Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links…

 

Volunteering with Running with the Stars

On Wednesday afternoon I volunteered to be a guest speaker for Running with the Stars at one of our local elementary schools. I talked to the children about the importance of cross training for runners, introduced them to the names of the muscles were were working, and then lead them in several exercises. The children brought in cans of food which we used as weights and at the end of their season, they will donate the cans to a local hunger relief program. 

The children were full of energy, yet well behaved, and seemed to have lots of fun! Little did any of us know that the following day they would not be going to school as part of a two-week minimum school shutdown to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

 

Stop the Spread, Wash Your Hands

I had expected Thursday morning to be my last day at the gym until Monday because we were planning to leave that afternoon to go visit my mom for the weekend. The gym where I see about 50% of my clients is in a 55+ community where many of the residents are retired and have the means and time to travel the world. Out of an abundance of caution and because I never know who I might have been in contact with at the gym who has just returned home from traveling, we made the difficult decision to postpone our trip to visit my mom. The last thing I wanted to do was to chance exposing her to this virus.

I left the gym uncertain as to when I’d be back based on what I was starting to hear about the need to social distance. As of this writing I have not received word that the gym is going to close, but I have decided to cancel all of my client sessions and classes at the gym this coming week (and as long as necessary), doing my small part to “stop the spread.”

 

Panicked or Being Prepared

While reading this article about the importance of social isolation during a pandemic, I came across this quote by Michael Leavitt…

“Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after will seem inadequate.”

 

I hadn’t been to the grocery store the previous week while I was recovering from the flu and last weekend I’d just purchased the minimum to get us through Thursday when we’d planned to head out of town so our refrigerator was nearing empty. Thursday after seeing clients and going to physical therapy, I hit up Trader Joe’s and Harris Teeter to try to purchase the recommended two weeks worth of groceries. Based on what I’d been seeing on social media, I wasn’t at all surprised to see the toilet paper and paper towel aisle wiped clean (see what I did there?)…

 

But I was utterly shocked at the run on onions and potatoes!

 

Physical Therapy, the Great Healer

My physical therapist Ashley took it really easy on me on Tuesday, my first day back after the flu; however, on Thursday she ramped things up. On Thursday, I was the only person in the PT center – they’d had 30% of their patients cancel their appointments because of the corona virus.

 

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

 

Running

0 x 0 Miles

Still no running, but hopefully soon…

 

Walking

1 x 1 Mile without Incline
1 x 2 Miles with Incline

My energy level is still very low from the flu as my body heals so I respected my need to rest and kept things very low keyed in the cardio department. On Sunday I simply walked an easy pace at no incline on my treadmill (affiliate link) and on Saturday I returned to gradually increasing the incline as I walked a little faster.

 

Biking

1 x 5 Miles

I was thrilled to hop back on my spin bike (affiliate link) yesterday, even if it was for only a few miles and I was shocked at how difficult it seemed.

 

Strength Training

3 x 1 Hour
2 x 1 Hour for PT
4 x 30 Minutes for PT Homework

Yes, with my PT homework it does feel like I spend a lot of time in my basement working out. Once PT is behind me, I will start randomly incorporating the various new exercises I’m learning into my routine on my lifting days rather than doing them all every time I do my homework.

 

Yoga

1 x 8 Minutes

Just before I got the flu, my physical therapist told me she wanted me to take one day that week off from all exercise and spend at least five minutes meditating. Even though I was unable to exercise for the remainder of that week, any thought of meditation was replaced by sleep.

With perfect timing, last weekend Judy posted this meditation video which was exactly what I needed.

 

It’s on the Blog

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

Looking ahead to this coming week, I have a fun little post with selfie taking tips scheduled for Tuesday and ideas for equipment to have on hand for at home physical therapy workouts scheduled for Thursday.

 

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

 

  • Questions:
  • • Do you take time to meditate? 
  • • Have you been affected by any race closures? 
  • • Did you run in a race this weekend? ~ Locally, it looks like some of the smaller races may still be going on. 

 

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 those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!