Great American Ride
My Dawn Patrol friends and I are participating in the Great American Ride where we will log our outdoor and indoor cycling mileage as our team makes its way virtually across America. On Saturday, April 5 we started our journey in La Push, Washington working our way toward DC, arriving Friday, June 6. The team with the most miles during the time wins. I’m already dragging our team down by not logging any miles on the first day. LOL I also missed earning the Start badge.
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: 18.1 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.4 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:34 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in basement, 66° and mostly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 3.25 miles
• Average pace: 18:13 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 66 feet
• Start time: 1:04 PM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 79° and partly cloudy
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
I started the morning on my spin bike before running to Home Depot for a few gardening supplies. I spent the rest of the day getting our deck ready for spring – pulling chairs, little tables, etc. out of the garden shed and hanging our decorative suns on the back of the house.
The weather was so glorious that I made sure to fit a walk into my busy day, stopping to take pictures of flowers and blooming trees along the trail.
Monday
Strength training: 30 minutes of lower body and core
I finally got in to see a urologist. My current diagnosis (from the ER visit) is hydroureteronephrosis. Rather than getting answers on what is causing the stricture and how to fix it, she ordered more tests…
Tuesday
Cycling: 6.8 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin / Peloton Tabata Ride with Robin Arzon
• Average speed: 17.5 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 9:05 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 63° in basement, 44° (feels like 38°) and mostly sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Cycling: 3.8 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin / Peloton Low Impact Ride with Denis Morton
• Average speed: 16.2 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 9:33 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 62° in basement, 45° (feels like 38°) and mostly sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 2.12 miles
• Average pace: 16:06 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 46 feet
• Start time: 10:41 AM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 48° (feels like 45°) and mostly sunny
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, light puffer jacket, visor, and mittens over gloves
Nap time: 1 hour 43 minutes
I stopped by my dermatologist’s office to have the sutures removed from my basal cell removal surgery the prior Tuesday. During the process, the nurse said for me not to lift weights for 8 weeks. What? Even after my appendectomy the surgeon told me I could resume all activities after two weeks, just ease back in gradually. My dermatologist has always said I could resume normal activities after two weeks as well. So what’s a girls to do? I’m going to listen to my doctors.
Wednesday
Strength training: 30 minutes of lower body and core
Walking: 3.06 miles
• Average pace: 16:36 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 125 feet
• Start time: 4:13 PM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 56° and mostly cloudy
• What I wore: capris, s/s shirt, puffer jacket, and visor
It was National Walking Day and I was lucky that Kim was available to join me for a mile of my walk. We had to hang up when the wind in Iowa got so bad that I could no longer hear her.
Thursday
Cycling: 13.1 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.0 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:35 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 64° in basement, 52° and cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
I met Kim for our Thursday morning virtual cardio workout with both of us on our spin bikes.
Collage credit: KIm
Friday
Strength training: 30 minutes of lower body and core
Balance and stretching: 45 minutes
Saturday
Nap time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Even though I’d gotten a great night’s sleep, I was dragging all day. I taught a 2-hour fitness orientation class at the gym mid-day and that was pretty much the extent of my activities. I was shocked when I took such a long nap once home from the class.
Last Week’s Blog Posts
In case you skipped checking in on my blog these past weeks, here’s what you missed…
- • Sunday – Weekly RunDown Threefer: March 9 – 15, March 16 – 22, and March 23 – 29 / An Outdoor Ride, Pablo Time, and an ER Visit
- • Tuesday – April True or April Fool?
- • Friday – Catching Up Over Coffee: Spring Cleanup, an Upcoming Reunion, and a Chill Weekend
Questions:
- • Did you know that Wednesday was National Walking Day? ~ Back in January when I wrote the post of all the year’s “national fitness days” I added them to my calendar so I wouldn’t forget to celebrate. 🙂
- • Are you seeing many spring flowers? ~ lots
- • Did you run in a 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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Those virtual races are always fun and so motivating! Glad you are back to yourself and feeling good
Thanks, Deborah!
I love the photo with Kim- did you guys coordinate your outfits ahead of time?
The virtual race sounds SO FUN! A great challenge for the month.
I would definitely go with the doctors and not the nurse- eight weeks? That’s insane! And, I’ve never heard of hydroureteronephrosis (yes, I copied and pasted that.) Obviously you’re feeling fine? Or is that what’s causing the extra naps? Anyway I hope you get some answers soon and get it all worked out.
I spin in my sports bra, but since no one wants to see me wearing just that, I add a tank for the picture. I picked out that color after Kim sent me her picture. 😉
Overall, I’m feeling “pretty good” but do have occasional mild pain on my right side in the area of the ureter. Who knows if its related or in my head?
Nice job keeping up with National Walking Day, Debbie! I always love seeing your flower photos—they’re such a bright spot.
We arrived in Switzerland two days ago, and I was overjoyed to catch our cherry tree right on the verge of blooming. For the first time in a few years, I get to see it in person! Two days in, and about half the blossoms have opened—it looks absolutely stunning. It honestly fills me with so much joy.
Thanks, Catrina! How great to be back in Switzerland in time to see the cherry tree bloom.
ahh that photo with you and kim is so great!! Love the virtual workouts. Yay to all the signs of spring! We had some here near us – but then it snowed this morning so who knows if they’ll stay 🙁
Thanks, Melissa! We do have fun deciding what our pose will be. 🙂
Ugh to getting snow this time of year.
Just this week, I’m starting to see some blooms appearing! The grass is really looking green as well. I’m really missing my magnolia tree from my other house’s front yard, though. I’m glad your were in the know for National Day of Walking 😉
That’s great that you’re seeing blooms! And yes, thanks for joining me while you could for the walk on National Walking Day.
Your gardens are going to be gorgeous! I feel like we have missed our window – it’s so hot out already.
I forgot about National Walking Day. I’ve been so distracted this week and even though I walk every day, I didn’t think to commemorate it.
Yes! Listen to your doctors! Heal up fast!
Yes, my gardens will look fantastic in about a month when the flowers all start blooming.
It’s too bad your Dr didn’t get into solutions for the hydroureteronephrosis (woah, big word!), but I guess you do want to a thorough investigation. The process sounds frustrating for you, so sorry! Very interesting that your nurse told you 8 weeks rest when it had been 2 weeks in the past. That’s a long time! Seems like my c-section rest was shorter than that.
I have one of the two tests tomorrow and I’m hoping we’ll have some answers at Thursday’s doctor’s appointment.
Not lifting weights for 8 weeks after skin surgery? That’s crazy (unless it was a bigger surgery, but then you’d know!)! If you were ok lifting 2 weeks after the appendectomy (which I felt was very soon) then you certainly should be fine doing it now. Yes, listen to your doctors, and your body.
How frustrating about the further testing. Couldn’t they have treated it anyway while looking for the reasons?
You have such lovely spring flowers in your garden! Here we have plenty of them around but I think I need to plant some bulbs for next spring because I don’t even have daffodils in my own garden!
Yeah, it seems crazy not to be able to lift for 8 weeks because of a 1-inch cut to my arm. To be clear, after my appendectomy my surgeon gave me the go ahead to resume all activities at 2 weeks post-op, but told me to ease back in slowly. I was only lifting about 50% of my usual weights for the first few weeks back and still haven’t gotten back to 100% of where I was prior to surgery.
BTW, the pictures making up the collage are of flowers I found along my walking trail, not in my garden. Most of the flowers in my perennial garden are about a month away from blooming.