Thirty-nine Fit Years Together

Bill and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary on Saturday and I thought it would be fun to take a look back at each of our exercise choices for staying fit over the years…

College dating years:

  • Bill – tennis, basketball, intramural softball
  • Deb – tennis, Frisbee, intramural softball, intramural track

Early married years:

  • Bill – basketball, tennis, weight training
  • Deb – aerobics, running, weight training

Years with young children:

  • Bill – tennis, weight training, cycling
  • Deb – running, weight training, cycling

Years with school-age children:

  • Bill – running marathons, weight training, tennis
  • Deb – running marathons, weight training

Empty nesters:

  • Bill – running marathons until injury, cycling, weight training
  • Deb – running marathons until injury, running shorter distances, weight training, cycling

 

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

We drove home from the farm on Sunday and even though we left early and got home shortly after noon, I focused on unpacking and getting things in order prior to starting work on Monday.

 

Monday

After taking a week off from strength training, I hit the basement gym to workout super early before seeing my morning clients from 7:30 AM to noon and for obvious reasons I had to push my walk/run back to the afternoon. I headed outside at 2 PM when the temperature had soared to 98° with a feels like of 103°. I stayed on our neighborhood shaded trails and honestly it didn’t feel that hot; however, I noticed that I felt sluggish and that was most likely heat related. I finished my 4-mile walk/run with a 13:25 average pace.

I’m listening to my physical therapist and easing back into my running with walk/run intervals. Last week I headed out twice completing a 5K each time and this week I’m upping it to 4 miles, but keeping it at 4:00 walk/2:00 run intervals. My plan is to stay at 4:00 walk/2:00 run intervals for a month before moving to 3:00 walk/3:00 run intervals.

 

Tuesday

I headed out solo at 6 AM for a 20-mile ride on Tuesday morning. After my first turnaround, I realized that I wasn’t pushing myself as hard as I normally do so I picked up the pace. Shortly after my second turnaround, a peloton of seven guys passed me and I jumped in line and let them pull me along for about five miles. We were climbing the whole time between 16-20 MPH and they gave me one heck of a workout. I finally fell behind and watched them fade in the distance because I just couldn’t hang on any more.

 

After lunch I headed out for some pretty heavy duty gardening (digging up dead azalea bushes) for about an hour. It was quite hot and humid, so there was a whole lot of sweating going on!

 

Wednesday

I beat the heat on Wednesday by heading out for my 4-mile 4:00 walk/2:00 run intervals (13:00 average pace) at 6 AM when the temperature was a pretty nice 72°. Later between clients I lifted for an hour and later did my physical therapy homework.

 

Thursday

I took the morning off from doing a cardio workout because I had plans to ride to Panera for breakfast with my friend Betsy on Friday. Too bad we couldn’t go on Thursday because the weather was delightful and it rained all morning on Friday.

I picked up my new road bike on Thursday! Even though my gravel grinder is only two years old, I need a lighter bike to keep up with my speedy Saturday morning friends. Going forward, I’ll ride both bikes, just not at the same time. 😉

 

Friday

I woke up at 5 AM to no rain and I was hopeful that the earlier weather forecast was wrong and Betsy’s and my breakfast ride at 7:30 would be a go. Shortly after 6:20 it started raining and I knew that our ride wasn’t going to happen so I went back to bed (I’d rescheduled my earlier clients to Thursday so I’d have the morning off to ride). With the extra sleep, I totaled 8 hours 35 minutes of glorious sleep, a lot for me.

Feeling exhausted even with the extra sleep, I skipped lifting and just did my physical therapy homework.

 

Saturday

On Saturday morning we joined Bill’s Worldgate group cycling group (which I learned is officially called Dawn Patrol) for a 40-mile ride in Western Loudoun and Fauquier Counties. We gained 2,365 feet of elevation, but I felt that after a week of riding the hills in southwest Virginia I was much more prepared. I finished the ride with an average speed of 14.4 MPH.

While waiting for smoothies after the ride, one of the cyclists turned to me and said that I was officially welcomed into the group; however, my new cycling friend warned me that if I’m too fast on the new bike, he might renege on my invitation. 😉 For reference, I had ridden my gravel bike because I hadn’t had a chance to take my new road bike out for a ride yet and didn’t want to break it in on a 40-mile ride.

 

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:
  • • Would you have skipped a ride due to rain?
  • • What sports have you cycled through (see what I did there?) over the years?
  • • 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!