This week was basically okay.  I didn’t hate it — or, I didn’t hate most of it. Fine. It was a week. A week that happened.

Here’s what went down:

Monday: Normally a run day, but made it a rest day.  Did basically nothing. Did not regret it. [Steps: 3,163]

Tuesday: 4-mile run. Replaced my normal Tuesday workout with Monday’s neglected run; skipped my Body Pump class in continued effort to baby whatever is going on with my shoulder. Instead of going to the gym for speed intervals, I just tried to keep a brisk pace through the neighborhood — but, as it is summer in Alabama, that was a bit silly. First it was grey and muggy and humid, then it started gently drizzling, and the sun was never out. It was hot and gross, nonetheless, but this is about as good as I can hope for, weather-wise, at this point in the year. [Steps: 10,914]

Wednesday: 3.3-mile run. I never learn. It was the wrong time of day for this run. I felt great at first, but once again the uphill-in-the-sun finish did me in. Cut the run off early and walked it in. (I walked another 0.7 miles to round it up to four.) [Steps: 11,963]

Thursday:  2.9-mile elliptical; Body Pump. The warmup was uneventful. Body Pump class was mostly good, but turned out to be more of a struggle than I bargained for. My shoulder was definitely still bothering me during clean/press catches, shoulder raises, and tricep presses. Tried to baby it as much as possible and reduced my weights, but I think I’ll have to skip this class for at least another week or two. SAD.  [Steps: 11,222]

Friday: 4.3-mile walk. One of my longest walks in my neighborhood! I wanted to put in plenty of steps — partly because I am not going to campus and therefore not getting in any of those steps, and partly to help get myself ready for lots of walking in Greece and Italy. I enjoyed some of my neighbors’ amazing gardens — one with tons of the rare and beautiful Cahaba Lilies, above. This was mostly walking with a quarter mile of running thrown in a few times just for fun. [Steps: 11,538]

Saturday: 6.75-mile run. Let me just say: I am really happy to be regularly running more than six miles lately. So nice. I managed to get myself up early — I’ve just embraced the fact that 7:00 AM is “sleeping in” in my life now — and I got out the door before the weather was too unbearable. I am also embracing a really s-l-o-w pace on these longer runs, and it feels great. [Steps: 16,418]

Sunday:  22-mile bike ride. Funny how the same exact route, ride, and company can be great one week and horrible the next.  Woke up feeling bad and should honestly have stayed home. A thousand little niggling awful things going on and that’s all I’ll say about that. [Steps: 4,371]

Totals: Steps 69,589 — close to my goal, and I’m happy with this, especially considering that I didn’t go to campus all week and took an extra rest day on Monday.

Goals: This coming week, I am going to try to make an effort to bring some more of my PT exercises back into my life and to just do whatever feels good and makes me happy. It’s a busy week and I’m battling some cranky hormones, so I’m just going to let my workouts give me some restorative time.