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A Down Week

With several of my clients on vacation this past week and another sick, I had a rather easy week. I used my spare time to work on my blog; although, I only posted one additional recap from our June vacation (I’d planned for two). I did; however, write the outline and insert pictures for three new posts that I won’t post until after I finish our hike recaps. And that’s when it hit me, I really enjoy planning new posts – I have 25 drafts – but, I’m not so good with my follow through. 😉

I also spent quite a bit of my extra time working in our yard and flower gardens, and completely ripped out a couple of forsythia plants that I’d planted too close to our deck. I’ll miss the little yellow flowers during the week they would normally be showing off in the spring, but otherwise, the green leaf covered stalks protruding through the deck railings won’t be missed at all.

And finally, I worked on some house projects that I’d been putting off due to lack of time and interest. I also had a few leftover projects from the master bath remodel which I wanted to wrap up – I didn’t, but got a little closer. Last up is cleaning the windows over the tub which are a filthy mess, but since they’re always covered by the closed shades they’re pretty much out of sight, out of mind…

 

Wildlife Encounters

While watering the flowers on our deck on Wednesday, I had a close encounter with this praying mantis. He’s quite a handsome fellow, but didn’t want to have his picture taken so I had to contort myself into quite the position to capture this image.

 

I saw deer again on all of my runs. I didn’t start Friday’s run until 6:15 AM and since the sun was up and I wanted to run a little farther, I ran on the W&OD Trail. I saw several fawns and enjoyed watching this mom and baby watching me. I ran past one baby right on the trail, but he ran away before I could get my phone out of my SPIbelt (affiliate link). I also saw a little fawn taking naps in our next door neighbor’s back yard most afternoons this past week.

 

My final wildlife encounter happened on Sunday on my way home from my bike ride when a raccoon ran right across the trail in front of me. It’s rare for raccoons to be out in the middle of the day so I was glad to be on my bike instead of on foot. There’s no picture, though, because I was on my bike instead of on foot…

 

And Now on to a RunDown of this Past Week’s Workouts…

 

Running

Two of my runs were early, but not quite as crazy early as usual and it was daylight by the time I finished so I captured this sweaty selfie on Thursday.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t start Friday’s run until 6:15 AM and since the sun was up and I wanted to run a little farther, I ran on the W&OD Trail. I ran eight miles, my longest distance since early November when I also ran eight miles. I felt quite good – probably because I ran about a minute per mile slower than usual (I was tired from running the day before).  I was really stiff when I woke up on Saturday, but my stiffness went away as soon as I started moving around and I felt fine for the rest of the day.

During my run, I stopped for a picture when I saw these lovely wildflowers lining the W&OD Trail.

 

Biking

Last Sunday, Bill and I rode to Purcellville and back on the W&OD Trail, totaling 40 miles. On the ride out, we ventured off the trail to have a little fun on some hills on a lightly-traveled road. I actually got my speed up to 32.4 MPH at one point which was quite fun!

While in Purcellville, we stopped by Bicycles & Coffee to chat with the owners. Jason let us know that there’d be a Mellow Gravel Ride today, so we’ve got that planned for 4 PM.

We had a quick lunch before turning around and heading home – something I could never do when running. Bill wanted to get in some more hills on some gravel, but I thought it best that I head straight home. On my way back, I stopped at the world sculpture in Leesburg for a picture. The vine is new since last summer.

 

Strength Training

I’m back to pretty much where I was before surgery to remove the basal cell on my left upper arm. I do notice a little tightness so I’m careful on my range of motion, but other than that, things are going really well.

 

Yoga

On Friday morning’s I teach a balance and stretching class at the gym, and this week I added lots of easy yoga poses that become more difficult as we get older when balance becomes an issue. I also incorporated yoga poses into the stretching portion of the class.

 

It’s on the Blog

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

 

My recap of our four hikes in Zion National Park is almost complete and I hope to have it ready to post on Tuesday or Thursday. It’s going to be chock-full of pictures (35 so far) and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

 

In addition to the workouts I mentioned above, here’s a complete rundown of my workouts from this past week (completed mostly in our home gym)…

 

  • Questions:
  • Bloggers: what’s your favorite and least favorite part of creating new content?
  • Runners: would you be able to stop for a bite to eat in the middle of your run? ~ My stomach has enough trouble behaving even when I don’t run until the following morning after dinner…  
  • Did you race this weekend? ~ I’d planned on running the Leesburg 20K or 5K today, but with our gravel ride this afternoon, I decided not to register. Who am I?

 

And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!

 

Disclaimer:  This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

 

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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!