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Visiting the Farm

Bill and I hit the road early Friday morning for our annual summer trip to the farm to spend some time with my mom. Normally, we’d have my mom’s side of the family’s annual family reunion on the first weekend of our stay and my dad’s side of the family on the second weekend, but alas, the corona virus is messing up a lot of plans for everyone this summer. Even though we both felt completely fine and were asymptomatic, we had each gotten COVID tested on Wednesday so we’d feel better about visiting.

 

We don’t have any huge plans other than a few appointments, but it’s nice seeing Mom and just hanging out while doing a lot of reminiscing about the good old days.

 

Overview of the Week

Before discussing each day’s workouts, here’s an overview of my workouts from this past week. Scroll down for daily details…

 

Sunday

After a hard and hilly 45-mile ride on Saturday, I deemed Sunday a rest day. The kids were over for a barbecue so it wasn’t truly a rest day, but it was definitely filled with a lot of laid back chilling. As my son and his girlfriend were walking out the door to leave, I suggested that since they were coming back on Friday to housesit, they could just leave Pablo with us for the week and they did!

 

Monday

With Pablo snoozing between the two of us, I opted to skip my super early walk and go out in the afternoon after work instead – I did; however, fit in lifting and my PT homework between clients during the morning. For my walk, I stayed on the tree-covered trails to stay as cool as possible in the 90° heat and it wasn’t too bad. I could feel the heat slowing me down and finished my 5-mile walk at at 16:56 average pace.

Later, while Bill and I were taking Pablo on a walk after dinner walk, Bill asked why I didn’t take Pablo with me on my walk earlier in the day. As Pablo stopped to sniff yet another plant, I said, “That’s why.” 😉

 

Tuesday

My friend Betsy and I found it impossible to find a time that we could both meet for our ride so I rode at 6 AM with Bill on Tuesday morning. It was 71° when we left the house, but zipping along on bikes makes it feel so much cooler. It was the first time this year that I saw an average speed of 15 MPH and that left me pumped.

Note my Garmin’s distance and average speed…

 

Versus my Garmin Connect distance and average speed…

 

Later, in between clients, I rushed over to physical therapy for my final session. Yes, I finally graduated! As much as I’ve enjoyed my PT sessions with Ashley, it was great hearing that I’m now free to do whatever exercises I want (within reason 😉 ) and that I can gradually start back running. In fact, Ashley thought that trying out walk/run intervals on the softer dirt and gravel road near my mom’s house would be the perfect place to start.

 

Wednesday

My schedule on Wednesday was crazy and had me hitting my spin bike (affiliate link) for 15 miles (15.9 MPH) followed by strength training starting at 5:30 AM. It’s much easier hitting the faster speed on my spin bike even though I don’t feel like I’m working as hard. As I’ve mentioned many times, I normally ride steady on my spin bike and don’t push hard doing intervals or hard spin class type rides. I probably should, but I don’t…

Later in a day when I had a break, I worked through my PT homework, something I’ll continue to do even though I’ve wrapped up physical therapy.

That evening we let Pablo run around in the back yard and then took him on a walk. He found a really big stick and was so proud of himself!

 

Thursday

It was a warm and humid 74° when I walked 4 miles (14:27 average pace) at 5:40 AM on Thursday morning. I was treated to this promising sunrise from my deck, but it just sort of washed out shortly after I took the picture. I’d forgotten that my first client started at 6:45 instead of 7 AM and I really cut it close with getting Pablo out the door to potty and fed in my 5 spare minutes. So much for changing into dry clothes before work and thank goodness for virtual clients who didn’t have to be around my stinky self!

 

Planning ahead, I hit the basement Thursday night for several of my exercises that I couldn’t do at my mom’s house – I don’t carry my 25-pound dumbbells with me when I travel. LOL

 

Friday

We left home at 5:30 AM for our drive to the farm to visit my mom and arrived just before noon. Can I just say how hard it was not to give my mom a huge hug? During the afternoon I wrapped up my lifting session from the night before, followed by a nice little nap.

 

Saturday

Bill and I were up early and out for another Saturday morning ride planned by Bill. Each week’s ride gets a little shorter and a lot hillier. Yes, we’re visiting the mountains of Southwest Virginia, but did Bill really need to make the course so difficult? 😉 This week’s ride was 26.2 miles (perfect for this ex-marathoner) and at 64° when we left the house it felt delightful riding through the fog. I loved riding along roads that I hadn’t been on in years, but holy moly the hills (2,539 feet of elevation gain). Those hills slowed us me down drastically and we finished with an average speed of 10.1 MPH. By the time we rolled back up Mom’s driveway the temperature was 82°.

 

After our ride I worked through my physical therapy homework, took a short nap, and then spent the rest of the day reading. It was amazing!

 

Here’s What You Might Have Missed

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

 

Questions:
  • • What annual events have you had canceled due to the pandemic?
  • • Have you gotten tested for COVID because of work, you became symptomatic, or were visiting an elderly relative?
  • • Did you run in a virtual race this weekend?

 

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

 

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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!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains 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.