Recovery Week #2
And a (sort of?) triumphant return to strength training!
M: 6.15 mi with J + T (some slightly faster 8:30ish miles and a R/W segment with T who is recovering from injury) @ 9:43/mi ave
T: 6 mi @ 9:26/mi
W: 5 mi @ 9:05/mi ave + EVLO Lower Body (wall sits omg kind of forgot about those) before the run
R: Gentle run with strides, 9:57/mi average. Felt peppy on the strides!
F: 5 mi @ 8:58/mi, felt peppy AND had some awesome ideas on this run. I also did a 20 min EVLO Core/Back session before the run
S: 90 min longish run, 9.59 mi @ 9:22/mi ave. I felt pretty terrible on this run! I’ve been really tired this weekend so maybe some kind of subclinical viral thing going on, or maybe I’m just not entirely recovered yet and this longer duration run exposed that. (It was also 76F / 88% humidity “feels like” 81F but I mean . . . that is the daily norm now!). I also did a 30 min Barre workout from EVLO (mostly glute focused)
S: Will be EVLO Full Body
Totals: 37 mi / strength x 4 sessions (including the one I haven’t done yet today!)
So what is this EVLO thing? I did a free trial of EVLO (it’s 14 days but you have to remember to cancel!) as recommended by a Patreon member. I found the workouts okay but not better than Peloton which is much cheaper (~$55/month vs $15/month), so I won’t be continuing the trial. But it was fun to try something new!
I appreciated that EVLO generally didn’t seem to try to force cardio into the workouts (something that can annoy me with Peloton — I get enough cardio on my run, I don’t want it mixed with my strength!) BUT they were generally circuit style with zero rest between exercises which I didn’t love, and I didn’t always find the cueing to be perfect. Plus they used a lot of bands/sliders and I find that I seem to be able to get a decent strength workout without those things on Peloton with less fuss (weights only).
SOOOOO it’s back to Peloton strength I go, after today’s workout! I’m going to try this program:
You all know I like a good PROGRAM!
Reading
I finished Decluttering at the Speed of Life! Current books are below. I am about 30% through Playing Big and close to halfway done with Still Life. Still Life is great AND it sort of puts me to sleep!? Something about the cadence? I love all of the characters and the imagery though (the landscape and the food!).
Books read in 2024 so far:
22 – 11 nonfiction (includes one memoir) + 11 fiction
(I almost always end up reading about 50 books/year — why am I so predictable? Lol.)
12 Comments
I am almost done with Caroline Girvan’s iron series which I have loved. It’s all strength which I appreciate as I don’t need cardio when I am running on other days. I need to figure out what to do next but would like a 30 minute strength training workout and her other programs seem more like 45ish or longer and I can be cutting it close on not being showered and ready for work when I would like to be. So the search continues. But I am entering my running heavier season of the year.
I am hoping to get Playing Big soon so I can read a bit before the Patreon meet up. I somehow missed that that was our next book and I can actually attend that meet up for a change I think! I just finished ‘The Missing Book of Flora Lea’ which I liked and now I will read something a bit lighter called ‘The People We Keep’. At least I think it’s lighter, we shall see. The setting of Still Life can kind of be a bit lulling so I can see why it kind of puts you to sleep. I wish Three Pines existed with characters and all. I would so go visit. Ha.
I really liked Flora Lea! I think I read it last year.
Caroline’s fuel series is also 30 minutes.
Thank you! I will check out fuel!
SHU – I aim to lift in pounds what she lifts in kg… so less than half what she is doing. I really liked the iron workout, especially the lower body ones. I did her epic heat series, too, but it has a HIIT workout every 5th workout and I don’t need HIIT since I am running. The HIIT workouts were so hard!!
I find Caroline a little too hard!!! Maybe I should try another series but I remember feeling totally defeated by her even though I totally think she is awesome!!! Maybe I should revisit and try iron …
For Peloton (bodyweight) strength workouts, I quite like Kristin for Pilates and Hannah for Barre — both seem to incorporate a lot of PT exercises I’ve done previously, so might be worth checking out for injury-prevention?
love Hannah and Ally!! I haven’t tried Kristin for Pilates but will definitely check out.
I loved Decluttering at the Speed of Life! Dana also has a great podcast–she’s very funny and I find her Texan accent soothing. I’m also a fan of the Louise Penny novels. You might try the audiobooks, which have a great narrator.
Subscribing now !
Sounds like a great week! I’ve also found myself a little more tired on some of my workouts, and remember we both ran big races only two weeks ago. I see Lisa talking about Caroline Girvan’s Iron Series, and I also liked that one. And it’s free! But Peloton is not that expensive.
i’m laughing a little at your description of Still Life. Yes, I can see that. Maybe that’s what started bugging me about the later books in the series- they got a little TOO sleepy or something. But I definitely liked the first several.
Well if you don’t want cardio in your strength, you’re not gonna like that program haha.
The leg day is like literally zero rest. Just like non stop reps. I know other people loved that program, but man it was way too fast paced for me.
I’ve been into Mattys beginner 5 day split, which is only beginner because it’s simple moves with like 30 seconds to a minute of rest which I like.
Callie has also been posting “programs” she has made of her old classes while she’s out on maternity leave over on instagram. I love her classes, they’re so well paced in my opinion.
oh nooooooo that’s sad!!!
I LOVE callie’s classes.
I’m still going to try it but will be prepared to bail out and switch to the matty split or callie . . .