Coast Guard Semper Paratus Challenge Week 1 Training Recap

This first week...I couldn't have imagined how good this week was going to go even though I didn't get all of my workouts done! It's all good and I'll explain as I recap so let's just get into it!

REMINDER OF WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO

WEEK 1 TRAINING RECAP

TOTAL MILES: 13.32

TOTAL TIME: 3h 48m 48s

Day 1 - RECOVERY DAY I took this day completely off. My legs were still sore from running the 10 miler the Friday before. I thought about foam rolling and doing some restorative yoga but instead I just relaxed. I also got back into reading my Bible and it was a piece that was missing from my daily routine.

Day 2 - 3 MILES + HILLS 1 There is a monster of a hill that I get to walk down and up when I run starting at this segment of the trail. For this day I did a 1.5 mile out and back. I did go a little too hard on mile 2 but finished my 3 miles in about 42:09. Hills 1 is 5 x 10 second repeats. My third repeat was the fastest I ran at 13:03 and my rest was between 40 seconds to 1 minute. I took each of my rests where my run stopped because the thought of running the repeats and then having to walk up that hill sounded awful! I also knocked out a 15 minute foam rolling session after I smashed a Chipotle bowl and then showered before getting my kid from the bus!

This is the monster of a hill that I CHOOSE to run for my repeats! After some Googling and math, I think I figured out that this hill is a 7% grade. About half way up there is a small plateau but just enough to make your legs cringe!

Day 3 - 30 MIN CROSS TRAINING OR FULL BODY STRENGTH The plan was to do a 30 minute walk with my neighbor while our kids were in school and then make fudge. The day before, however, the girls wanted to have a play date so we opted to wait and make the fudge after school. It was also supposed to rain so she wrapped presents and I cleaned and worked on some reading for books I needed to review. I ended up doing a 30 minute Restorative yoga class and it was just the stretch my body was looking for!

Day 4 - 3 MILES + HILLS 2 Remember that hill from Tuesday? Well I was back at it again. I went the opposite direction on the trail than I had on Tuesday because it's been forever since I ran that section of the trail and have never ran it from this particular starting point so it felt like a different trail all together! I made sure to take it much easier than Tuesday and just enjoy the run. I did start earlier so I wasn't on a time crunch. My average pace ended up being about 15:16 and I finished the 3 miles in 45:47. My repeats were 8 x 20 second repeats and I slowly made my way up the hill with every 2 repeats. My fastest pace was 8:14 and I can't believe I hit that going UP A FREAKIN HILL! My rest between repeats was about 1.5 minutes with I think one rest around 2 minutes but it felt so good!

Day 5 - REST ON ACCIDENT I wrote down to do a workout. I planned to do a workout. In the end I was able to get all the Christmas presents wrapped up and just didn't have time to get the workout done before picking up the kid from the bus. My hubs went hunting so we had a girls night out and got dinner, came home, and watched some tv. Am I using every excuse to avoid the strength training? Yeah. Did I plan to do my strength training on Saturday? Yep. Did I get it done?

Day 6 - 3 HOUR CROSS TRAINING(?) So here's the deal. It's been awhile since I've cleaned even the slightest in our gym area but I want to be able to use the space again to workout. Can I count the 3 hours I spent scrubbing the space as cross training? I think so. I wish I had taken a before and an in progress picture because it's looking great right now. I did realize while I was down there that it was the first time I had cleaned at all since our dog Dusty was put to sleep in June 2023. I still walk down the stairs and expect to see him on his bed at the bottom of the stairs.

I also want to point out that I did want to take the kid and puppy for a walk but it was 37° outside and had a feels like 27° with 16 mph winds from the NNW meaning stupid cold. I'll subject myself to those temps but not my kid or my dog.

Day 7 - 5 MILES I went to a different trail for my run because it's closer to my house. Before my run, the weather was 30° with a feels like 34° with more NNW winds at 8 mph. When I started my run it was 32°. I had some layers on, a beanie, and running gloves. I got a little over a half mile in and then spent the next 2 miles dodging horse poop. Why, you may be asking? We have a large Amish community around here and this part of trail, they use with their horse and buggies. I kind of thought that they would want to catch the poo to use for fertilizer especially since there are signs posted to pick up waste off the trail. I got to my turn around point and all of a sudden I was running into the wind. I don't know where it came from but it got super cold. I had taken my gloves off and when my left thumb got really cold I realized I couldn't bend it. If you don't follow me on IG then you wouldn't know that I cut my thumb really good the day before Thanksgiving. The wound itself has healed nicely but I still don't have some feeling around the cut.

I finished the last half mile really strong and felt wonderful! I swapped out my top layer with a clean/dry sweatshirt and went to sip on the hot tea I brought with me but I forgot to open the lid so it could cool some before my run and it was still way too hot but it did the trick. It also took forever to warm up once I got home and in the shower. I didn't realize how cold I was until I couldn't get warm!

WHAT'S ON DECK FOR NEXT WEEK: Originally the plan for week 2 was to stick to the plan. Do everything on their designated days. Then I looked at the weather report. At the time I'm writing this, it's supposed to rain ALL day on Sunday. A local mom group is running a group 5K on Saturday morning so I might just do my 6 mile run on Saturday instead. We'll just have to see!