Grateful Heart, Lucky Timing, and Back into the Daily Routine
Our epic four-week road trip came to an end on Sunday, and it feels good to settle back into our home routine. Looking back, we were so grateful to have stayed just a few steps ahead of the wildfires in Washington and Oregon, and equally thankful to miss some severe weather on the final leg home. In fact, while watching the news later, I saw a clip showing terrible flash flooding in Buckhannon, West Virginia—right at the very gas station where we had filled up just shortly before the storm hit!
Returning home safely after a month on the road makes me appreciate the small everyday comforts even more. It was a week full of catching up, reconnecting with clients, stepping right back into my regular training, and getting back into the rhythm of daily life.
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
Road trip: Day 29: Huntington, West Virginia to home
Stretching: Peloton 10-Minute Full Body Stretch with Adrian Williams
Our final day on the road saw little action, though I did keep my 10,000-steps-a-day streak alive, hitting day 165 of reaching at least 10K steps! One of the sweetest highlights of the day was listening to Gerry Rafferty’s City to City album during our drive—the very same album we had on cassette tape playing on repeat during our first road trip when we moved to Utah back in 1981.
Monday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Walking: 3.11 miles
• Average pace: 15:09 minute/mile
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 153 feet
• Start time: 10:12 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 82° and partly cloudy with high humidity, climbing to 84°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
Core: Peloton 10-Minute Spring Cross-Training Core with Emma Lovewell
Since I shared pictures and reviews of hotel gyms throughout our roadtrip, I thought I’d keep the tradition going with a tour of my home gym in our basement. It’s well-appointed with everything I need, and the temperature stays at a comfortable 68°.
During my walk, I was appalled by the humidity—even though it was only at 75%! I had to remind myself that 75% really isn’t bad for mid-August in Virginia, and that spending time out west has simply spoiled me with the drier air.
Tuesday
Walking: 3.06 miles
• Average pace: 15:15 minute/mile
• Surface: paced
• Elevation gain: 113 feet
• Start time: 9:31 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 78° and cloudy, climbing to 80°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
Cycling: 9.43 miles (Peloton 45-Minute Power Zone Recovery Ride with Christian Vande Velde)
• Bike: Peloton Bike+
• Average speed: 12.6 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 2:58 PM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 68° in the basement, 85° and cloudy outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra
Stretching: Peloton 5-Minute Post-Ride Stretch with Emma Lovewell
With a complete day off—since my only Tuesday client was out of the country—I enjoyed an unbelievable sleep-in until just after 8 AM! I must have been truly exhausted, because I honestly can’t remember the last time I slept that late. Once I finally got up, I had the ultimate luxury of working out whenever I felt like it. Other than watering and fertilizing my deck and front porch flowers and cleaning out a guest bedroom closet, it was a wonderfully chill day.
Wednesday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Strength: Peloton 10-Minute Pilates: Lower Body with Emma Lovewell
Walking: 3.06 miles
• Average pace: 15:11 minute/mile
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 144 feet
• Start time: 11:34 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 81° and sunny, climbing to 83°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
Back to the grind with several morning clients—just kidding! I truly love my job, or else I’d be fully retired by now. I kicked off the day with a weightlifting session followed by a core class (starting Emma Lovewell’s Crush Your Core 2 over again), trained my clients, and then squeezed in a walk before heading to a dental appointment.
Thursday
Walking: 3.13 miles
• Average pace: 15:03 minute/mile
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 5:56 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 68° in the basement, 70° and raining outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra
Core: Peloton 5-Minute Core Strength with Emma Lovewell
Cycling: 10.58 miles (Peloton 45-Minute Pro Cyclist: HIIT Training with Christian Vande Velde)
• Bike: Peloton Bike+
• Average speed: 14.1 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 2:55 PM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 68° in the basement, 80° with heavy rain outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra
Cycling: .90 mile (Peloton 5-Minute Cool Down Ride with Matt Wilpers)
• Bike: Peloton Bike+
• Average speed: 10.8 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 3:45 PM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 68° in the basement, 80° and cloudy outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra
Stretching: Peloton 5-Minute Post-Ride Stretch with Denis Morton
After four weeks apart, Kim and I were able to meet again for our weekly virtual cardio session! I had planned on walking outside, but woke up to rain that stuck around just long enough to send me to the treadmill—only to stop right after I settled in. Regardless, it felt so good to get back into our regular routine! Later in the afternoon, I jumped on the Peloton, bumping up the intensity significantly before rounding things out with a cool-down ride and stretch.
Friday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Core: Peloton 10-Minute Core Strength with Emma Lovewell
Walking: 3.11 miles
• Average pace: 14:53 minute/mile
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 128 feet
• Start time: 8:51 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 66° and mostly cloudy, climbing to 70°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor
Balance and stretching: 45 minutes
Gardening: 1 hour
It was another fantastic, full day of movement! I started with an hour of strength training, added a Peloton core session, and headed out for a 3.11-mile walk. After rounding things out by teaching my 45-minute balance and stretching class, I tackled an hour of gardening – which flew by while catching up on the phone with my brother!
Saturday
Gardening: 4 hours
Core: Peloton 5-Minute Core Strength with Emma Lovewell
This was such a great day! Before heading off to some wonderful family time, I got up early and whipped through about three-quarters of the mowing and weed-eating that had gotten completely out of hand while we were gone. I’m so much in my happy place doing that kind of yard work that I don’t even have our lawn service touch that part of the property—I prefer doing it myself!
Garmin Badges Earned
Five Garmin badges made their way to me this week…
Last Week’s Blog Posts
In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…
Questions:
- • How long does it usually take you to settle back into your routine after a vacation? ~ usually just a day or two
- • Have you ever had a close call with wild weather or bad timing on a trip? ~ A snowstorm hit a day before we planned to leave for Florida a couple of winters ago when we were on a tight schedule to start our cross Florida ride with Dawn Patrol. Luckily, it didn’t hit a day later!
- • How was your week in fitness? ~ Excellent!
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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It’s sounds like you are right back in your solid fitness routine, Debbie! Nice job!
Isn’t it nice to be home, just pottering around, tidying up closets, working out whenever you want in your own gym with your own equipment, working in the garden, and sleeping in when you need to? After four weeks on the road, I imagine that feels pretty good!
I love returning home after time away, if for no other reason than to sleep in my bed, lol. Returning to routine always feels good. Since we go out of town to our lake house so much, we’re quite good at packing and unpacking. Glad to hear that everything went so well!
I did my best this week to follow my fitness routine, but as you’ll read, I had some major challenges. Here’s to a better week ahead!
I do love coming home and getting back on a routine. Nice job this week! It’s nice to give your body a break and then miss your routine and get back to it
It’s always nice to get home!
We’ve adjusted our past 2 ski trips due to storms — this year we drove up to VT a day early to avoid the snow coming up the east coast, the year before we left Breckenridge a day early to avoid snow coming in the last night — at least we didn’t miss a day of skiing.
Yep, I’ll bet it feels good to be home again. Your trip looks and sounds amazing, but there’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed and puttering around your own house.
It’s nice to hear that you like your job so much! I can see how it would be really rewarding. I’ll bet your clients missed you.
While I know you had an amazing time, i’m sure it’s great to be home as well. It usually only takes me a day or two to bounce back, but I think it would take a little longer after such a big trip.
We took a trip to Savannah once and it just monsooned the entire weekend out of nowhere. I’m talking floods and could barely leave our room. I’ve also had to travel to get AWAY from bad weather (hurricanes). And there have been a few wet and wild camping trips. But it happens. More stories for the memory banks, right?
How nice for you to be back to your own routine and equipment. Your home gym looks amazing!
Scary stuff about the weather but wow how lucky you’ve been to avoid all of it for yourself. We’ve been so lucky with extreme weather here – like when people had their roofs blown off in the next county and thousands without power or flooded in north Cork and we have barely noticed there was a storm.
Gardening is such a lovely way to keep active, do something creative, and productive too while enjoying the outdoors. I can imagine you had some work to do after so much time away!
I do love vacation, but also enjoy a nice return to routine after a trip. Nice job getting right back into it. And yikes about the weather – we had some big storms this weekend but were okay here thankfully.
It IS nice getting back to one’s regular routine. I’ve had a few weeks with tweets to my schedule, work-wise, and it seems it’s not until the following week when things feel “normal.” Great getting back to our weekly routine as well!
You seemed to get in a grove pretty quickly.
Our weather has been finicky… rain predicted but you never know when… actually raining again as I type this.
Glad to hear that you got lucky with the weather.
You walked 10,000 steps every day of your vacation? On driving days?? Wow! That’s super impressive. Your home gym is also pretty impressive. It looks very functional and well equipped!
I slept in until 8am today. It was pretty crazy. I usually don’t sleep that late, but it felt great with the cooler weather.