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Using My Garmin for LiveTracking
My bike Garmin (affiliate link) got a great workout on Sunday, but me, not so much. Just for fun and so Bill could follow me via Garmin LiveTrack as I made the six-hour drive to the farm, I set my device on my SUV’s console, turned it on, and took off. The drive from our house to the farm takes us through three of Virginia’s five geographical regions: Piedmont, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Valley and Ridge. For those curious, the other two regions are the Appalachian Plateau and the Coastal Plain.
I climbed 14,672 feet over my 329 miles. Compared to the 5,705 feet we climbed during the 100 miles of our Reston Century in August, the elevation ascent per mile for the drive to the farm is 12.5 feet per mile less even with climbing Walker Mountain in southwest Virginia. Kind of fun info for this stats nerd…
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
Travel day: drove to the farm
Monday
Running: 4 Miles
• Average pace: 9:05
• Start time: 8:36 AM
• Location: country roads near the farm
• Weather: 58° and sunny
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, mittens, and visor
Walking: 1.5 miles
• Average pace: 15:09
• Start time: 9:15 AM
• Location: country roads near the farm
• Weather: 62° and sunny
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, mittens, and visor
Foam rolling: 10 minutes
Stretching: 10 minutes
Before a long day of putting up my mom’s Christmas tree, carrying box after box of decorations up from the basement, and decorating her entire house, I got out for a run and a walk. The weather was delightful and I beat the afternoon rain! What can’t be seen in the photo below are two dogs standing on the other side of the bridge barking their heads off at me.
Tuesday
Rest day
I didn’t really need or get a rest day; instead I took my mom to an eye doctor appointment, the hair salon, got her Covid booster, and ran several errands with her. We were gone for the entire day and both felt like we’d had a hard workout by the time we got home. LOL
Wednesday
Travel day: drove home from the farm
Strength training : 1 hour of total body
I got up early and hit the road before 6 AM which allowed me to get home by early afternoon, run some errands, and lift weights before collapsing into bed after an exhausting, but fun, whirlwind trip to the farm.
Thursday
Cycling: 36 miles
• Average speed: 16.3 MPH
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle Spin
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 7 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 65°
• What I wore: bike shorts and jog bra
It was the first time all week that I had a chance to get on my spin bike (affiliate link) and my legs felt good to move again after a few days of no cardio.
Friday
Strength training : 1 hour of total body
Stretching: 15 minutes
Saturday
Cycling: 50 miles
• Average speed: 14.5 MPH
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Surface: paved trail and roads
• Elevation gain: 2,316
• Start time: 8:57 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail loop to Purcellville with some roads
• Weather: 55° and overcast with 13 MPH wind from the SW, climbing to 64° with 18 MPH wind and gusts up to 37 MPH
• What I wore: short bike bibs, s/s jersey, arm warmers, jacket, ear warmer headband, and fingerless gloves over light gloves (removed jacket at mile 9 and put it back on around mile 25)
Despite high wind in the forecast and a feeling of FOMO not joining the VelPigs for a gravel ride after going to a beer tasting party at The Bike Lane to sample Piggy Stardust Smoked Maple Porter and VeloPigs Peoples Porter (disclaimer: I don’t like beer and tried neither), Bill and I rode our road bikes on my favorite W&OD Trail/roads route to Purcellville. Just as we rolled past the parking lot at the trail’s terminus, we saw Santa and Mrs. Claus getting ready for the Purcellville Christmas parade. They were sweet enough to pose for pictures before we rode off.
Our planned ride was 46 miles, but we decided to tack on four more miles and make it a half century!
Last Week’s Blog Posts
In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…
Questions:
- • Do you ever set out to go one distance and decide to tack on more to get to an even tidier number?
- • Do you have any travel plans for over the holiday season? ~ We will be heading back to the farm to see Mom for an early Christmas, but will be home for Christmas Eve through the new year.
- • Did you run in a 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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That is a creative use of your bike garmin! Looks like another busy and active week for you. Glad you got to visit with your mom again.
I agree, and it was Bill’s idea for me to turn on my Garmin so he would know where I was in case I ran into trouble. And yes, it was wonderful seeing my mom again!
Another good week of activities!
Glad you got to see your mom.
Dogs attack is always a problem for the runners. I has always been lucky but one time we got a whole page on the local newspapers. I was running with other 2 friends and suddenly a big dog attacked one of us causing him to fall and bite him. He went to the hospital more for the fright than for the injury. However I am not afraid of them.
I kept a close eye on the dogs and was grateful that they stayed on the other side of the bridge. Glad your friend was okay after the dog attack.
Sounds like a perfect week- running, cycling, and you got to see your mom and help her decorate!
We rarely travel during Christmas- my husband usually is working a lot, and we’re happy just to stay home. Traveling in the winter is a huge production for us- purchasing or borrowing all the winter gear that we would need- so it’s usually not worth it. We just let people come to us!
Love the photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus- it doesn’t get much more Christmas-y than that!
It was a good week of workouts despite traveling. 🙂
And yes, I was pumped to get a picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus!
That’s a lot of climbing on your drive! Do your ears pop when you’re going up and down? I love data, so I’d be all over those stats.
Curious–how do you carry your selfie stick when you run? I usually just prop my phone up wherever I find the right spot.
My ears don’t normally pop when we cross the mountain, but I do remember that happening occasionally when I was little.
My selfie stick folds into thirds and I just carry it in my hand, sometimes switching it from one hand to the other if my hand gets tired.
I love that you ran into Santa and Mrs. Claus! That definitely was a photo opp like none other! I don’t always round-up the mileage for running, but I do it almost all the time for cycling. Now that I’m doing Peloton workouts, I always keep pedaling to a “better” number when the class ends, LOL.
Yes, timing is everything and I felt so lucky to get a photo with Santa and Mrs. Clause!
What a great week of workouts and so great that you got to see your mom 🙂
I love your green RUN shirt – so cute and festive!
Thank, Kim! I also have the shirt in red – I got them from Gone for a Run.
that’s a lot of driving in a short amount of time. I’m terrible with long drive- they make me so tired! But worthwhile trip to help your mom and get her booster!
At least it sounds like a pretty drive through some cool regions!
Yes, it was a whirlwind trip and we got a lot done! Virginia is a beautiful commonwealth!
A nice mix and activities…and I see that you wore shorts in December.
Actually it was warm yesterday but rainy and sooo windy.
I ran two races this weekend – a night 5k and a morning 3.5 miler…so fun to see runners in person.
No travel plans. Family is local.
Yay for two races this weekend! Do you like night-time races? I find it so hard to fuel for them without my stomach (GI tract) getting upset from eating prior to running.
That does sound like a really exhausting time at your mom’s but I know she was happy to have you & appreciated the help. My trip is far shorter — but much more frequent. Your mom sounds like she’s doing great!
LOL at your use of your Garmin. Occasionally I forget to turn mine off when I drive off somewhere, which always kind of amuses me.
Fun to pose with the Santas, and no, I never tack on miles! Or at least almost never.
My brother has a three-hour drive to our mom’s house and his visits are similar to yours, more frequent, but shorter stays. It’s a nice balance and she seems to like it.
Yeah, the Garmin stats were fun to look at and super cool that Bill could see how I was doing on my solo journey. 🙂
Sounds like a great week! Great that you got to see your mom! Fun photo with Santa and Mrs C 😉
Yes, it was good to see Mom. Timing is everything and we lucked out with seeing Santa and Mrs. Claus!
Love the creative use of your Garmin! Seems like the wind has been brutal everywhere lately. How fun to see Santa and Mrs. Claus! I have no holiday travel plans, except I’ll go home for Christmas Eve, but that’s only an hour away.
Yes, it was fun seeing Santa and Mrs. Claus. I couldn’t believe our luck and timing.
I told my husband I would not be sad if Santa brought me a Garmin Edge, so we’ll see what comes of that! 😉 We’ll be heading out west for a holiday ski trip. Even thought I said I’d never ski on Christmas break again, yep, we’re doing it. I’m trying to fit our family time in with our schedules getting pulled in different directions so it’s going to have to work!!
Oh, I hope Santa is listening! Tell him you want the Edge 1030 Plus, it’s got all the bells and whistles!
Enjoy your ski trip!