Christmas Celebrations
Our family is in the middle of Christmas festivities this weekend. After celebrating Christmas Eve with local family before church, the out-of-town kids arrived on Friday. Tonight is book night, an annual event where our family goes out to dinner first and then hits up the book store so everyone picks out books as part 2 of their Christmas presents from my husband and me. Tomorrow we’ll pretend it’s Christmas Day with brunch, our gift exchange, and a wonderful homemade Italian dinner (a variation of my husband’s grandmother’s braciola recipe).
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 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.1 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 9:32 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 42° (feels like 33°) and cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Core strength: 15 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)
After a fun party the night before and not getting to bed until after midnight, I slept in until almost 8:30 AM. Who am I? Once up, I hopped on my trusty spin bike for some multi-tasking miles followed by a Peloton core strength class.
Monday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Core strength: 5 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)
Walking: 4 miles
• Average pace: 15:42 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 9:54 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 64° in the basement, 32° (feels like 39°) and sunny outside
• What I wore: shorts and tank top
When a client changed from in-person to virtual at the last minute, I hopped on my treadmill with her workout in hand and trained her while walking. I do love multi-tasking, especially during these busy days just before Christmas.
Tuesday
Cycling: 22 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.? MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:28 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 63° in the basement, 35° and raining outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and tank top
Core strength: 10 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)
Once again I multi-tasked by spinning while training a client. Once our hour was up, I absent-mindedly stayed on the bike because I’d started proofing a post for future publishing – I removed my laptop and added the deely boppers for the picture.
Wednesday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Core strength: 10 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)
Walking: 3.12 miles
• Average pace: 14:57 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 145 feet
• Start time: 8:20 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 42° (feels like 36°) and sunny, climbing to 45° (feels like 40°)
• What I wore: capris, l/s shirt, puffer jacket, knit hat, and mittens over gloves
I started the day early with a strength training session followed by seeing two clients before heading out for my walk. I spent much of the rest of the day cooking and entertaining family before going to the 6 PM Christmas Eve mass. It was almost bedtime before I remembered that I hadn’t done my Peloton core strength workout so I quickly took care of that before collapsing into bed.
Thursday
Cycling: 8.02 miles (Peloton Camila Ramón Christmas Ride)
• Bike: Peloton Bike+
• Average speed: 15.9 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:56 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 43° (feels like 36°) and partly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Core strength: 5 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)
I’d set my alarm for 8 AM, and surprisingly, I slept until it woke me up. Even though it was Christmas – a very quiet day for my husband and me – I started the day with a Peloton ride and core workout.
Friday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Core strength: 10 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)
Walking: 4 miles
• Average pace: 15:43 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:28 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 63° in the basement, 30° and cloudy outside
• What I wore: capris and s/s shirt
I’d set my alarm for 7 AM, but woke up at 5:26, couldn’t go back to sleep, so I just got up and did some things around the house before hopping on my treadmill. Because Christmas fell on a Thursday, Kim and I joined forces for our weekly virtual cardio workout a day later than usual. I had the added bonus of having my favorite guy work out out on the Peloton next to me near the end of my treadmill walk.
Pablo and his humans arrived just after 4 PM. Per usual we guessed which toy he’d grab from his bed first – this time he grabbed his goat! He doesn’t know it yet, but there’s a moose under the tree for him!
Saturday
Core strength: 10 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)
Cycling: 7.52 miles (Peloton Hannah Frankson Low Impact Ride)
• Bike: Peloton Bike+
• Average speed: 14.9 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:51 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 62° in the basement, 36° and mostly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
With family events scheduled for the day, I got up early to fit in my workouts before anyone else wanted to use the Peloton. We’re a family who enjoys working out, and everyone makes use of the basement gym when visiting.
Once home from our family gathering, I stayed dressed up until time for 5:3o mass, came home from church and enjoyed leftover appetizer type foods for dinner.
Garmin Badges Earned
I earned five Garmin badges during the week…
Questions:
- • If you celebrate Christmas, did you stay home or travel? ~ This was our first year of not traveling to the farm either for Christmas Day or a few days before or after to celebrate with my parents/later just with my mom.
- • Do you have plans for New Year’s Eve? ~ We haven’t made any plans yet, but most likely we’ll have a quiet evening at home.
- • Which workout did you enjoy most this past week? ~ I really enjoyed my Christmas Day Peloton ride. I also had a great treadmill walk on Friday with Kim keeping me company.
And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!









It sounds like you had a really nice Christmas week! Enjoy your time with your family.
We usually stay home and make a nice dinner for NYE–that’s our way of celebrating, lol. I’m just not a fan of all the hype on these big holidays! Whatever you do, enjoy and Happy New Year!
Same, we haven’t gone to a New Year’s Eve party in over 20 years, maybe longer. If we do anything, it will be at home and nice and quiet. Happy New Year, Wendy!
I love that tradition of buying books together! I kind of miss going to book stores. So glad you are loving your Peloton-should definitely keep you busy! They have fun challenge badges too 🙂 Happy new year
We are both loving our new Peloton! I just joined a few challenges on Peloton.
We had a wonderful time at book night tonight and snagged five new books!
Looks like a wonderful holiday celebration! I love that everyone uses your gym while they are visiting. My nephew and godson’s birthday is New Year’s eve, so they usually have a party for him that night. My kids love going to that and staying up late!
Yes, our gym doesn’t gather dust!
Happy New Year, Melissa!
What a great week! Your Peloton bike has already seen several miles. Have you named it yet? (Asking for a friend) My NYE plans are falling into place
You know, I haven’t named my spin bike or treadmill so I didn’t even think about naming it.
Can’t wait to hear what you’re planning for NYE!
what a great tradition – book night!!
Jealous that you and your hubby share your workouts.
I went to my SIL’s for dinner and stopped my MILS/BIL’s after.
Best workout was 8 miles on Christmas Day before the snowstorm the next day…
Yes, I realize how lucky I am that my husband and I enjoy working out together.
This was probably our 27th or 28th year of doing book night. In 2020 we ordered carryout and ordered books from Amazon; otherwise, we’ve gone out to dinner followed by a trip to Barnes and Noble. 🙂
It sounds like a lovely holiday — I like your bookstore tradition!
Nice to see you exploring different Peloton classes. I love Camilla’s energy and you know Hanna F is my favorite bike instructor. Jess King NYE’s ride is a Peloton tradition that I will take on New Year’s Day. If you haven’t taken one her classes before it will show you her wildest side!
Yes, I’m trying different instructors to see who I like and don’t like. I’ll have to give Hannah F a second chance. I didn’t care for her class I took yesterday.
Great rundown (or ride down) as usual! You know I always love seeing sweet Pablo!
We celebrated Christmas at home, but then took off for Georgia the day after. This is the last time we are working around winter break, so things are definitely going to be changing.
New Year’s will be interesting. The Miami Hurricanes are playing Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, so Mr PUgRunner is all in. We are going to get take out as we will literally just be returning from our trip, and no one wants to go shopping or cook. The 1st is his birthday – we will see how the game goes before we finalize those plans.
Happy New Year!
And you know how much I love it when Pablo is visiting! 😀
Based on your comment, are you guys considering retiring early?
Ooh, i love the book tradition! I love bookstores and buying books. I mean- I get a lot of books from the library, but we have to buy books too to keep the bookstore in business.
Sounds like a really nice week. A quiet Christmas is a good thing! And then you got family time as well. I hope Pablo enjoyed his presents.
Book night is one of our favorite family traditions!
I learned a new word(s) today – deely boppers! Very cute.
I’m sure your family really enjoys your well equipped gym when they visit! Especially now with the Peloton. It’s so nice you have the flexibility to train from home and workout at the same time. And look at you, sleeping in until 8:30! I have been doing a lot of that lately.
Deely boppers isn’t something I say everyday so I’m surprised that I even remembered what they’re called. 😀
Oh yes, I love when I can spin or walk while training virtual clients. Some I can’t, but for those I can, it’s great!
What a wonderful tradition to do the book night! Have you been doing that since your kids were small? Also, how nice that all of your family enjoys the gym!
We have absolutely zero plans for New Year, haven’t even decided what to have for dinner. It’ll be a quiet night at home. I’ll do some lifting (at home) before celebrations start!
Yes, we started book night about 28 years ago and it’s become our sons’, and now daughter-in-laws’ and grandchildren’s favorite tradition.