One Neighbor’s Trash is Another Neighbor’s Treasure

If plogging is the Swedish slang word coined by Erik Ahlström for picking up trash while jogging, I wonder what picking up trash while walking might be called. Whatever it might be, I did some of it this past week for both selfish reasons and to keep our neighborhood from looking like a snowstorm hit after the first lawnmowers make their way through this spring.

During walks around my little neighborhood I’d noticed styrofoam peanuts (which were probably spilled from a box during garbage pickup) scattered in front of my neighbor’s house. As they say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” which was completely true in this case. I took a bag with me on one of my walks and gathered the peanuts for future use.

When I repot houseplants I use styrofoam peanuts instead of rocks in the bottom of pots under the dirt to improve drainage. It works just as well as rocks, but weighs much less. In recent years, though, items are rarely shipped in styrofoam peanuts and I had run out of my stocked supply so was thrilled with my haul!

 

Overview of the Week

Before getting into each day’s workouts, here’s an overview of my workouts from this past week. Scroll beyond the infographic for daily details…

 

Sunday

Cycling: 26 miles
• Average speed: 16.3 MPH
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 9:54 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 63°
• What I wore: bike shorts and jog bra

Physical therapy stretches: every 3 hours

I’m not gonna lie, I probably wouldn’t have ridden as far if I hadn’t seen the Strava 40K weekend cycling badge up for grabs. Even though I rode farther than the 24.8548 miles required, I didn’t earn the badge. It appears that manually added workouts don’t count toward Garmin challenges – my bike Garmin doesn’t work on my spin bike and my running Garmin doesn’t have an indoor biking feature. Oh well, the challenge worked because it gave me an incentive to ride longer.

 

Monday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Walking: 2 miles
• Average pace: 15:33 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 100 feet
• Start time: 4:06 PM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 46° and sunny
• What I wore: capris, l/s shirt, down jacket, gloves, and mittens

Physical therapy stretches: every 3 hours

 

Tuesday

Cycling: 12 miles
• Average speed: 16.5 MPH
• Bike: Salsa Warbird
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 551 feet
• Start time: 9:59 AM
• Location: neighborhood loop
• Weather: 37° and sunny, climbing to 44°
• What I wore: fleece-lined bike pants, l/s jersey, coat, and fingered gloves

Physical therapy stretches: every 3 hours

The morning started with a feels like of 17° so I waited a while to head out for my bike ride. One of these days I’m going to see if I can brave that kind of cold on my bike.

 

Wednesday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Walking: 2 miles
• Average pace: 14:52 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 110 feet
• Start time: 3:36 PM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 47° and sunny
• What I wore: capris, l/s shirt, down vest, and gloves

Physical therapy stretches: every 3-4 hours

 

Thursday

Walking: 4 miles
• Average pace: 14:52 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 235 feet
• Start time: 6:01 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 33° (feels like 28°) and partly cloudy
• What I wore: capris, l/s shirt, down coat, knit hat, gloves, and mittens

Physical therapy stretches: every 3 hours, plus 1-hour of physical therapy

I had planned to run for a mile during my virtual workout with Kim, but woke up with a little bit of a spasm (which quickly went away once I did my PT stretches). Still, I chose to err on caution and keep my cardio workout low impact and walked instead.

Collage credit: Kim

Friday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Balance and stretching: 45 minutes

Physical therapy stretches: every 3 hours

 

Saturday

Walking: .45 miles
• Average pace: 26:10 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 21 feet
• Start time: 7:10 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 44° and mostly cloudy
• What I wore: capris, l/s shirt, down coat, ear warmer headband, gloves, and mittens

Walking: 4 miles
• Average pace: 14:43 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 195 feet
• Start time: 7:42 AM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 45° (feels like 42°) and mostly sunny, turning cloudy
• What I wore: capris, l/s shirt, down coat, ear warmer headband, and gloves (took coat and gloves off after first mile)

Physical therapy stretches: every 3-6 hours

Drove to the farm

I took Pablo out for a quick walk before heading back out for my own workout. My husband has been taking Pablo for hour-long walks every morning, but wanted to get out for a bike ride before we left for the farm so I took over walking duty.

It snowed like crazy over an hour while we drove through the Shenandoah Valley, and even though the grass turned white, the highway stayed clear. Eventually, we drove out of the storm and by the time we got to the farm, the snow they’d gotten earlier in the day had mostly melted as well.

Pablo did great on the drive. I wonder, though, what he was thinking. I’m sure that he could tell by the tone of our voices that we were going somewhere fun.

 

Last Week’s Blog Posts

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

 

Questions:
  • • Have you plogged? ~ yes, many times
  • • Did you know that Thursday was National Margarita Day, and if so, did you celebrate? ~ It was also my husband’s birthday so I ordered a margarita while out celebrating his birthday.
  • • Did you run in race this weekend? ~ no

 

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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