National Fitness Day

Yesterday was National Fitness Day, a day set aside to encourage and promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles. Considering I’m in the fitness business, it’s a day I embrace! I teach a fitness orientation class twice a month at a local 55+ community and this seemed like the perfect day to hold one of my classes. During the class I teach the basic principals of fitness and exercise as well as emphasizing the importance of staying physically active as we age. I demonstrate how to correctly set up and use each piece of cardio and strength equipment in the gym. It’s a great 2-hour class that I enjoy teaching and I always get very positive feedback from the students.

Just a reminder that 3 strength training sessions per week with a 48-hour recovery for muscle groups is ideal, but 2 times or even 1 time is better than none. I use the American Heart Associations guidelines for cardiovascular exercise which suggests exercising 30 minutes 5 days per week (150 minutes total per week) for those doing moderate intensity, and 25 minutes 3 days per week (75 minutes total per week) for those doing high intensity.

 

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: 45 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.7 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:15 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 62° in basement, 51°, windy, and mostly sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and tank top

Walking: 2.46 miles
• Average pace: 19:29 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 67 feet
• Start time: 2:16 PM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 67°, breezy, and sunny
• What I wore: capris, s/s shirt,  jacket, and visor

Super windy, I had no interest in riding outside so I hopped on my spin bike to pound out some miles. This ride earned me the Great American Ride 500 Miles badge, the last distance badge of the event.

 

Later in the afternoon my husband and I went out for a walk, but before getting too far we discovered a shopping cart laying on its side in the creek. A man walked toward us asking if it was still in there. He said he’d happened upon about five middle school boys throwing it in and had told them he’d be back in 30 minutes and they’d better get it out by then. They hadn’t so he and my husband fished it out and then my husband pushed it back to the grocery store about a mile away. We must have been quite the sight walking along a neighborhood trail pushing a shopping cart. LOL

 

Monday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Cycling: 22.6 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.8 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 9:19 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 65° in basement, 63° and sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra

Walking: 3.08 miles
• Average pace: 16:38 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 75 feet
• Start time: 11:36 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 72° and sunny
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor

Still trying to catch up to my cycling mileage goal for the year, I hopped on my indoor bike to ride while training two virtual clients. After an interesting walk the day before, this one was very uneventful.

 

Tuesday

Cycling: 8.4 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.1 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:59 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 64° in basement, 53° mostly sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and tank top

Cycling: 32.39 miles
• Bike: Salsa Warbird
• Average speed: 13.1 MPH
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 1,066 feet
• Start time: 8:52 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail Ashburn/Reston loop
• Weather: 59°, windy, and mostly sunny, climbing to 76°
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, and fingerless gloves

Once again I multitasked on my spin bike while training a client and then went out for a ride with my husband. We rode east first with the hopes of having a tailwind on the way back, but the wind can be cruel and we had a headwind in both directions. I’ve always wondered how that happens and now I know. LOL

 

Wednesday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

I had an early afternoon appointment with my urologist to get my stent removed and once again that sucker was much longer than I expected (the abdominal drain tube I had after my appendectomy was about 18-inches and this was at least a foot long). It barely hurt when it was removed and I’ve felt great since. Yay!

 

Thursday

Cycling: 28 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.9 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 5:58 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66°in basement, 59° and partly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra

Cycling: 33.26 miles
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Average speed: 14.7 MPH
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 1,040 feet
• Start time: 9:29 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail Ashburn/Reston loop
• Weather: 68° and mostly sunny, climbing to 80° and partly cloudy
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, and fingerless gloves

After an early morning chatty spin with Kim, I went out on a ride with my husband. Once again we headed east so we’d have a tailwind on our return and once again the wind gods were playing with us. It was a fun and uneventful ride other than seeing four police cars parked on the trail with a bunch of officers talking to a very tall dude. He wasn’t in handcuffs and everyone was gone by the time we made our way back to the same location. I didn’t pull out my phone for a picture, though. What kind of a blogger am I? LOL

 

Friday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Balance and stretching: 45 minutes

Cycling: 3.8 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin / Peloton Low Impact Ride with Denis Morton
• Average speed: 15.6 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:28 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 62° in basement, 65° and partly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra

Walking: 2.04 miles
• Average pace: 16:18 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 98 feet
• Start time: 9:54 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 77° and mostly sunny
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor

A Fast Friday badge was up for grabs from the Great American Ride so I fit in an easy Peloton ride which I wouldn’t have done otherwise. While logging in my miles I noticed that I’m in 17th place out of 405 participants in the challenge. I later took a short walk to keep my bones happy.

 

Saturday

Cycling: 30 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.2 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:56 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 64° in basement, 66° and mostly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra

I started National Fitness Day with a spin on my indoor bike followed by teaching the fitness orientation class I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

 

Last Week’s Blog Posts

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

 

Questions:
  • • How did you celebrate National Fitness Day? ~ I started my day with a ride and later taught a group of seniors all about the importance of exercise as we age.
  • • Has it been windy this spring where you live? ~ It seems to be windier than normal here this spring.
  • • Which was your most difficult workout this past week? ~ Tuesday’s outdoor ride fighting the wind the second half was tough!

 

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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