San Francisco Here We Come

Hey friends! It's been quite a week already. I'm off to San Fran today for my brother's fiance's bridal shower with my mom and grandma. 

I hope we catch a few glimpses of the sun and do a little sightseeing.

Slow reps of the running motion. After leg is straight, flex foot and bend back to 90 deg and slowly bring the knee ahead and back out to full extension.

What I've been up to this week - working, stressing, trying not to stress, reading The Midwife's Confession (so good!), running early before work, doing my PT exercises (above) and mindlessly eating. 

That last one I'm not so proud of. I think the combination of running a lot, being stressed and just busy at work has me snacking more than usual. I really want to stay on track this weekend by eating good foods, but keeping it healthy.

The last few weeks have been my highest mileage, but I'm still feeling pretty good other than a bit of left foot pain. 

During my tempo runs (which have been 30-40 min of 1/2 marathon pace + warm up and cool down) and long runs, my glutes tend to get pretty sore. So I recently headed back to the physical therapist to work on my weak rear (the gluteus medius specifically). 

She has me doing all kinds of exercises to get my glutes strengthened. It's crazy how much maintenance all this running can take. Just doing a few of my PT exercises can take a good 25 min. 

Foam rolling, stretching, cross training, yoga - all things I could benefit from doing more. 

Oh and one more random thing - I ran 18 miles this morning! I broke it into two parts, starting at 5:15 am. I ran 12 miles and got home around 7 am to make the manfriend coffee, walk the dog and say bye before he left for work. Then I headed back out for another 6 miles. 

It's so nice to have my long run done and outta the way for the weekend! 

A note on safety: When I leave the house before 6 am for a run, I wear my headlamp and bring handheld pepper spray. I also have my Road ID on my shoe. Better to be safe than sorry!

Okay, I gotta run. Last minute packing as always...