It’s been a week since the great Boston 2 Big Sur challenge was completed and in that time, I did a whole lot of…nothing! Well, I take that back, I did a lot of wedding planning, baking and indulging in more glasses of vino than should be allowed. Oh, and all that sleep that I lost over the past 18 weeks? I caught up on a good majority of it.
Left or right? Stud or dangly?
Banana bread from all of the leftover race bananas
I will be honest and say that throughout the week, part of my brain went into this strange arena of, “You need to workout. It’s been too long.” But I had to remind myself that it is absolutely ok, and required, and this week is a much needed mental and physical break – a time to recharge and regain my mojo. Once I overcame that hurdle, I was fine taking in the R&R with Chicken Face and Lola.
Over the past week, I also started planning what’s next. While I’ll save the complete plan for a later post, what’s closest on the horizon are my WEDDING (!) and the San Francisco Half Marathon. Because the SF Marathon is the weekend after my wedding (we’ll be taking a later honeymoon), I’ve opted to only run the half so I can allot more time to the final wedding details. However, the proximity of the big day also means that starting Monday, I’ll be ramping up my training plan in an all new way. So here’s what I’ll be working on for the next 12 weeks:
- Getting wedding ready
– This includes finally vowing to incorporate upper-body strength training into my routine to help out that strapless dress. Mama needs some biceps! - Re-learn to swim
– I will swim a solid mile again without stopping…dammit. My swim days will act as cross-training and help attain that wedding ready goal. - Focus on speed and hills
– Because I’m choosing to run the half, I want to make sure that I incorporate speed and hill work into this cycle. This is San Francisco after all!
I’m still putting the final touches on the plan – would you want to see the whole thing once it’s finished? Also, how do you find R&R after an intense training cycle? If you said wine, we can be BFFs.
Happy Running!
I am so glad you said that it required to have mental & physical breaks. I may have only done one marathon unlike your Boston/Big Sur one-two punch, but this entire week has been all about getting my flab back. Seriously. Way too little working out and way too much food in its place! I’m really looking forward to getting back into a solid routine for SFM! It wasn’t until TODAY I realized that this was a break — I just thought I was being lazy! Now I can look back on the last week and claim I was resting, right?
Flats; on the left. Earrings; the studs. 🙂 CUTE
I like the shoes on the left and while I usually like dangly earrings with strapless dresses, I do like the studs better!
Definitely think that a mental/physical break was just what the doctor ordered for you post-marathons…time to tackle the next big hurdle of the wedding. If you have any tips to actually make yourself do upper body strength training, please share them! I fall off the bandwagon after about a week…
yes, I would love to hear more about your plan…because when you kick butt at the SF half, I want to be able to follow your plan.
Marathons get me feeling criss-crossed too in this way: on one hand I’m like “dude, I just ran 26.2 which is hellza far”, and on the other hand I’m like “dude, you just tapered for 2 weeks, then took a full week off, so basically you’ve run a total of 26.2 miles in 3 weeks and you are a lazy-head.”
ah, whatever. happy wedding planning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
swimming is a great way to get a total body workout. I find that it helps me calm down and relax too, like yoga.
I like the shoes on the right a lot! And both pairs of earrings are beautiful!
Automatically I would say: hair up -> dangling earrings, hair down -> studs. But you should try them on and see what you prefer!
I’m also freaking out about final wedding preparations: the shoes!! What shoes should I wear!? Cute but uncomfortable, or comfortable but matronly… etc, etc…
Enjoy your rest, you’ve deserved it!!
Where did you get those earrings! I am on the hunt for jewelry now for myself and my bridesmaids and I just can’t find ANYTHING! ugg. Glad to hear you have been recovering! I know I slept a ton last week and prolly will sleep a lot again this week!
Ahhh your wedding is so soon!!! Good luck!!!!!!!!
Flats on the left, dangly on the right! Although I had picked out dangly ones for my wedding and my hubs surprised me with diamond studs so I went for studs in the end!
Enjoy the rest and don’t get too crazy in the last few weeks before the wedding!
I’m with you on the swimming! Saturday was my first day back in the pool and it wasn’t as bad as I expected.
And, I love the dangly earrings!
I’m about to go through what you just did. I just finished my marathon on Saturday and I’m already struggling with not working on on Monday. But I keep telling myself that I earned it and need this rest. But I have a half-marathon this Sunday, so any suggestions on how many runs I should get in before then? Maybe like a 6 or 7 mile run? Not sure. Maybe signing up for this race wasn’t my brightest of ideas.
I definitely want to see your training plan once it’s finished!
Good luck with the wedding planning! I really need to get on that now, too! By the way, if you can find a Bodypump class near you, this will totally rock your upper body! I’ve been doing it for 5 weeks now, and I plan on keeping it up until the big day!
those shoes are amazing ! i would definitely wear flats to my wedding, especially ones that are as pretty as those ! in terms of earrings, i guess it depends. i think if your hair is up, i would wear the dangly ones — and if your dress is strapless. both are great really ! so excited for you !
Wine for sure! 🙂 Nothing better! Glad you enjoyed your time off. It’s always good to give the body a break – and there is definitely no better way than sleeping in, drinking wine and baking!! 🙂
Yay for wedding planning! I also like the flats on the left and I personally like studs because the dangly earrings end up irritating me after awhile, haha! That bread looks DELICIOUS!!
Also, I didn’t realize you were only doing the half! Probably the best idea you could have made, let’s be honest!
Good luck w/ wedding planning!
Good luck with wedding planning and half marathon training, that sounds like a busy 3 months to come! Nice goal with the 1 mile swim, I decided to swim 1.2 miles on Saturday – it went okay, but I took a quick breather each 200 meters or so. If you asked me to swim it without any breaks, I would have had to swim a lot slower than I was going, haha
Definitely dangly! And lots and lots of vino!
Love the shoes. And, I vote for dangly earrings. They’re beautiful!
Left & dangly 🙂
I love reading all your running info.
You are a speedy gonzalez…. and an inspiration to us slow pokes 🙂
Bx
Left and dangly! And sounds like a great plan, good luck!
that bread looks amazing, can you share the recipe???
i love to swim, and can’t wait to read more about your comeback to it!
shoe on the left, dangly earring on the right, and I’m all for vino for recovery! :o)
dangly!!! 🙂
dangly.
It’s hard to take it easy. I just did a half and I need to keep training for my full in August, but I need to be smart and not get injured. So even though the breaks and rests make us crazy, I just think I would go more crazy with a bad injury and be totally unable to run.
Definitely dangly and LOVE the shoes!!! Isn’t wedding planning fun? 🙂
mmmk – def the ones on the left and the studs! so so cute! you must be very excited to have 2 successful marathons under your belt this year & to now “relax” for the fun stuff! that banana bread looks scrumptious!