Weekly RunDown: October 11 – 17 / Weather Whiplash and a Solid Week of Workouts 

The Short RunDown of the Week / 

What a crazy roller coaster of a week in the temperature department! We went from a high of 66° on Sunday up to 89° on Wednesday, back down to 64° on Thursday, up again to 78° on Friday, and then down to 56° today with frost in the forecast for tonight. Add in some pretty terrible sleep—both in amount and quality—and it certainly kept me on my toes. From a fitness standpoint, though, I had a great week of workouts, thoroughly enjoying both the true fall days and the more-like-summer ones!

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

Walking: 3.05 miles
• Average pace: 17:01 minute/mile
• Surface: treadmill
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 1:06 PM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 67° in the basement, 64° and raining outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra

Stretching: Peloton 5-Minute Post-Run Stretch with Matt Wilpers

With heavy rain outside all day thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Isaias moving through our area, I gave up on walking outside and hit the basement treadmill instead, catching the first part of the Commanders game while I walked. If my Hokies are going to struggle, I figured maybe the Commanders could give me something to cheer about! Ummm, no… with horrific clock management in the final seconds of the game we managed to end the game in a tie rather than kicking a game-winning field goal.

Monday

Strength training: Peloton 30-Minute HiLit+: Lower Body Strength W1 D1 with Rebecca Kennedy

Strength training: 20 minutes of core and stability (crunches, oblique crunches with feet up, Pilates swimmer, birddogs, dead bugs, high plank,, bear plank, side plank with reach-unders)

Walking: 5.06 miles
• Average pace: 16:24 minute/mile
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 150 feet
• Start time: 10:32 AM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 64° and partly cloudy, climbing to 69°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor

After canceling almost all of my clients last week, I was back at it with my early morning sessions. It was also time to jump back into my Peloton strength routine: timing worked out perfectly to transition right into HiLit+, where the first week features slightly shorter, more approachable classes to ease into the program. It was the ideal way for me to get back into strength training after my week off.

The weather was simply too gorgeous to stay indoors, so when my friend Betsy texted to see if I wanted to meet up for a walk, my planned 3-miler quickly turned into a lovely 5 miles on our neighborhood leaf-covered trail. Check out that cute little snake’s tongue in the collage!

Tuesday

Stretching: Peloton 10-Minute Lower Body Stretch with Logan Aldridge

Other than some stretching, I took a complete rest day from formal workouts. Even so, I stayed busy enough around the house that I easily cleared 10,000 steps—meaning the streak lives on!

Wednesday

Strength training: Peloton 30-Minute HiLit+: Upper Body Strength W1 D3 with Rebecca Kennedy

Strength training: 18 minutes of core and stability (bridge pumps, dead bugs, Pilates swimmer, birddogs, forearm plank, single-leg stand on pad)

Walking: 3.05 miles
• Average pace: 16:09 minute/mile
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 149 feet
• Start time: 9:12 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 69° and partly cloudy, climbing to 74°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor

Gardening: 2 hours 40 minutes

I knocked out my strength and cardio workouts before and between client sessions, leaving plenty of time in the afternoon to tackle another yard project. I’m right in the final window of getting my grass seed down before it’s too late, so fingers crossed I start seeing some little green shoots popping up by next week! And yes, this is a reseeding of our spring project that filled in, but not completely.

Thursday

Walking: 4.0 miles
• Average pace: 16:08 minute/mile
• Surface: treadmill
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 5:59 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 69° in the basement, 63° and cloudy outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra

Stretching: Peloton 5-Minute Post-Run Stretch with Jon Hosking

After a week off, I was back on track with my early morning cardio buddy Kim. We were both stuck working out indoors with rain in the forecast and a major temperature drop—the day before reached a mostly sunny 89°, while Thursday’s high only reached 64°! After parting ways, I squeezed in a good stretch before seeing a client.

Friday

Strength training: Peloton 30-Minute HiLit+: Lower Body Strength W1 D5 with Rebecca Kennedy

Strength training: 19 minutes of core and stability (dead bugs, Pilates swimmer, birddogs, high planks, side planks, bridge pumps)

Balance and stretching: 45 minutes

Walking: 2.14 miles
• Average pace: 16:45 minute/mile
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 29 feet
• Start time: 2:29 PM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 78° and sunny
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor

I had a busy day tying up a bunch of loose ends on various projects, but I didn’t let that interfere with my workouts. I had zero intention of going out for an afternoon walk, but the weather was simply too gorgeous to pass up. By 8 PM, my Garmin was practically shooing me up to bed with a body battery reading of only 8!

Saturday

Walking: 3.15 miles
• Average pace: 15:44 minute/mile
• Surface: treadmill
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:21 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 67° in the basement, 53° (feels like 46°) and raining outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra

Stretching: Peloton 5-Minute Post-Run Stretch with Marcel Dinkins

We had a busy day with family planned, so I got up bright and early to make sure I squeezed in my walk and a stretch before we hit the road.