Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links…

 

Valentine’s Day Celebrations

Yesterday while cycling with my blogging friends we talked about Valentine’s Day plans. Bill and I have never been big to celebrate the holiday, even when we were dating. My feeling is I’d rather he surprise me with flowers just because rather than because he’s expected to… In 2012, though, he blew me away with a beautiful custom designed necklace. I’d just experienced a blow to my marathon career with my first spinal injury and had to DNS that year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon. Bill felt so badly for me that he surprised me with the necklace on Valentine’s Day.

This year we’re going to take Pablo to his new home (his humans moved even closer to us over the weekend so we watched him while they moved); and we plan to help them get settled into their new place. That’s my kind of Valentine’s Day, just spending time with those I love…

 

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

Our back yard looked like a winter wonderland when we woke up on Sunday morning. Huge clusters of snow flakes were falling at a rapid rate turning our back yard white again.

 

Here’s one cluster next to a quarter for comparison…

 

I worked on my blog for an hour or so and then hopped on my spin bike (affiliate link) for 20 miles (17.3 MPH average speed) while watching our church’s mass via Facebook Live. A couple of hours later I walked  2 miles (18:50 pace) on my treadmill (affiliate link) while talking to my mom, and then stretched for 10 minutes.

Around 4 PM, we ordered salads and boneless wings from Paisano’s for an early dinner and had plans to put out some munchies during the Super Bowl, but when my friend dropped off Girl Scout cookies I’d ordered from her daughter, well, we couldn’t help ourselves. After enjoying a few too many Thin Mints we weren’t hungry for anything else.

 

Monday

As I mentioned last week, I decided to up my strength training game with cardio intervals, something I do routinely with many of my weight loss clients. After each superset, I ran three laps up and down my basement stairs. My workout consisted of ten supersets giving me thirty trips on the stairs – I didn’t include stair intervals while doing my core exercises. It was a great workout and I’m glad I changed the format up a bit.

 

Tuesday

With expectations of the temps rising into the high 40’s I waited until afternoon for my run, but when it was still 38° at 1 PM, I decided not to dilly dally and headed out for a hybrid run/walk (walk a mile, run a mile, rinse and repeat). My mile splits were 13:47, 9:21, 13:40, and 8:47. I’m good with that and more importantly, I felt great during my running segments. Afterward I stretched for 10 minutes, but still haven’t gotten my foam roller (affiliate link) out – baby steps, people!

 

Wednesday

I did an hour of strength training with three laps of stair-running cardio intervals between each superset. Again, my workout consisted of ten supersets giving me 30 laps on the stairs. At 10:30 AM I hit the trails in my neighborhood for a 5K walk at a 14:07 average pace. At 38° and sunny, according to the weather forecast, it could be the last decent day to workout outside for several days.

 

Thursday

I slept in until 8 AM (who am I?) and then visited my eye doctor for the third time in a week. I have a crack/tear in my epithelium that I didn’t even realize was there until I went in for a routine eye exam. It didn’t heal as hoped using one type of drops four times a day and another once every hour, so I’m on new eye drops with magical powers (made from healthy placenta and that cost a small fortune), and hopefully, I’ll be good as new in another week. But I digress…

Once home from said doctor’s appointment, I saw my rescheduled clients and hopped on my spin bike in the afternoon for 20 miles at a 16.8 MPH average speed. I multitasked by chatting on the phone with my mom and then a dear friend who I hadn’t spoken with in ages.

 

Friday

I started my morning early with a strength training session sans cardio intervals. And later, as with most Fridays, I got in 15 minutes of total body stretching during the stretching segment of the balance and stretching class I teach.

 

Saturday

Pablo and I headed out for a 1-mile walk just as another winter storm rolled into town. The feels like temperature was 18° as freezing rain started falling from the sky a minute or two into our walk. It quickly turned over to sleet and then stopped for the remainder of our walk. We got back into our warm house with about 15 minutes to spare before our standing 9:30 AM Saturday morning bloggers Zoom ride started. With freezing rain starting to fall again outside, I was happy to have the option of an indoor ride with my friends. Thanks Kim for setting this up! I ended up riding 20 miles at a 16.3 MPH average speed and then stretched for 10 minutes afterward.

 

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 winter hit hard this week where you live?
  • • Any special plans for  Valentine’s Day?
  • • Did you run in a race this weekend? If so, was it live or virtual?

 

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.