Welcome to our latest edition of How I Work it Out, where we ask an active woman to share a week in her life and how she fits in her workouts. (Here are all the past posts.)

Today’s How I Work It Out is Amanda Johnston, a 48-year-old wife and mother from Hobart, Indiana who is a receptionist at a dental office. She has two daughters: a college sophomore (20 years old) and a high school junior (16 years old). Plus, she’s the mom to 3 dogs.  

She’s currently training for the Indianapolis at Fort Ben half marathon on October 4; Her goal is to finish under 2:45. Her previous half marathon was the Monumental Half in 2023 with Better Together where she came in just under 3 hours.

I got up at 6:30am this morning to give myself enough time to do muscle activation exercises and a dynamic warm up.

I started with 2 sets of 10 of cat cows, hip circles, and glute bridges followed by high knees, walked on my toes/heels and finished with leg swings. Then I made my way to the trailhead where I met Melissa, my BRF.  We were planning to go 11 miles, so we started out slow and used a 10-minute run/2-minute walk interval plan. I was feeling pretty good until we had 3 miles left. We pushed through and finished under 2:30.

Even though I was running with a friend, I still listen to music. I use the Shokz Open Fit headphones so I can still hear things around me.  I started putting the monthly Many Happy Miles playlists into one folder and then hitting shuffle for each of my runs. I get a good mix of songs and I usually don’t listen to the same thing each run.

The best part of today? The cooler temperatures because I don’t feel overheated half a mile in.

After getting up and realizing my left knee wasn’t feeling great from yesterday’s run, I decided that today was going to be a rest day. I put on my GOSleeves calf compression sleeve for a couple of hours and took it easy.

Today I was up at 5:30 a.m. to get everything packed for my daughter’s conference golf match. She has been playing for 3 years now and loves the challenge of it. 

My plan was to run after her golf match, probably around 4 p.m. After getting home, I realized I had to go to the grocery store and grab the essentials for school lunches and some chicken and potatoes for dinner.

I figured I had time to eat and still have an hour before the run. Bad move. I started out with 5 minutes of dynamic warm up. Once out for my run, I felt every bit of my dinner. I got through it, and I felt better once done. I went for 40 minutes, and did 12-minute run/2-minute walk intervals. I finished with a 5 minute cool-down walk and static stretching for 5 minutes.

Today was another golf match day for my daughter, and I was up at 4:30 to be at work before 5:45 a.m. Today’s training day was cross-training so I decided to walk the golf course, which resulted in almost 2 miles total.

Got myself on the treadmill this morning before heading to work. It didn’t start well since my TV in the workout room wasn’t working and my treadmill wasn’t turning on.

I almost went back upstairs and outside because of this. But I figured out what was wrong with the treadmill by unplugging and restarting it and then I told myself to just get it done. I started with my mobility and dynamic warm up as usual, then walked 5 minutes for warm up. I wanted to get 40 minutes total after that. I again did 12-minute run/2-minute walk intervals. Then finished with static stretching for 10 minutes.

Today was supposed to be another short run after work. But after a full week of work and taking the dogs to the vet and making dinner this afternoon, I was exhausted. Made the right self-care call and went to bed early.

Planned to go out for 5 miles. I was almost done with my warmup when the vet called and informed me that my oldest dog is in liver failure.  Then I got a call that my uncle passed away. Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling this run.

I did go 3.5 miles; I ended up walking just to do something. Was it what I planned? No, but I am giving myself grace and happy I was able to get something in.