Taking Time off from Work

As we say goodbye to the old year and ring in the new one, we were in the midst of that lull week where not much was going on. Between many of my clients being out of town, and me taking time off to enjoy my family for the holidays, I had a very light work week – I only saw one client and taught one class. Even though I was doing a good bit of cooking and entertaining, I still carved out plenty of time to exercise and get some good sleep. A girl could get used to this kind of schedule…

 

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: 30 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.7 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:44 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 35° (feels like 29°) and cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra

Walking: 3.08 miles
• Average pace: 15:13 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 11:37 AM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 38° (feels like 28°) and cloudy
• What I wore: capris, s/s shirt, down coat, ear muffs, and mittens over gloves

Core strength: 15 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)

I set out to ride about 15 miles, but ended up riding much longer than planned before heading outside for a walk. After my walk I did a core strength workout before making a blueberry French toast casseroles for the following morning’s festivities.

Later we celebrated our annual book night where our family goes out for dinner followed by a trip to the bookstore where my husband and I buy books for everyone as part of their Christmas gifts. It was either the 27th or 28th consecutive year of us doing this and it’s become one of our family’s favorite traditions. I chose five book – all historical fictions – my favorite genre.

 

Monday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Core strength: 20 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)

I got up early to get my workout out of the way before our big day got started. Now that our sons are adults and have other families to share their time with, we chose this day to be our family’s Christmas day complete with brunch, gift exchange, and a homemade Italian dinner.

 

Tuesday

Cycling: 7.85 miles (Peloton Hannah Corbin Low Impact Ride)
• Bike: Life Fitness Peloton Bike+
• Average speed: 15.1 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 10:02 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 64° in the basement, 30° (feels like 9°) and cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and tank top

Stretching: 5 minutes (Peloton Hannah Corbin)

I  gave everyone else dibs on early workouts on the Peloton bike since the kids would be working a few hours before hitting the road to travel back home. We were sad to see them leave, but will visit them next month.

 

Wednesday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Core strength: 15 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)

Walking: 4 miles
• Average pace: 15:21 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:47 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 61° in the basement, 28° and mostly cloudy outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra

When my only client of the week texted to say she’d be an hour late if that was okay (her dog had gotten sick and she had some cleaning up to do), I took advantage of my extra time and hopped on my treadmill for my walk.

 

Thursday

Cycling: 8.49 miles (Peloton Mila Lazar New Year’s Day Ride)
• Bike: Peloton Bike+
• Average speed: 17.0 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 9:28 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 64° in the basement, 23° (feels like 8°) and mostly clear outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra

Core strength: 10 minutes (Peloton Emma Lovewell)

I started off the New Year with a Peloton ride, chosen because it was, well, a New Year’s Day Ride. What I didn’t realize was that it was in German. Rather than stopping, I moved the instructor’s voice to the background and just followed the cues on the screen while enjoying her music.

 

Walking: 2.03 miles
• Average pace: 16:37 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 120 feet
• Start time: 3:32 PM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 29° (feels like 16°) and cloudy
• What I wore: fleece-lined bike pants, hoodie sweatshirt, down coat, knit hat, and mittens over gloves with hand warmers between the layers

Cycling: 10.24 miles
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Average speed: 12.2 MPH
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 404 feet
• Start time: 4:18 PM
• Location: neighborhood streets
• Weather: 26° (feels like 19°) and cloudy
• What I wore: fleece-lined bike pants, hoodie sweatshirt, down coat, ear-flap bike hat, and mittens over gloves with hand warmers between the layers

Later I texted our Dawn Patrol friends to see if anyone was interested in joining me for the Winter Warrior Challenge that I created with Gemini (Google’s AI) and they all accepted! Motivated by the challenge, I walked rather than driving to the UPS Store to return an Amazon package. While out, I decided I was dressed warmly enough to go for a short bike ride. I set out for five miles, but felt so good that I continued on for ten. I was dressed quite unconventionally for the bike – hoodie sweatshirt and down coat – but I wore my fleece-lined bike pants for the first time and they worked great! I was still in my sneakers so I wasn’t able to use my cold-weather bike shoe covers. Quite honestly, I didn’t even think of it (my feet don’t get cold like my hands) and my feet didn’t get cold until the final quarter mile. Somehow I forgot to take a picture while out riding on my bike…

 

Friday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Balance and stretching: 45 minutes

Walking: 2 miles
• Average pace: 15:08 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 97 feet
• Start time: 8:38 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 28° and cloudy
• What I wore: fleece-lined pants, hoodie sweatshirt, down coat, knit hat, and battery operated warming gloves

Stretching: 5 minutes (Peloton Assal Arian)

After lifting I headed out for a walk and noticed this Little Debbie Christmas tree in a neighbor’s yard and couldn’t resist taking a picture! Next I rushed to the 55+ community to teach my balance and stretching  class before running errands during the afternoon.

Later in the day, I took a short Peloton stretching class, couldn’t understand the language the instructor was speaking, and decided it was so unnecessary to take the class just for the sake of keeping a streak alive.

 

Saturday

Walking: 3 miles
• Average pace: 15:45 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:55 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 28° and cloudy outside
• What I wore: shorts and s/s shirt

I slept in and then joined Kim for a virtual cardio session. I intentionally skipped doing any sort of Peloton workout because after 15 consecutive days I didn’t want to get caught up in chasing consecutive days. I can get too obsessive with those kinds of things and decided to nip it in the bud early.

I spent the rest of the day taking down Christmas decorations and attended 5:30 PM mass before coming home to continue de-decorating (there’s still a lot to take down). I’ll leave our largest nativity up until after the epiphany.

 

Winter Warrior Challenge Outdoor Workouts

The first week of the Winter Warrior Challenge was only a partial week and still went well for me. Dawn Patrol has 100% participation and I’m excited to see how everyone does.

 

Number of outdoor rides (goal is 1) – 1 (Thursday)

Number of outdoor walks (goal is 2)  – 2 (Thursday and Friday)

Number of strength training sessions (goal is 2) –  1 (Friday)

 

Garmin Badges Earned

Only two Garmin badges made it my way this week, both for simply working out on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

 

 

Last Week’s Blog Posts

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

 

Questions:
  • • What unusual or funny Christmas lawn inflatables did you see this season?
  • • Did you set any New Year’s resolutions? ~ No, but I am making a list of 26 things to do in 2026 (it’s almost complete!).
  • • Which workout did you enjoy most this past week? ~ I’ve gotta say that I was pretty pumped to ride outside on my bike.

 

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!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.