 20" box and a 15# DB for this one

-Rotation 2: 4 sets to failure, seated banded rows

-Rotation 3: AMRAP low box jump medley. This was FUN! We had to jump up to a box (I did 24"), deficit drop to the ground, high jump, broad jump, lateral jump x 10 over a barrier, shuffle between 2 cones x 10, broad jump, box jump (24"), and repeat. I did lose count, but I'm pretty sure I did this at least 6-7 times. So FUN. 

-Rotation 4: 10 chest throws to the wall (14# wall ball). Similar to what we did last week with the lateral throws, this was head on, hard and forceful. It took me a few sets to get it, but once I did, it was fun and it made my heart pound! I did 10 sets of this one.

Once again, I had my eyes to the sky for Wednesday's trail run. Rain was predicted, and I wanted to get it done without getting wet. Spoiler alert: it didn't rain until evening! But I was glad that I had that push to get moving early. I started out running in the east preserve and found quite a few deer foraging for breakfast. 

After that, I crossed the busy road that dissects the preserve--why oh why is there not a traffic light at the crosswalk--and on to the west preserve. I decided to run the trails up and down the creek. There are a lot of fallen trees across the trail, making a great agility workout. I don't know about you, but it's a lot of fun leaping over the obstacles. Then, it was back onto the main trail and across the busy road again to my car. Such a fun morning!

Thursday's strength sesh had some agility work, too! Once again, we had 4 sets of activities with 10 minutes to complete each:

-Rotation 1: 4 x 12 landmine squat (60#). These made me SWEAT!

-Rotation 2: 4 x 8 Pendlay rows (75#)

-Rotation 3: AMRAP :15 Battle ropes. I didn't count how many rounds I did

-Roataion 5: AMRAP Hurdle Medley Course. We had 4 sets of high hurdles, lateral low hurdles, broad jump to complete. Again, not sure how many rounds I did.

Super fun workout!!! Even though these workouts make me tired and sore on my runs, I think they are paying off!

Ooof! I hit the road early Friday morning in my Brooks Hyperion Max aka speed shoes, but my legs were talking to me, still sore from yesterday's landmine squats. Did you do the math? 48 of them? I knew I'd feel it, so it was no surprise, but I pushed myself along the bike path. I was pleased with my splits and with the sunrise that eventually peeked out from behind the ginormous cloud that covered the sky. Thank goodness for this run--it truly was the best part of my day. I won't go into details, but work was...a challenge.

Off the road...

It felt really good not to have to drive out to my parents' house this week. My sisters and I did have a Zoom call to discuss the events of last week; we are going to work on finding a caregiver to come in to the house to help with my mom's pills, household chores, and accompanying my mom to appointments when my dad or I are not available. We're already anticipating the pushback, but there will not be a choice. Stay tuned for that. 

Did any of you jump on the Doll Box/Action Figure trend? Using Chat GPT, I made myself into a trail running action figure. It's been fun seeing everyone's results! Here's mine:

You might think it's silly, but with all the chaos of the past couple of months, and especially last week, having a sense of humor has been a good thing. That and running!

How was your week? Are you seeing signs of spring? 

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