E.D.I. (Easy.Does.It)

There's a lot to be said about Taper Week.

There's even more to be said about scaling things back (fitness and otherwise) and taking some TLC for oneself, especially in the midst of chaos.

Lucky me, it was nice to have all this going down at the same time, LOL

Before I dis on the deets of the week, welcome to the Weekly Run Down!

 I love hosting this link-up with Deborah (from Confessions of a Mother Runner)! If you write a fitness-based blog, you're invited to join the party. The link-up opens at 8:00AM (EST) on Sundays and remains open through noon on Monday. We love reading about everyone's weekly fitness endeavors, training highlights (or low lights) and race recaps. We ask that you link back to both hosts, and we encourage you to read/comment on the other linked blogs as well...please don't link-drop & dash ;-)

Anyways, here's what went down this week in my world of fun and fitness:

Sunday - Let's do some climbing!

The big event of the day was the Fight for Air Climb, in Des Moines. I took a few minutes to do a quick 1-mile walk through the 'hood, then hit the road around 8:00. My climb time was at 9:35, and it was around 10:30 when I was officially finished. My actual climb time was 20:12...four buildings, 91 floors, 1036 steps. The recap is HERE. I wound up placing ninth (out of 52) in my age division, 27th (out of 274) for all females, and 94th overall (out of the 517 who climbed all four buildings). And that's all she wrote as the remainder of the day was spent watching basketball.

Never Miss a Monday.

I'm not usually a sleeper-inner, but I was exhausted upon wake-up Monday morning. I took a pass on the scheduled Peloton cycling class and allowed myself some much needed dozing. I did get out for two walks at work (both 1-milers) in the nice weather. After work, I ran two easy-paced miles in the later afternoon sunshine.

Not a typical Tuesday.

The morning started with Monday's postponed ride, Alex's Ride to Greatness (and also the cool-down ride). This was an amazing wake-up! Alex had a great playlist of music and he's one of my favorite instructors (though he's also a beast on the bike). That followed with a short upper-body strength workout. Beautiful temps allowed for another double-walk at work (two total miles). Then, I road-tripped (again) to Des Moines to meet the oldest daughter for the Journey/Toto concert, which gave me two bonus miles of fast-paced trekking to the concert arena.

 

Double Workout Wednesday.

I'm a late night/early morning gal, usually without issue...but come Wednesday morning, I was one fatigued gal. My solution: some cardio (as my "caffeine")...10 miles of biking for the win. I also got in a cold and windy walk during my morning work break.

After work, I took full advantage of the still-sunny day and head out for a quick 2-mile run. My body was still feeling crazy tired, and the wind took the last of my energy, so that was it.

Thankful Thursday for the win.

Up and at in the saddle(s), it was another virtual ride with Deb. Unique to this week's ride was our celebrating the Final Four lineup for the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Her Virginia Tech Hokies and my Iowa Hawkeyes were well repped for those 15 miles of pedaling. I also did a short arm/shoulder workout and then got in a 1-mile walk (in the ever-present wind) at work.

A busy Day of Everything for Friday.

Well, my Friday started with a 3:45 wake-up (at the daughter's place in Des Moines), a 4:15 drive to the airport, and a 6:01 departure for Washington, DC. A couple hours later, Deborah picked me up and we found a spot near the Washington monument where she went for a walk while I loosened-up the legs with a 2-mile run around the monument grounds. 

A Super Saturday.

Deborah played hostess to both Cari and myself, and we opted for some Peloton fun Saturday morning (after I'd gotten up, following a late night of Iowa Hawkeye basketball...they won!). We did Barre, core, upper-body strength and finished with some stretching. Kind of a full-circle range of fitness.

 

...and what about Sunday?

Well, as you probably know, I'll be hitting the streets of DC for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler. The weather is looking a bit cool and windy, but fingers crossed Momma N will relent and play nice. At least it's looking dry (fingers crossed that holds, LOL).

So, whether it was by fate or by luck, the timing for this week of taper worked well, given my state of almost daily fatigue. The running mileage stayed low (six miles...eek!), the tracked walking was conservative (12 miles), and the biking was really low (34 miles)...but that's all fine and dandy.  

I also kept the strength training pretty conservative as well, so hopefully all that low-key activity will serve me well at the race.

In case you missed out, here's what went down on the blog this week:

Ready for Spring

Fight for Air Climb - 2023 recap

How 'bout some Stress 'Fessions

In other news:

My first segway tour! After having lunch on Friday, Deborah and I hopped on a couple of segways and took a 2-hour tour of some of the DC attractions. This was my first time on a segway, and it was a little freaky at first! After a few minutes, though, my balancing skills kicked-in and all went well. It was fun seeing so many of the monuments and learning more about their history.

A girls' night! Is there anything vetter than a meet-up with friends? Deb and Coco joined Deborah, Cari and myself for a fun dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

So, that's a wrap on all the excitement and busy-ness of the week. It's been a long time since I've scaled-back my activity so severely, but the fatigue took over and all I could do was go with it.

How did things play out in your world? Ever have a week when all things pointed to rest? Have you done a segway tour before? Been to DC? 

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