Spring Time in Virginia
I’d hoped the wind would settle down over the course of the week (but it didn’t) as the temperature rose bringing us mostly delightful, albeit breezy, spring weather. The animals, both wild and domestic, have been out in abundance so I’ve had to keep a watchful eye out for the unfenced ones who could dart across my path while I’m out exercising.
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: 28.3 miles
• Average speed: 12.4 MPH
• Bike: Salsa Warbird
• Surface: gravel
• Elevation gain: 1,896 feet
• Start time: 9:52 AM
• Location: Harvest Gap loop
• Weather: 65° and sunny with 7 MPH winds, climbing to 70° with 17 MPH winds
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, arm sleeves, and fingerless gloves (took arm sleeves off 10 miles into ride)
Physical therapy stretches: 3 times per day
After my 72-mile extremely windy ride the day before I had every intention to stay inside and ride on my spin bike, but FOMO prevailed and and I joined the Gravel Rats for what turned out to be a super fun ride. I felt strong which left me happy and hopeful that I’ll be prepared for my upcoming 100-mile race.
During the ride we saw a lot full of baby goats and took a nice break to refuel while talking to the bleating goats. After our ride, our cycling group had lunch at the brewery where we’d parked, capping off a really fun morning.
Monday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Walking: 3.18 miles
• Average pace: 15:35 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 165 feet
• Start time: 8:35 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 67° and sunny, climbing to 74°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
Physical therapy stretches: 3 times per day
During my morning walk I saw Foxy Loxy twice, the first time with a squirrel hanging limply in his mouth, and the second time casually walking across the street in front of me, presumably with a full tummy.
Tuesday
Cycling: 32.21 miles
• Average speed: 13 MPH
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 1,558 feet
• Start time: 10:19 PM
• Location: W&OD Trail
• Weather: 69° and sunny, climbing to 76°
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, arm sleeves, and fingerless gloves (took arm sleeves off 12 miles into ride)
Physical therapy stretches: 3 times per day
It was a beautiful day to get outside, especially since I had the luxury of waiting a bit until it warmed up. I climbed my favorite two hills and enjoyed seeing redbuds along the trail. Other than a squirrel playing suicide in front of me, there were no interesting animal encounters.
Wednesday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Walking: 3.07 miles
• Average pace: 14:40 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 120
• Start time: 7:27 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 61° and mostly cloudy
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, nylon shell, and gloves (took shell off after first mile)
Physical therapy stretches: 3 times per day
During my morning walk I watched a squirrel boldly stand in the center of the street on full alert as I walked toward him, eventually turning to run up a nearby tree. Perhaps he had been watching for Foxy Loxy.
Thursday
Walking: 4.11 miles
• Average pace: 15:43 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 214 feet
• Start time: 5:36 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 57° and cloudy, climbing to 61°
• What I wore: capris, s/s shirt, nylon shell, and gloves
Cycling: 20.35 miles
• Average speed: 13.8 MPH
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 571 feet
• Start time: 10:56 PM
• Location: W&OD Trail
• Weather: 73° and mostly cloudy with 5 MPH winds, climbing to 76° with 11 MPH winds
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, and fingerless gloves
Physical therapy stretches: 3 times per day
While walking during my weekly virtual cardio workout with Kim, I saw a scraggly mostly white skunk in a neighbor’s front yard. I wasn’t able to get my phone out quickly enough to take a picture, but found this crappy picture from April 2017 that I took of a less scraggly looking skunk in front of the exact same house and pretty much in the same spot on the lawn. I wonder if it’s the same skunk? I learned that skunks typically live 2-3 years, but can live up to 15 years in captivity, so perhaps he’s living the good life in the wild.
Later while doing six 1-mile intervals on the W&OD Trail I saw two horses with riders. Normally, the horses would be on the bridal trail, but Dominion Electric was working on the power lines and had the parallel gravel trail temporarily closed.
Intervals were incredibly fun this week, perhaps because I had the wind at my back and felt like I was flying for each of those miles.
Friday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Balance and stretching: 45 minutes
Physical therapy stretches: 3 times per day
Saturday
Cycling: 80.08 miles
• Average speed: 11.6 MPH
• Bike: Salsa Warbird
• Surface: gravel
• Elevation gain: 5,525 feet
• Start time: 8:16 AM
• Location: double loops of the partial 2023 Grinder Nationals course
• Weather: 54° and partly cloudy with 5 MPH winds, climbing to 66° and sunny with 15 MPH winds
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, arm sleeves, light jacket, ear warmer headband, and fingerless gloves over nitrile gloves (took jacket and nitrile gloves off at mile 17, removed arm sleeves around mile 60)
Physical therapy stretches: 3 times per day
My husband designed the 80-mile ride into two 40-mile loops. At the end of the first loop, we stopped back at our car to drop off our jackets, grab more fuel, use the porta potty, etc. Reentry was tough after the 10-15 minutes stop and I was slow getting warmed back up. It was a good lesson learned for the race to keep my aide station stops short and to the point.
This ride was no exception to the animal sighting themed week, but I always expect to see more animals when visiting the western side of our county where the gravel roads wind between beautiful farms and past animal filled pastures. On this particular ride I saw the usual: cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, and even a lama. I also heard a turkey gobble!
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 see many animals while out on your runs, walks, or bike rides? ~ yes If so, what was your strangest encounter? ~ Once when a friend and I were running we had a squirrel dart back and forth in front of us many times, and when we caught up with him, he lunged toward us, but missed landing on either of us.
- • When was the last time FOMO had you doing something you hadn’t planned on doing? last Sunday
- • 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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I think I told you about the fox I saw last Sunday morning, as I was out walking. I had never seen a fox roaming like that before! Makes me wonder what else I’ll encounter in my new locale 😉 Your biking miles (and workouts) are impressive!!!
Is your new home in a newly developed area near previously undeveloped land? If so, you might be surprised with what you’ll encounter!
Baby goats! So sweet!
Keeping breaks short during a bike ride is a good way of preparing for a race. I’d be tempted to take my stops leisurely too, especially if you’re not alone.
I had a bit of FOMO today watching the London Marathon, but fortunately I wasn’t tempted to join!
I hope you had an enjoyable time in London even though you weren’t able to race.
I saw a coyote on a run recently and it scared me! It was daylight thankfully but I stopped myself from taking a photo because it scared me. You get in such good biking miles – nicely done! It’s something I need to get better at – cross training – but I’m working on it. Looks like spring is there!
Luckily, I’ve only seen a coyote from my kitchen window, never when I was outside.
Yes, your future you will thank you for spending more time cross training now. 🙂
I see a lot of animals on my runs–especially on the trails! I’m really impressed with all the cycling you do–it’s just too dangerous to ride on the roads around here with the way people drive. I’m just still a little nervous since I crashed a few years ago.
I totally understand being nervous riding after a crash, especially since yours involved a car.
That’s quite the zoo you have around you! I haven’t encountered anything else than cows or dogs during my walks yet.. there are lots of foxes here but we mostly see them at night when we drive home on Saturdays.
Your bicycle road (or path?) looks so lovely, especially now in spring. Well done doing those 80 miles!
We ride on both trails and roads. We have the 44.5-mile long W&OD Trail about a mile from our house that I mostly ride on during the week. We have several hundred miles of gravel roads about ten miles from our house. Sometimes we ride on the W&OD Trail to get there and sometimes we drive farther out to get on the gravel roads.
I’ve seen fox, chicken, geese… nothing too exciting.
It seems that you are so ready for your race. Stay healthy!!
I raced today but I walked it. The lady I mentored wanted to walk. We chatted and she had a PR. And I had run 10 miles yesterday so it worked out perfectly.
Thanks, Darlene! One more week and then I’ll be tapering. I hope I’m ready!
That was nice of you to walk the race with the lady you mentor.
Wow, I have never seen horses on the W&OD. I’d rather be watched by goats than a fox — or a skunk.
I did have to dodge a rat on one of my runs in Chicago — It wasn’t that close to me but close enough to make me shudder!
A rat? Ugh! Next time we get together I’ll have to tell you about the DC rat that hitched a ride to Herndon.
I see Mike on different horses all the time on the gravel bridle path. At places they have no choice but to ride on the pavement (like across bridges when the bridle path merges with the paved trail. His horse farm is right across from Carolina Brother’s BBQ.
Wow, so many animal sightings! I would like to see the beavers that are in are area. They are causing some havoc on our trails because they have built a dam which causes flooding in the area. They are very elusive though!
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Cool (except for the damage they’re causing)! I’ve never seen a beaver in the wild.
How fun to see all the animals! I’m sure it’s stressful having them dart in front of your bike though. The roosters on the trail yesterday were an odd sight for us and a barn owl swooped in front of us as well. It was a fun sighting. I’d say you’re ready for that 100 miler!
Very cool about the owl sighting. We hear a barred owl several nights a week (he even wakes us up some nights), but we’ve only seen him twice and both times right at dusk so it was impossible to get a picture.
OMG. I’m sure your workouts were fabulous, but I only have eyes for the animals!!! Amazing! The fox! And the white skunk! And of course, the goats!
I have seen some things while out and about. Sure, there’s the deer, bobcats, alligators, snakes, and turtles, but those are pretty standard fare for here. One day, there was an otter splashing in the water in my neighborhood. And we saw a sweet possum one day, too. I wanted to keep him.
I saw a zebra while running past my local nature reserve. And on that same street I’ve seen peacocks, and even a loose gray horse, who came right up to us, and honestly, if he followed me home, I was keeping him.
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We used to run past the monkeys at the National Zoo. That was always cool. I know there are bobcats near the farm, but I’ve never seen one while out running or cycling. I once saw one late at night on the side of the road sitting on the guardrail post, though.
I wonder what your husband would have said about having a gray horse move in with you? 😉