Fun with Friends

It was another hot, steamy week, but for me, a good one, both on and off the road.  My knee, while not completely silent, has been at least cooperative with all my activities. I enjoyed some friend time, running with my Trail Sisters, and spending an extended weekend in Alabama with Holly and Teresa! It's been so much fun, and I'm sharing a brief recap of it all.

Weekly Rundown

Sunday: run with Trail Sisters 6 miles

Monday: auxiliary strength/row 5k

Tuesday: trail run 9.1 miles (15k)

Wednesday: bike ride 18.6 miles (30k)

Thursday: waterski

Friday: waterski

Saturday: waterski

I was excited to run with the Trail Sisters on Sunday morning. We had a big turnout for our run at Potawatomi Woods. This is a great meeting spot for us to run on the Des Plaines River Trail. Running with 2 of the women, I did an out-and-back, 6 miles total--some of the other women did 4 miles, and one did 10. It was kind of gloomy and humid, but not cold. Thankfully, the rain waited until we finished!

Monday's auxiliary strength workout was another 'up and down the ladder'. With 20 minutes on the clock, we did as many rounds as possible, adding a rep to each activity per round. At 10 minutes, we finished the round we were on and went back down the ladder, subtracting a rep from each activity per round. I finished with 7 total rounds. 

Rep scheme: 1 DB press (20#) + 2 BB (35#) upright rows + 3 single leg V-ups + 4 slamball good mornings

Total reps: 49 DB press, 59 BB upright rows, 78 single leg v-ups, 88 slamball good mornings

We finished with a box jump complex: OTC 15 minutes, 6 rounds of 3 jump complexes: box jump (20" box), deficit, high jump, broad jump. Coach gave me a tip about widening my stance, which actually helped stabilize my landings AND put less impact on my knees. Who knew?

I stayed after class to complete the rowing portion of this week's summer challenge-- 

Paddle Pedal Pavement (aka triathlon)

Accumulate: 

Row 4000m (female)/5000m (male). ✅  I did 5000m-it only took me about 5 minutes more

Echo bike: 150 cal (female)/200 cal (male). We were told we could sub actual bike riding for this ✅ on Wednesday with 18.6 miles

Run: 3 mile run or 2 mile walk ✅ did this on Sunday

With an extreme heat watch for Wednesday, I moved my trail run to Tuesday morning. It was a beautiful morning with temperatures in the low 70Fs. It was lovely as I made my way around the preserve. I didn't see a lot of deer, and the ones I did see were pretty skittish. I also heard a lot of different varieties of birds-- my Merlin app identified at least 25 different varieties--some I'd never heard of! I didn't see many of them, though, but I sure enjoyed their songs!

What I saw a lot of, and I'm not exaggerating, were mushrooms. Really colorful and interesting--I had to keep stopping to photograph them! Sure, make fun of me, but I have really enjoyed seeing all the varieties this summer. I'm savoring it because I know this isn't something that happens very often here. That's what makes trail running different from road running-it's something different every season and every year! And as always, you can see more on my IG.

I was excited to saddle up to finish the gym's summer challenge on Wednesday. I haven't ridden my bike all summer, and of course, the tires were flat. Once I filled them up, I was ready to go. We were under a heat advisory, so I was out the door by 6:15. It was cool, but there were already a lot of people out on the bike path, so I took the adjacent neighborhood roads for the first part of my ride, then hopped onto the bike path about halfway. This took me to the forest preserve, where I rode on the paved path. I looped around twice and then returned the way I came.

I had a really nice ride, except when I encountered one of the high school's young cross-country runners, running 4 wide across the entire trail. I had to call out to them multiple times to move over. The kids didn't know what to do-some continued to run at me or to my right off the trail. It was really dangerous and shame on those coaches for not teaching some basic trail etiquette. 

On Thursday, I traveled to Alabama for my weekend with Holly. Teresa joined us on Friday. I was excited to ski behind Holly's beautiful MasterCraft ski boat. My first ski was a little challenging! I had to adjust from skiing behind my hubs fishing boat as well as skiing on Holly's ski. The water was choppy, too. I was a little frustrated, but when I skied Friday morning, I found my groove. Saturday was even better--there was no wind and the water was calm. As always, Holly gave me plenty of tips to help me improve. Only one photo because you know what it looks like! There's nothing I'd rather do!

Off the road...

Teresa joined us on Friday--it was so great to see her and catch up. We floated out in Holly's 'slough' all Friday and Saturday afternoon! Sorry for the blurry photo--we didn't take a lot of pictures!

I'm heading home late this afternoon--of course, there will be more waterskiing before I leave. I'm feeling pleasantly exhausted! I don't think I want to return to reality--I was reminded of it with a few phone calls from the home health agency while I was away. For now, I'm going to focus on today.

How was your week? Aren't girls' weekends the best? Have you ever felt that you can't completely get away from your responsibilities?

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