Even though I'm still in training for a(nother!) half marathon, I'm going to re-title this series, back to the ol' "week in review." And despite last week being a recovery week from that first attempt at 13.1, it was a really busy one:

I finished my Precision Nutrition certification, so I'm now nutrition coach, as well as a personal trainer. (Next certification will be my running coach, but I'm going to do that in person; I'd also like to do some of the coaching-training sessions that Barbell Medicine offers, but that'd require travel, I reckon, and I'm not in a position to do that right now.)

All of these certifications dovetail with my new writing project, which still isn't ready for its big reveal yet, but I reckon I can probably link to here as no one reads blogs anymore.

I'm not sure what idiot scheduled a dentist appointment for three days after her half marathon — spoiler alert: it was me. I almost canceled it, but thankfully I was in and out of there in less than 20 minutes, with polished teeth and no cavities to boot. I both love and hate how the dentist (and doctor) have you schedule your next exam six to twelve months in advance. You look at your calendar and chuckle, "Sure, I'm free anytime that day," and then when that day rolls around, you find the timing is, actually, terrible. So let's see what I'm up to in late September, eh?

Speaking of planning things well in advance, at the beginning of the year, I scheduled weekend getaways for Kin and I for the calendar year — or at least, I snagged one long weekend a month on his calendar so that he'd be forced to take some vacation time. This past weekend was one such getaway — back to Sonoma County to an RV spot we'd been at in November. I was a little worried that, with all the rain we've been having, that it'd be muddy and the Russian River flooded. But it was lovely. I did my first run, post-half marathon, on Friday and even managed an 8-mile long run on Saturday.

It was "pivot week" at the gym — my coach programs me in 12-week blocks, and a new one starts this week. During the "pivot week," she gives me a bunch of different exercises to do — variations on the squats and deadlifts and so on. It's nice to have a little change to the routine. But this week, it's back to it — back to increasing my running miles to prepare for the Bay Bridge Half in May and back to lifting heavy to make sure I can age injury-free.

The weather, disappointingly, seems to want to continue its programming from the first few months of the year. I should do a speed run tomorrow, but it's supposed to be ghastly, with pouring rain and high winds. I will still run in it — just not at my "threshold" pace — as who knows what the weather will be like when I do my next race. And as it's across the Bay Bridge, already a pretty windy route, I think it's best to prepare for it to be challenging. Also: I'll do anything to avoid running on the "dreadmill" — which if you clicked on that link to my new writing project, you won't be surprised to learn will be a topic of a forthcoming essay.