Happy Monday! I’m feeling productive this morning, especially for a Monday. So far, I ran 6.2 recovery miles, cleaned my whole house, washed a ton of dishes, and did two loads of laundry. And it’s not even 10:00! I guess that’s the one good thing about not having air conditioning — it makes me get up and get things done before it’s 100 degrees.

For the last two weeks, I’ve copied borrowed the idea of a weekly “target practice” post from Fit. Fun. Femme. It’s a great way to set goals for the week and to be held accountable. Here are my targets for this week:

Life: Get a solid start on setting up my classroom. We don’t officially report for another two weeks, but getting set up and ready to go before inservice week makes me a lot less stressed out. I had a dream last night that five minutes before class started on the first day of school, I realized that I hadn’t copied any of my syllabi. I don’t want that to happen in real life, so I’ll start getting set up tomorrow.

Health: Focus on proper post-run nutrition. I’m reading Matt Fitzgerald’s The New Rules of Marathon and Half Marathon Nutrition (review coming this week, I hope!), and the recovery section made me realize that I need to put a little more focus on recovery nutrition.

Fitness: Complete all my scheduled training runs and strength train three times. This was a goal last week, too, and I only strength trained twice, so it’s a goal again this week.

This is a picture-less post because I’m a terrible blogger and never remember to take any. Maybe  I should add “actually take photos” to my goals for the week.

What are your goals for the week?

Least favorite housework chore? Mine is dusting. Followed closely by vacuuming the stairs.

It’s a beautiful morning (bah dah dah)!

Be glad you read that and didn’t actually have to hear me sing it. I’m not exactly a gifted singer.

I finally ran outside yesterday. It was amazing. Eight miles of outdoor bliss. My foot still isn’t 100%, and I am NOT doing my long run on the treadmill tomorrow, so I did today’s seven-miler inside just to make sure that my foot could handle the outdoors tomorrow.

I also did some strength training yesterday. In the gym, for once. I usually just do some basic squats, push-ups, etc., but yesterday I decided to go lift some real weights. I went at 3:30, thinking the gym would be empty and I should enjoy these last couple of weeks of being able to work out whenever the heck I want. Wrong. Apparently 3:30 is 19-year-old boy weight-lifting time. It wasn’t a problem, just more crowded than I had hoped. And it was a little amusing listening to them complain about not being able to gain any weight. Enjoy it now, metabolism-blessed boys. It will pass.

(He used to be a skinny kitten.)

Since I was actually going to the gym, I re-read the strength training piece of Kara Goucher’s Running for Women (terrific book. Read it). She includes a two-days-a-week lifting plan designed by her strength coach, Tony Salazar. And since he coaches my best friend Kara, I decided to try it.

(See? Best friends. We met at the expo for Rock ‘n Roll Denver in 2011. I’m sure she remembers it as fondly as I do. Move over, Shalane.)

Here was yesterday’s workout (which is supposed to be the first strength workout of the week, but will be my only one this week):

1. Barbell squat
2. Dumbell incline press
3. One-leg dumbell Russian deadlifts
4. Pull-ups (I used the pull-up machine. I am way too wimpy to do a real pull-up)
5. Dumbell step-ups
6. Tricep pushdowns on the cable machine
7. Back extensions
8. Crunches (I used a Swiss ball for these and the back extensions)

   And then I added some extra ab/core stuff.

Kara’s book says to do the program for five weeks, adding weight and decreasing reps each week and taking the fifth off. Then start the cycle again with heavier weights.

I need to get more serious about strength training, so I’m planning to follow this program on Wednesdays and Fridays and keep going to my favorite muscle class on Mondays.  Maybe having a training program for strength will help keep me on track like running training plans do. And I will get super strong.

Are you an in-the-gym lifter or an at-home exerciser?

What do you do during the “rest” part of lifting workouts? I feel like a fool just standing around between sets.

Hello, friends! I’m back to the real world and the blog world after my long weekend. We left Thursday for my parents’ and came home yesterday. It was a great visit, but it’s always nice to come home.

My 10-year high school reunion was this weekend. It started Friday night in a bar. Bars are not good places for reunions, in my opinion, because when you haven’t seen someone in 10 years, it would be nice to be able to hear them talk. Then again, maybe I’m just an old lady. Saturday there was supposed to be a potluck/picnic, but somehow there was a miscommunication and only a few people showed up. Oh well. It was fun to see some of my old friends, anyway.

We also got to spend a good amount of time with my parents and grandparents, which was very nice. And we got to spend some time in one of my favorite places in the world: the mountains near my parents’ place. Here are some pics from the weekend, but I didn’t get any pictures of my mom because she was behind the camera the whole time. I know there’s one of us on her camera, though. (Hey Mom, send me that picture, okay?)

Dad made me a hollyhock doll for old times’ sake. If you never got one of these as a child, you missed out. They’re cool. 

Dad showing me something across the canyon

The wildflowers were blooming despite the drought

Jordan and me at one of my favorite lookouts. You can see pretty much the whole Western slope and part of Utah. It’s amazing.

I nearly stepped on this nest hidden against a stump where we stopped to picnic. The momma bird was not happy that we were there, so we ate quickly and got out of her way.

We walked part of the way down into the canyon. Dad and I did the whole trail when I was eight-ish; we need to do it again.

Not a bad place to spend a weekend, right?

Here’s an update on the foot situation: I ran only once at my parents’ place — an easy four-miler (which was actually one of my favorite runs in a long time. My folks live way out in the country, and a lot of other people out there apparently think that living in the country means not having to pen up their scary dogs. So my dad rode his bike alongside me and protected me from canine encounters, plus we got to have a good talk).

Good news after the mostly-rest weekend: I ran my scheduled mileage today and yesterday (5 and 8, respectively). Both runs were on the treadmill, as my foot seems to like the softer surface right now. I certainly won’t complain — treadmill miles are better than no miles, by far. My foot is definitely on the upswing, so I think *knockonwood* it should be okay now as long as I pay attention to it. Phew.

And now, on to Target Practice.

I talked about Target Practice last week; it’s a weekly goal-setting idea that I borrowed from the ladies at Fit Fun Femme.

Life: Suddenly July is almost over. School starts again one month from today. This week, I need to make some serious progress on my curriculum adjustments for next year. I also need to update the syllabus for the college class I teach.

Health: This is an easy goal, but I don’t care. My goal this week is to eat as much fresh produce as is humanly possible. My parents live on the Western slope of Colorado, which is renowned for its fruit and veggies (especially sweet corn. If you’ve heard of Olathe Sweet corn, that’s my hometown’s pride and joy). We came home with corn, peaches, cherries, summer squash, plums, nectarines, beets, and bell peppers. This will be one delicious accomplishment.

Fitness: Get back on track to conquer Rock n Roll Denver! Complete all my scheduled training runs and strength train three times. And stretch at least a little bit every day. And of course, keep taking good care of my foot.

This post is really long. If you’re still reading, thanks. Have a great Tuesday!

What was the best part of your weekend?

Your goals for the week?

What are you training for right now?

Today’s Run: 6 miles. Take that, foot.

I woke up determined to get in my scheduled miles this morning, whatever it took. My foot still felt twingy (that’s a word), so I put on compression socks and took it to the treadmill. Running on the ‘mill on a beautiful morning isn’t ideal, but I hoped that the softer surface would be better for the ol’ foot.

I’m lucky enough to have my own treadmill, which made it more bearable…I could at least watch The Bachelorette on Hulu. That show drives me nuts but I love it. Weird, I know.

Anyway, I think the compression and the treadmill were both good choices. My foot definitely let me know it was there, but never hurt badly enough to make me change my gait. It actually feels better now, a few hours post-run, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. My letter must have worked.

I followed up the run with this strength workout, minus the mountain climbers because they hurt my foot, and some abs. It was a nice, quick-ish butt-kicker.

Moving on. The ladies over at Fit. Fun. Femme. (which is a great blog…check it out) do a weekly “target practice” post. Here’s their explanation of Target Practice:

“This is where we (Sara and Natalie) share our list of  fitness, health and life goals, keeping us accountable and helping to achieve our weekly aspirations. Every type A girl (that’s us!) loves a good list – we hope you do too!”

They invite other bloggers to do the same, so I’m joining this party.

Life: Get a solid start on rearranging my grammar/writing curriculum for my sophomore classes. This was my biggest work-related goal for the summer. So far, I have read one chapter of the book I was going to use to guide me, and that’s as far as I’ve gotten. This has been me this summer:

I’ll remedy that starting today.

Health: Eat peanut butter and dark chocolate less than daily. This probably seems silly, but I have a major addiction, and since I’m home for most meals this time of year, it’s gotten waaaay to easy to have my favorite little dessert after every meal. And snack.

 So I need to cut that back a bit. But not out entirely, because that would be torture.

Fitness: Keep babying that foot so I can get my scheduled workouts in for the rest of the week!

And with that, I’d probably better get started on that life goal.

Are you a treadmill fan or hater?

What are some of your goals for the week?