Cramming It All in While I Can

In typical Debbie fashion, I intentionally planned out a busy week of workouts in anticipation of being sidelined for up to two weeks after a scheduled surgical procedure on Friday morning. Expecting warnings of not pulling my stitches with my active lifestyle, I ran, I lifted weights, and I rode my bike… a lot.

A pink growth about the size of a pencil eraser had popped up on my shoulder a couple of months ago. It was painful to touch and once it developed a core-like center and became scabby, I scheduled an appointment with my dermatologist for a biopsy. Sure enough, it was a squamous cell carcinoma (my first of that type of skin cancer) and I was schedule to have it removed on Friday morning. 

Learn from my mistakes and wear sunscreen, ya’ll! In my defense, I don’t think sunscreen was broadly available until I was in college; however, its availability didn’t mean that I started using it. If you want to check out more about being an outdoor cardio junkie living with skin cancer, check out my many posts on the subject under my skin cancer tab.

 

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 had plans to roll from Old Bust Head Brewing at 9 AM, but Bill’s rear tire wouldn’t hold air so it was 9:30 by the time he “fixed it” and was ready to roll. There were 4 different groups of cyclists gathering with the largest group offering 3 different distances. We had to stop a couple of times for Bill to add air to his tire, but luckily he didn’t have any major issues and was able to complete the ride without calling an Uber.

As we rode past this cornfield I had to stop for a picture. Dad’s goal was for his corn crop to grow to “knee high by the 4th of July” so I’m sure he’d be impressed with this crop. As our friend said, “You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the girl.”

 

We had a great time despite the heat… 76° and humid, climbing to 85° with a feels like of 90° by the time we finished. We rolled back into the brewery parking lot at the end of our 34 miles (mostly paved with a little gravel) with an average speed of 14.5 MPH. We grabbed food from a food truck and drinks from the brewery before heading home.

 

Monday

I ran a 5K on our circle at 8 AM before seeing my first client and despite the fact that it was a sunny 77° and extremely humid, I managed to keep my average pace at 9:31. I wasn’t able to lift weights until later in the day after wrapping up work, and it wasn’t until even later after dinner that I took the time to roll and stretch for 10 minutes each.

 

Tuesday

Free of clients for the day, I headed out at 8 AM for a ride with Bill on the W&OD Trail. We did a quick loop to Clark’s Gap and back for 25 miles at a 15 MPH average. It was sunny, hot, and humid at 79° and climbed to 85° (feels like 90°) by the time we finished.

We were delayed for a little while when we stopped about 3 miles into our ride to help another cyclist whose tire had blown and caused her to crash while clipped in. Other than a skinned up leg, she was fine, but unfortunately her tire was in such bad shape we couldn’t help her fix it so she had to walk it about 2 miles back to where she was parked.

 

Wednesday

Bill and I were out the door at 5:15 AM for a ride with Dawn Patrol which included only one other cyclist. It was 73° and very humid, but without the sun beating down on us it felt great. Even after sunrise and with the temperature climbing to 81°, our 35 miles seemed easy and we finished with a 15.3 MPH average speed.

Once home from our ride, I immediately jumped on a FaceTime call with a client before heading to the gym for 3 more in-person clients. Later in the afternoon I spent a little over an hour lifting weights back in our home gym.

 

Thursday

I headed out solo at just after 7 AM for what’s become my favorite no-fuss route. It takes me along the W&OD Trail to the Thomas Mill Road climb with which I have a love/hate relationship and then back onto the trail until I hop on some country roads. Even during the morning rush hour I rarely see more than 1 or 2 cars and the farm scenery makes my heart happy.

It was 74° and partly cloudy with no rain in the forecast; however, I got caught in a decent amount of rain for my entire Thomas Mill climb and descent. My disc brakes were squeaking and I was nervous going too fast down the slippery wet pavement which took some of the fun out of the descent.

I wrapped up my 45-mile ride with a 14.9 MPH average speed which shocked me considering I climbed Thomas Mill.

 

After riding 184 miles in the last 6 days (plus running 3 miles), my quads were toast when  Bill and I walked into Plum Grove Cyclery around 1 PM to test ride some gravel bikes. Mother Nature did me a favor and sent lightning (we got a notification strikes were 3 miles away) which forced us to turn around 2.5 miles into our ride on the Cannondale Topstone and we didn’t get to test-ride the Moots. The Topstone weights 19.25 pounds versus my 24-pound Salsa Journeyman gravel bike. For further comparison, my Specialized Roubaix Comp road bike is 18 pounds which just shows how light the Topstone is for a gravel bike.

Cannondale in front, Moots right behind it

Friday

Up super early, I completed an hour of strength training while waiting for the rain to stop, but eventually gave up waiting and headed out for a 5K on the circle at 6:30 AM. It was 69° and still drizzly for the first mile, and yes, the cool temperature and light rain felt amazing! Even though my legs were tired and I’d just lifted, I felt good and wrapped up my run at a 9:18 average pace. Back inside, I rolled for 10 minutes and skipped stretching since I’d be doing that later during the balance and stretching class I teach.

Once showered, I headed straight to my dermatologist’s office to have that squamous cell carcinoma removed from the top of my left shoulder. As expected, I can’t lift for 2 weeks (using my left arm) or bike for 10 days. My doctor said I could run as long as I don’t pump my arms too much. So of course, I registered for the Independence Day Firecracker 5K as soon as I got home.

 

Saturday

I woke up early (boo, I wanted to sleep in) and incredibly stiff with my quads singing like I’d run a marathon the day before. Relaxing was already on the day’s agenda so there was no change in that plan other than adding in a nice little 10 minutes of stretching out my legs. I was a little sad to watch Bill ride off to join the VeloPigs for a gravel ride; however, I had a surprise visit from Pablo and his humans and that more than made up for not getting to ride.

I also had fun putting the finishing touches on decking out our deck for Independence Day!

 

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 are your Independence Day plans?
  • • Do you front load workouts if you know you’re going to be out of commission due to s surgical procedure, travel, work, etc?
  • • Did you run in an Independence Day themed race this weekend? If so, was it live or virtual?

 

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

 

*********************************************************************

 

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!