sidebar | life and training 9.30 – 10.6

Here we fucking go again.

It’s 7am Monday morning, currently, and everyone on the west coast of Florida is eyeing the track for Hurricane Milton. Yep, a mere week and a half after Helene tore through the area. People with surge damage are still recovering – and probably haven’t even started – yet this psychopath decides to pop up from the Pacific ocean to spread havoc around the state.

I need to leave this state forever. But that’s a rant for a different day.

The infuriating thing about this storm is that no one has any clue where it’ll actually go. The entirety of the state is enshrouded in the cone and none of the updates since Saturday have shown any variation; the spaghetti models are fucking everywhere and have no consensus. I booked two hotels over the weekend – one in the north and one in the south – that I have to cancel by 4p today to avoid being charged a night’s stay. We have an 11 oclock update to wait for, and I’m really hoping a) for good news, and b) at the very least, some sort of mild confirmation of what the hell is going on.

Either way, someone is going to get wrecked. It sucks that during hurricanes the selfish thoughts kick in and everyone – no one is immune to this – thinks “I just don’t want it to hit me, please don’t hit me” while knowing perfectly well that another area will feel the wrath. Granted, once everything is over, you will not find more humanity. Though the looters and some terrible brands of people do come out of hiding, the good largely also emerges, too.

And almost all of us wind up with survivor’s guilt.

So, what’s the plan? Wait and see until later today, and if need be tomorrow morning I’ll be hightailing it early to wherever seems smarter to escape to. I have a lot of prep to do today, from laundry to sandbagging to hopefully finding gas to top off my tank. Thank God I checked the coolant in my car yesterday – it was practically empty. I’m also trying to maintain a little normalcy by developing a recipe (that will become meal prep for a few days) and maybe getting to the gym later if I can manage to do so.

It feels a little obsolete sharing the comings and goings of this past week. Not a lot happened – I was eyeballing the storm quite a bit, but did squeeze in a study date at Oxford Exchange on Wednesday and Shortwave on Friday. Otherwise, no real outings to report. Just a lot of watching, waiting, and listening. Planning and prepping. Hoping and wishing.

Take care this week, pals. If you’d like to follow along I’ve been fairly vocal on Instagram about my comings, goings, and doings. If you’re not there, well, big hugs, and I’ll see you on the other side of this madness.

The Fuck We Cooking This Week?

…Savory pumpkin risotto!

…Some kind of cookie probably, or cupcake. Hard to say now.

A Few Things I’m Digging

Popcorn…Picked up a bag of Lesser Evil’s Pumpkin Spice popcorn, and it is delish! Most of it is standard salty popcorn with a dusting of spices, but occasionally you’ll come across a kettle corn piece. Just sweet enough without being overblown.

Tea…Trader Joes’ Harvest Tea is my favorite sip (other than coffee) to enjoy this time of year. It’s cozy and perfectly spiced.

Shops & Wish List

Amazon cart…Totally pining after this plaid wool skirt, and also needing a new journal and this cute lanyard for my teaching badge.

Fashion

Target…Liking the button detail on this minidress and this knit sweatshirt looks super cozy for a study or lazy day. I LOVE this brown satchel, fuzzy slippers, bow heels (maybe for my January wedding?), mock turtleneck, and cable crewneck.

Week in Training

Monday, 9.30: 8 miles, 9:30 pace + 14 minute lift

I don’t know whether it was total mental disengagement, the heat, my eating the night prior, or all the above, but wowee did this run suck. On paper I did okay, but I had to modify the the workout since I was overheating quite acutely during the second interval. Initially planned 2 x 2 mile but dropped to 2 mile, then 2 x mile. Ran 8:07 and 7:58 for the first interval, then 7:56 and 8:01 for the individual miles, bookended by a 2 mile warmup and 1.6 mile cooldown. I’m glad I gave myself the grace to take a rest break between the mile segments (probably 1.5-2 minutes, I wasn’t counting). Brutal session.

Strength:

• 3 x 10 leg press 180#
• 3 x 10 ab rollout
• 3 x 10 triceps extension 35#
• 3 x 10 alt lunge 60#

Tuesday, 10.1: 5 miles, 11:05 pace

Sore legs and 81 degree heat made for an extra slooooow trot. All good, though – it felt fine and the light rain helped ease my mood a little bit!

Wednesday, 10.2: 4.14 miles, 11:07 pace

It seems I’ve forgotten my usual slow pace! Clearly the body needs some chill time. I also learned the night prior that my 10K coming up was cancelled, so in trying to figure out how to proceed from there, perhaps these mega easy trots are good for me.

Thursday, 10.3: 6 miles, 9:59 pace + 11 minute lift

Legs are still leaden during warmups – I’m clocking 11 minute miles regularly again – but the fast stuff felt pretty smooth. Ran 2 miles with strides, then 1 mile push (7:36) and 6 x 200 (:53, :51.6, :52.7, :51.6, :50.3, :50.5), 1.5 mile cooldown. The pace range in the 200s was 6:45-7:06.

Strength:

• 3 x 10 front squat 60#
• 4 x 8 inclined chest press 20#
• 3 x 15 leg drop 30#

Friday, 10.4: 3.27 miles, 10:43 pace

More normal feeling easy miles than the past couple days, which was a nice change.

Saturday, 10.5: 11 miles, 10:54 pace

Woke up with a really bad attitude, no inspiration, and a random slew of pessimism. Well, maybe not random, but certainly uncalled for. Didn’t really care how this run went as long as it went, but I ended up having a great session and feeling really peaceful. I even tacked on that extra mile! A pleasant end to the training week while I still figure out how I’m going to approach my cancelled race.

Sunday, 10.6: 4 mile walk (1:02:00)

Total running mileage: 37.4