Easy fitness: 11/27 – 12/3 WRD

~ Chocolaterunsjudy

Not a whole lot going on this week. Well, not so much fitness — but fitness is still happening. Does fitness mean pushing myself to exhaustion? No, definitely not. My Garmin says I run more than 74% of women my age. Which is kind of funny, don’t you think?

bwrd

I’m joining Kim @ Kimrunsonthefly and Deborah @ Confessionsofamotherrunner and coasting towards the new year.

Workouts update

  • Monday: Yoga (30 min), 3 miles with 3 x 100m strides
  • Tuesday: Yoga (30 min), Dogwalk Qigong PM (15 minutes)
  • Wednesday: Yoga (30 min), Dogwalk, Qigong PM (15 minutes)
  • Thursday: Yoga (30 min), Dogwalk
  • Friday: Yoga (30 min), 3 miles easy, Yoga PM (30 min)
  • Saturday: Yoga (30 min), Dogwalk, Qigong PM (15 minutes)
  • Sunday: Yoga (30 min), Dogwalk (too rainy), Kettlebells (15 minutes)

Running Mileage: 6 (-1) 
TM = Treadmill
WU = warmup
CD = cooldown
SB = Stationary Bike

Running Update

That sunbeam just caught my eye before I left the house

Monday intention: add in speed
Today’s run went well. I have been adding just a tiny bit of length to my strides. Unfortunately when I woke up the next day I saw the lowest value on my Body Battery stat I’ve ever seen. I know I’ve been kind of busy the last few weeks, some of it stressful, but I wasn’t expecting to be taking a bit of a break again. I know it’s the right thing to do. I’d rather run less than take an extended break.

These leaves also caught my eye — is that leaf buds on the branches?

Friday intention: just run
The weekend looked nasty and I was feeling much more rested after some extra rest days. I took it easy. The run was fine. I remembered during this run how fierce the wind was at the end of Monday’s run, when I was doing strides. Today was warmer and less windy and I was able to wear the lighter leggings.

These are “quick”, daily challenges — definitely fun!

Favorites of the week
I use my extra rest time to paint and work on other projects. I hadn’t painted in weeks! My brother came in this week, but we’ll go down next week — basically trying our best to keep my mom company while her regular aide is away. Just another month to go.

Speaking of my mom, she’s very confused, which we expected. Apparently she’s asked both my brother and sister if they wanted to change their middle names. She didn’t give a reason for the question. She never asked me.

ICYMI: I’m definitely grounding here (in the photo & in life)! This Yin practice will help you strengthen the connective tissue in your hips, glutes, and knees — click here for the video (live at 8 am).

Coming up next Week: WRD. As long as the desktop transition goes smoothly . . .

20 thoughts on “Easy fitness: 11/27 – 12/3 WRD”

  1. Your penguin painting is really good and so cute! I had no idea you could paint like that. So sorry about your mom. My mom is also becoming increasingly confused and it’s not good. She’s still insisting on managing my parents’ finances and that frightens me. A few weeks ago, I spent 3 hours going through their computer because she couldn’t log into the bank. I found that everytime she couldn’t log in, she created a new username and password. Which she promptly forgot. What a mess.

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    1. Oh Wendy I’m so sorry. It’s really difficult. Pretty sure my mom is significantly older than yours — not many get to that age without cognitive problems and we knew her regular aide going away so long was going to worsen things.

      We take care of all of my mom’s finances, and have for a long time. She often doesn’t even open her mail anymore (which is a problem with her so far away from me).

      Hugs, Wendy. My husband former boss is on Hospice from ALS. We were discussing which is worse, something like that (which his aunt died from) or cognitive issues, which we’ve seen for a long time with most of our parents.

      I think cognitive issues. Because they are often still physically healthy but they are gone, and often anxious. It’s very hard to watch.

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  2. My 98 yr old MIL is very sharp mentally but is frustrated that she can’t do much with hearing loss, vision issues, walking issues etc. Growing old sucks.

    I don’t push myself to exhaustion but I do want to run long races for a very long time. I know that means staying in shape with 15-20 miles a week. I feel lucky that my body still wants to. And mentally I need it. Of course sometimes it does feel like a push with our weather and my work schedule.

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    1. Hearing loss is a huge issue & tied to cognitive function. I’ve seen that in both my parents. Which is why I make my husband wear headphones when he watches tv (which is most of the day).

      Eventually this season of my life will, as all seasons do.

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  3. I had no idea you painted either! Do you just go freehand or take a photo to paint from? That is super impressive! I have not artistic talent at all.

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    1. I’ve always been artistic (hence my previous graphic design business many years ago).

      I used to paint acrylics & oils, as long again, but hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in decades til this summer. Watercolors are new to me.

      I definitely don’t go freehand. I paint from my own photos sometimes but the penguins were from a tutorial. They were fun to paint!

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  4. I love that Bandit has a little doggie door! We had one for our cats to go from the kitchen to the basement where we kept their litter box (years ago). I even painted a little folk art cat over the door so they’d know it was theirs. LOL

    Your penguin pic is fabulous! You’re very good!

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    1. Aw, thank you. I’m out really all that good — but just need more practice. I used to pain in a different medium years ago & I did get pretty good at that. I painted Gizmo on my suitcase — I still use it, too!

      We put in the dog door not long after Gizmo passed. Bandit was pretty fearful of it but obviously he learned to use it. Except he wants me there so he can get his treat for going out!

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  5. I love the penguins. I wish I had artistic talent like that! It seems like it would be so fun- and satisfying- to sit down and paint something like that.
    Anyway… good luck with your mom. I know it’s not really funny, but I chuckled a little at the changing the middle name question. I wonder what was going through her mind? Maybe if you could see what’s going on inside her head, it would actually seem completely logical.

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    1. It can actually be frustrating at times, because things never turn out as you see them in your mind. Kind of like you never know how a race will turn out!

      Actually I shared the story about my mom because I did think it was funny. So many questions though. Why did she even ask them that? Why didn’t she ask me? Most likely she doesn’t even remember that she did.

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    1. As I said to Jenny that story made me chuckle, which is why I shared it.

      There are people in the painting group that have beautiful holiday cards! I’m still very much a beginner & don’t always have as much time to paint as I’d like. I’m happy I picked up some brushes again, though.

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  7. Oh, I love the penguin painting!!! Sounds like you are making the best of the situation with your mom’s condition. I can’t help but wonder if my mother is in the early stages of something like that. She’s still in overall good physical health, but she repeats herself a lot these days, and asks questions on issues that she should already know the answer.

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  9. Awww, I love your penguins! It’s really good. If I had skills like that I would enjoy painting.. but I don’t, so it’s not that fun! Although, I do enjoy those “paint and wine” kind of places because they do a great job of helping you out. Maybe I just need to do that again!

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