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: 52 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.2 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: 0 feet
• Start time: 6:57 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 76° and mostly sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
I wasn’t the only thing sweating in the basement during my workout – look at the condensation on those windows! Even before 7 AM it was already 76° with extremely high humidity outside when I got on my spin bike for my indoor ride.
I had hoped to walk to church, but it was just too gross out so I drove. Storms moved through during mass cooling it off a tiny bit, but off-and-on rain and rumbles of thunder continued throughout the afternoon so I never got outside to walk.
Monday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
With an afternoon dental appointment and a bunch of errands to run while on that side of town, I never got out for my planned walk.
Tuesday
Cycling: 30 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.8 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: 0 feet
• Start time: 8:30 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 67° in the basement, 78° and sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Cycling: 46.18 miles
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Average speed: 13.7 MPH
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 1,552 feet
• Start time: 11:21 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail Sterling/Hamilton loop including Quail Creek and Irene
• Weather: 87° and partly cloudy, climbing to 92° (feels like 98°)
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, and fingerless gloves
I’m considering riding the Reston Century again this year after taking last year off due to a course change that I didn’t like. The course has been revised yet again, not back to the original “Deb approved” route, but to one a little closer to my liking. And since I’m considering riding a century, I decided I needed to get some longer mileage under my belt.
This ride earned me the 675K Garmin cycling badge.
Wednesday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Thursday
Walking: 4.08 miles
• Average pace: 15:31 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 212 feet
• Start time: 6:48 AM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 76°, sunny, and humid, climbing to 79°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
Cycling: 32.27 miles
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Average speed: 14.4 MPH
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 981 feet
• Start time: 8:48 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail Ashburn/Reston loop
• Weather: 80° (feels like 87°) and partly cloudy, climbing to 88° (feels like 93°)
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, and fingerless gloves
Kim and I had a great virtual workout with both of us walking. While I was sweating up a storm, Kim was enjoying the cooler temps in Iowa which would be headed our way in about 24 hours.
Collage credit: Kim
After our walk, I changed into my cycling kit for a ride with my husband. We stopped at a local cyclery for a muffin and bumped into one of our friends while there. The ride was hot and holy-sweat-Batman was I gross, but hey, at least I’m now 78% acclimated to the heat. LOL
A funny thing happened during this ride… I had a bandaid on the bridge of my nose where my glasses were irritating a pre-cancerous spot my dermatologist had frozen off the previous week. While pedaling down the trail, the bandaid slid down my sweaty face, the wind caught it, blew it off, only to have it flip and land back on my cheek. It wasn’t until I looked at the picture later that I realized that it had landed inside out, but I was sweaty enough that it stuck and stayed there.
Friday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Balance and stretching: 45 minutes
Work was light with only one class to teach so I made the most of the rainy/drizzly day by taking care of a ton of indoor projects. My husband and I topped off our 44th wedding anniversary with dinner and drinks at one of our favorite local restaurants.
Saturday
Cycling: 50.1 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.4 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: 0 feet
• Start time: 6:50 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 67° in the basement, 62° and sunny outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 3.03 miles
• Average pace: 15:18 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 144 feet
• Start time: 3:10 PM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 78° and mostly cloudy with low humidity
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
Gardening: 40 minutes
I kept my ride inside on a glorious morning (cool with low humidity) because I had a fitness orientation class to teach at noon and wanted to also fit in a walk before heading to the 55+ gym; however, the walk ended up not happening until after I got home from teaching my class.
Once home from teaching my class I went for my walk and then weeded our perennial gardens yet again, and had just enough time to shower before going to 5:30 mass.
Questions:
- • Has it been hot and humid where you live? If so, did you get a break in the weather this weekend? ~ yes and yes
- • Do you enjoy gardening? ~ yes, very much so – just wish weeds didn’t grow so fast
- • Which workout did you enjoy most this past week? ~ My walk with Kim was delightful – I hadn’t been outside for an early morning walk in a while.
And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!
lol on the bandaid! July was pretty horrendous here thankfully we both had a few escapes from our weather. It’ is nice to be back in your own bed. No one is more trained for the Reston Century than you 2! Your mileage speaks for itself and it’s so low key-go for it if the weather is nice. I did it once in the rain which was not fun
Thanks for your vote of confidence, Deborah. I’m hearing rumblings of doing the metric century instead of the full and I’m just fine with that, too. A century in the rain? Ugh!
Let me guess: you had the white lemony drink and your husband went for the red one?
You had such a solid week, Debbie – I’d say you earned at least three medals: one for mileage, one for sweat output, and a special award for the heroic return of the flying bandaid!
When is the Reston Century happening? Sounds like you’re well on your way to being ready!
You are correct, Catrina! The white lemony drink is a margarita with Grand Marnier (mine) and the red one is a blueberry martini (my husband’s).
LOL on the three medals! The Reston Century is on August 17th.
You had a lot of cycling miles this week! I guess that makes sense if you’re training for a century ride. You always seem to have a project brewing- but that’s what makes life fun and challenging.
Sounds like you’ve fully recovered from your trip and back into your routine!
I do love a good home project! I didn’t think to take before pictures, but I might be able to find some old ones.
Nice mileage on your wheels! I’m 113 miles shy of the 675 badge, so that will be popping up soon (in the next couple of weeks, I’d assume). Some friends and I are scheming to try to get in a century ride yet this summer…hoping to knock that out in a couple weeks as well (they’re busy this weekend and next). The bandage! That is funny!!
Thanks, Kim; it was a good week! I’m starting to hear more rumblings that the others want to do a metric century instead of a full one.
Happy belated 44th to you and your husband! And congrats to your 675 miles on the bike too. You got a very decent cycling distance this week alone!
I normally love gardening but after I started having troubles with my elbow/tricep/whatever it is, I just want to do as little as possible. Now when both arms have had their share of overuse (one of them not garden-related and quite mysteriously strained), perhaps next year I can enjoy gardening more!
How funny with that band-aid!
Thanks, Susanne! I hope your arm pain subsides soon so you can get back to doing the things you enjoy without pain.
The Band-Aid did make for a funny story.
Happy anniversary!
No breaks in our weather… we are finally getting some rain but I don’t know if that will cool things down or boost the humidity. Ugh.
I am a terrible gardener. I just never inherited that love or talent from my mother or grandmother.
So exciting to see you ramping up for your next challenge!
Thanks, Jenn!
Its not too hot here in London right now, though humid. And we’re meant to get one last heat wave still this summer! Which is fine by me, even though it does make sleeping tough with no a/c.
Funny story about the bandaid!
Ugh, those little heat waves must be miserable without AC. And yeah, the Band-Aid cracked me up when it landed back on my cheek, especially when I discovered that it was upside down.
Happy anniversary!! We have been hot and humid but we were in Upstate NY over the weekend and it was 60 in the morning and almost chilly for my runs! You had some good activity this week — nice job!
Thanks, Melissa!
I haven’t followed the Reston Century map in ages. I didn’t like some of the route that had you on the four lane roads — did they change that part?
I need some motivation to get back on my road bike ….
I actually enjoyed being on Algonkian Parkway and the other 4-lane roads because it was so early on Sunday morning and there was hardly any traffic (we always rolled at the earliest start time, 6 AM). I didn’t like it when they reversed the direction of the two big hills, Taylorstown and Stumptown. I preferred the steeper climb up with a fabulous longer twisty roll down the back side and they changed it to the gradual, but long climb and a sudden quick descent. I don’t mind climbing, but want to be rewarded with a fun descent. 😀
The century route has been dropped from the event that we participated in the past so we’re doing the metric century instead. Well, it was more fun to do the metric century anyways so not a big deal! I hope I can hang with the group. I’m getting nervous about the speed! The group is 18-20 mph which is OK, but then they said they were combining with the 20-23 mph group for the first half of the ride. What?? Guess I’ll be doing a lot of drafting. LOL!
Oh wow, that’s fast! I averaged 15.2 MPH during my fastest century, but we did have over 5,700 feet of climbing – not sure if I made up the time lost on those climbs during the descents! 😉
Have fun! When is the event?