Monsoon Season

I don’t recall a time when so many storms passed through an area one after another like they did this past week on the farm. Starting with Tuesday, most of my outdoor workouts were delayed and disrupted by thunder, lightning, and/or rain. The storms were not particular about what time of day they hit and seemed to choose their preferred time based on when I was heading outside to run or bike.

It became so obvious that the storms were chasing me that my mom asked on Friday when I planned to go out for my run or ride because she didn’t want to get wet walking to the mailbox and wanted to go at a time other than when I would be heading out. Ends up, I tricked both Mom and Mother Nature and took the day off. LOL

 

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

Bear sightings in the area where my mom lives have been high again this summer so I took extra precautions with getting outside for my ride. Hoping that bears are more likely to forage for food early in the morning or late in the evening, and banking on them being smarter than me by avoiding the heat of the day, I headed out for a challenging 10-mile extremely hilly ride at 11:30 AM when the temperature was 82° (it had soared to 97° by the time I finished).

My route was loops between my mom’s home and my grandmother’s now vacant house – picture it freshly painted, without the fence, and blooming purple irises below the stone retaining wall… Seeing it always brings back a flood of memories of happy times spent there.

 

There’s a locally infamous hill called Goat Hill that’s no joke and I gained 1,207 feet over 10 miles climbing it three times. The combination of the hills, heat, and gravel slowed my average speed to 8.6 MPH. Within a half hour after finishing my ride, the blue sky turned gray as a rain storm swept through.

 

Monday

I got an early start on Monday to do my PT homework – is it really homework since I’m no longer going to physical therapy? Mom and I had a full day of appointments and I didn’t want to let my PT fall by the wayside if the day got away from me. I’d brought all of the equipment with me except for Mom’s 5-pound dumbbells.

 

Tuesday

After another busy day with Mom, I didn’t get out for my much anticipated walk/run intervals (4:00 walk/2:00 run) until 5:30 PM when the temperature was hovering around 93° and I could hear rumbles of thunder off in the distance. I finished that 5K in 42:50 (13:49 average pace), and very shortly after finishing several severe storms with torrential rainfall passed through the area.

 

Wednesday

I spent Wednesday morning running more errands so it wasn’t until after lunch before I had time to head out to repeat Sunday’s ride. It was sunny and beautiful, but just as I started out the door I could hear thunder in a distance. I waited a half hour to try again and even though it was sunny and the thunder appeared to have moved on when I made my second attempt, storms moved in rapidly and caught me about a mile away from Mom’s house. I got caught in thunder, lightning, and heavy rain as I peddled home as fast as I could. I waited another 45 minutes before heading out to finish my ride, but stopped after only 12 miles (9.1 MPH) because I could hear more thunder as another storm moving in.

Picture from Sunday’s ride

Thursday

I got up early to work on my blog Thursday morning with plans to head out for my walk/run around 10 AM. Just as I started to get ready, I heard thunder in a distance and a steady rain started to fall for the next few hours. The storms finally let up and I made it out in the mid-afternoon and almost immediately heard another round of thunder rumbling north of the farm. I stuck close to home and eventually finished my 5K 4:00 walk/2:00 run intervals with an average pace of 12:50 – I think since Garmin Connect has been down since July 23 and I believe that’s what my watch showed. Edited: I checked after Garmin came back up and my average pace was 12:53.

 

Friday

I got up super early to do my physical therapy homework prior to taking Mom’s cat Callie to the vet. Once home, I chilled reading my book while waiting for Bill to return for the weekend. I even took a short afternoon nap and it was delightful!

 

Saturday

Heavy fog blanketed the area when Bill and I headed out for our 36-mile ride on Saturday morning in a delightfully cool temperature of 65° (it stayed cool until the last half hour). I had planned this route and it was every bit as hilly, if not more so, as the recent routes Bill has planned. I felt much stronger this week on the hills so perhaps after the three previous weeks of riding hills, I’m getting stronger!

 

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:
  • • Did you have non-stop storms this past week?
  • • Have you recently visited a place that brings back a flood of memories?
  • • 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!

 

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