In workout news, I ran/walk 29 miles this week! I had a really good appointment with my physical therapist (who worked her magic), I walked a lot, went kayaking, and got a new watch. Woohoo! I have been doing a bit of a nutritional “cleanse” to make some better choices due to my decreased weekly mileage (which feels good, but is also make me really crave all of my favorite treats!!). My husband and I were super social, and both of our kids are in college now 😩 Yep, it was a heck of a week!
Mon – 3 miles, run/walk 4:1 intervals. With the temperature already at 72 degrees at 6am I knew this run wouldn’t be stellar. But more than that I think I was a bit bummed about my pain level during the running part of my run/walk. Even so, getting to run was a nice way to start Monday.


Tues – 6 miles run/walk, 3/:45. I decided to change my intervals to see that helped. I did 3 min run/ 45 seconds walking. It was only 61 degrees out, so that may have had something to do with it, but today’s run went well! I still have pain on my leg swing during the run, but overall I felt better than yesterday. Also, it was NEW WATCH DAY!! Yay!! Remember I did a study where I had to take my blood pressure twice a day? Well I used my money to treat myself to a new watch. The 265S Forerunner has an amazing bright screen and a crap load of data. Lots of data about my workout when I finish. So easy to read!!


On a really good note, I went to physical therapy today. Interestingly my PT thought my issue was more with pirfiormis vs glutes/hammies. She said my glutes and hammies were actually looking quite strong! (shocker!!) She did some manipulation work, did something to release the tightness in my piriformis/glutes and gave me my exercise list. Also discussed that Chicago might just be run/walk instead of running. Fine with me, I just want to enjoy it and not be crippled when I cross that finish line!
Weds – 30 mins elliptical. I’m trying to do a core workout every day. It’s fun because the workouts are different each day and they often incorporate my BOSU ball. I told my husband I would get rid of it if I didn’t use it in a year since I bought it, so this just saved it. haha!

Thurs – 6 miles run/walk. This was a good mood boosting workout because we moved my daughter into her apartment for college and we now have an empty house! Move in went well and I really like their new apartment. Although I miss both of my kids a ton every day, I think I only got a little teary at this event. It helps that she is only 20 mins away and we still text and talk a lot. The part that gets me the most is that I want to call my son many times a day to hear all about what is happening at Ohio State! That breaks my heart a bit when I can’t 😢


In the evening we went to a beer drinking event… Ales for ALS! Seriously, there were around 25 breweries at this charity event, which was good because it was soooo hot out. The cold beer hit the spot.


Fri – Another rest day from running, but we did get a kayak out. It was a nice day to be paddling on the river – cloudy and not too warm!


In the evening I worked at packet pickup for a race on Saturday (nope, I wasn’t running it 😒) and then we went to see the high school football game for old time’s sake. As usual the band sounded great, and our football team won 48 to 19. Go Generals!!


Sat – 14 miles, long run. Run/walk 3:00 :45. I really thought today was going to be lower humidity, but despite the temps only in the 60’s, the humidity was 85+ again. Oof!! Glad to be run/walking! This was the ultimate test of my PT visit and I’m happy to report I felt very little butt pain! My endurance still isn’t there, but hooray for the pain level going way down.


In the afternoon we went to the German-American Festival. This is a long running festival (57 years!) which features lots of German entertainment (singing, dancing), some athletic events (stone throwing, stein holding, and a beer mile!) and of course some delicious food and beer. Lots and lots of beer! It might have been the beer fueling our conversation, but don’t be surprised if we head off to Germany next year for Octoberfest! 😉


The stein holding contest was very interesting and had a lot of contestants! We saw a guy hold his stein up for 4.5 mins! That was quite impressive. It looks easy, but it really wasn’t!

Sun – Rest day! We took advantage of the lower temps today and spent the day at Cedar Point (yep, again!). We are for sure getting out money’s worth out of our season passes! The lines were short. A perfect day!


Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!
Here are some pictures of our foster kittens, as I’m trying to do my PT exercises tonight! Kittens (and cats) must be intimately involved in any sort of exercises that involve me laying on the floor. And then they fell asleep on me. Awwwww. Hard to be mad at that!



We also have 9 monarch butterfly chrysalis in our fancy new butterfly house. Some butterflies should be emerging in the next week I think. yay!

Q: Do you wear a watch to bed?
I just started wearing my new Garmin to bed. I’ve never worn one in the past but Garmin has a lot of interesting statistics from sleep so I’m giving a try. I’m surprised it doesn’t bother me like I thought it would!
I’ve become one of those people who wears their Garmin everyday, LOL…but I do not wear it to bed. I already know my sleep is jacked up, so I don’t need Garmin telling me just how bad it is, ha! I have always wanted to try my strength at a stein-holding contest. There’s a big “Oktoberfest” in Des Moines, so I may get me chance this year 😉
So far Garmin isn’t happy with less than 8 hours of sleep, so yeah, you are probably right to skip that! 😝 There is some info that won’t happen until 3 weeks of wearing to the watch to bed, so that’s what I’m waiting for. You should totally do that stein holding contest!!! You’d do great at it!
Oh such a lovely week for you with so many positives and fun! I’m so glad you’ve seen a physiotherapist and that you’re making progress. How lovely to have those kittens around you when you do your exercises! I’ve been doing a piriformis glute bridge recently in the gym. No kittens involved though!
The beer event sounds like fun!
I always keep my watch on, although it’s been kind of pointless while I was injured. Now when I’m mobile again and improving each day, it’s nice to have it and see the increase in steps and I also use the hourly “get up and move” notification again. My husband switched from Fitbit to Garmin a while ago, and the Garmin keeps telling him he slept like 4 hours!! It seems to sense if he wakes up during the night and then counts it as getting up time – very weird.
I LOVE that butterfly house! So do you kind of grow/breed them (whatever you call it with butterflies, lol)? How do you do it?
This is our first year using this bigger house, which is a good thing with all of the chrysalis we have! We have a small garden of milkweed plants in our yard which is where monarch butterflies lay eggs. We bring the eggs in and raise the caterpillars from there. It’s been a really good year for them. Can’t wait to see them emerge!
Glad you got good news from your PT!
LOL on the stein holding contest. I struggle holding a 3 lb weight like that for 1 minute, so I know how hard that was!
I do sleep in my Garmin Venu SQ. It’s got a pretty small profile. I can’t rely on the sleep data much because it often counts my TV time even if I’m sitting on the sofa.
That’s funny because I know I fall asleep within 5 mins of turning off the lights but one night it said my sleep started at 11:50pm and I turned the light off at 11:25 (a late night!). I know it’s not an exact science but that really seemed off to me!
I really should wear my Garmin to bed as I’m interested in the sleep data and the suggested workouts etc are partially based on how well rested you are…maybe I will start charging it before bed and sleep in it. Your watch looks incredible!
Looks like a good week some positive progress and you did great with the long run with the intervals. And that German fest looks hilariously fun and entertaining!
Watches always look huge on my wrist in pictures, but this “small” version of the 265 is a really nice fit. Very light, and it doesn’t bother me to sleep with it! Even with 7 hours of sleep it wants more, so hopefully it will start to learn that is my normal and give me some positive feedback about it.
It definitely takes some adjustment to get used to having the kids in college. You will be ok! glad the run intervals are working for you too. I don’t sleep w my Garmin but sleeping w the Oura ring has been so interesting
Hopefully Garmin understand that women of a certain age are just bound to toss around a lot more due to those lovely night sweats! 😆 I’m always flipping back and forth searching for the cool spot in my sheets!
Yay for a run with very little pain! And strong glutes. I do run/walk for pretty much everything.
The cuteness of those kittens sleeping on you. Oh, the flashbacks to when my previous cats were kittens and crawled into my lap to sleep . . .
I like the event for ALS, although I don’t drink and my husband can’t drink beer (gout). But he had an aunt who died from ALS, and now his former boss has it & isn’t doing well, not too surprisingly. 🙁
On a cheerier note, we’ve had some discussions recently on where we should go for our 40th anniversary/65th birthday for my husband in a couple of years. I’ve personally narrowed it down to 2 places, but it really depends on what’s going on at the time.
Glad to read you had a pain free run.
No I don’t wear my watch to bed. I used when I had a fit bit. My sleep stats were scary bad.
My car falls asleep on me when I need to do something not when it’s convenient. .
Cat not car. Lol
Okay, first things first- I can’t get over how cute those kittens are. And yes! Why do cats just LOVE it when you get down on the floor? i can’t do any floor exercises without my cat trying to join in.
I’m glad the PT helped you so much! It sounds like running is going well, and you should be able to get to Chicago and enjoy it. AND… great job keeping yourself busy this week. The problem with helping my son move into his house and spending four solid days with him, is the whole week after that I kept wanting to text him constantly.”How do you like those new sheets? Is your ice maker working? Did you get new light bulbs?” I really had to hold myself back! It’s hard when they first leave. Actually it’s still hard weeks later, but not quite as hard.
All the best with the empty nest! One more year and I will join you on that front. Looks like you had fun this week. The kitties are cute as ever! Now you remind me to use my BOSU. It’s been a while. I like the sleep info from my Garmin but my wrist did not for the strap all the time. Now I sleep in my Apple watch and get all the sleep info too.
This is my kind of week!
I am so excited to see where A’s journey will lead him, but it’s going to be hard when he heads off. Hugs to you.
We are hoping to get through this hurricane and then on to the Taco and Tequila Festival this weekend.
That’s great news that your physical therapist seems to be getting to the root of your pain and addressing the problem correctly. I hope you turn the corner and are able to run more and walk less each day that you hit the trail!
Yay on the new Garmin! I bought my Fitbit specifically to track my sleep because it’s the weakest link in my goal to live a healthy lifestyle. It’s been a good tool for me and makes me focus on getting more sleep (or at least try to get more sleep).
I’m so glad to see that you can still run, using run/walk intervals. I’ve used them over the years with good success. At my last Chicago marathon, I started to feel really bad at mile 13. I didn’t want to drop out, so I started run/walking and finished in a respectable 4:25. Of course, my BQ attempt went out the window, but at least I didn’t quit on myself!
I guess I didn’t want to consider us empty nesters while my youngest was in college, lol, but it has been the 2 of us for a while. Most of the time I do quite well, but I do have moments of sadness. I was up in Madison this week for Cocoa’s vet appointment and it was weird being there without my Badger!