Running With Perseverance

Can you ever get enough of the cherry blossoms? If so, I haven’t gotten to that point—I hope you haven’t either.

A rare peaceful moment at the Tidal Basin

Cherishing The Cherry Blossoms

The weather forecast for the week called for rain Tuesday and Wednesday, so I figured Monday might be my last chance to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. My hamstring isn’t ready for my usual 5 mile Tidal Basin loop, so I plotted a shorter route from my office and stayed on the “far” side from the Jefferson Memorial.

There are no blossoms at the Reflecting Pool, but the Washington Monument at sunrise is always worth a photo stop.

There were a few people at the Tidal Basin for the sunrise, but surprisingly few for how gorgeous it was. It was fun to see couples and families meeting up with professional photographers for photo shoots.

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The trees along this wall of the Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial were stunning.

I walked around to see them from the other side before heading back to my office.

Weekly Run Down

Monday’s run was hard to beat, but I got in two other runs with Scooby, two Peloton rides, and even (finally!) made it to yoga. I kept up with the last week of the Breakthrough Crew Shamrock Shuffle challenge—except that meditation class.

Monday: 4.2 mile Cherry Blossom run

Tuesday: Upper body strength at home + Peloton rides at my office gym.

Wednesday: 3.7 Scooby Miles

Thursday: Upper body strength + Peloton rides before work and yoga at the Corepower Yoga studio near my office after work. As I shared in my runfessions, I didn’t like the instructor’s style, so that particular class won’t be a regular thing

Friday: Upper body strength + 3. 2 tread miles
My hamstring has done OK with my steady-state outdoor runs, but I’m still doing run/walk intervals on the tread.

Saturday: 4.9 Scooby miles
I did not intend to run this far—I was aiming for 4-ish miles—so I did not round up to 5.0 miles. 😉  It was a great run in the moment—the weather was amazing and my hamstring was okay. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up. And thanks to all of you for putting up with my hamstring saga!

Happy Easter!

This week I got to enjoy two classic pink and green signs of spring—the D.C. cherry blossom trees in peak bloom and the Chicago river dyed for St. Patrick’s Day.

Paddle boats at the Tidal Basin

Pink And Green Signs Of Spring

On Saturday, the cherry blossoms weren’t quite at peak bloom, but I knew it would be my best chance of seeing them this year. The weather was amazing for my first bike ride of the year, and because the trees weren’t fully out, the crowds weren’t insane.

I never take as many pictures on a bike ride as I do on a run, but we did stop at the Jefferson Memorial to enjoy the view across the Tidal Basin.

We ended up riding two laps around Hains Point because the trees were so pretty and traffic was light.

The bike lanes are new since last year
when I had to run on the grass to avoid traffic.

Sunday I left the spring weather behind and headed to Chicago where the weather said winter, but at least the Chicago River knew it was St. Patrick’s Day. I braved the cold wind to venture out along the Chicgo River Walk and take it in.

A picture is worth a thousand wind advisories on the weather app!

Weekly Run Down

Monday was my only morning in Chicago with time for a run. I had packed winter running gear for temperatures in the upper 20s, but the Weather Channel app didn’t warn me about the “feels like” of 16F!

I figured out a wardrobe change I’ll share at the runfessional, and headed out.

My first view of the river was so pretty in the glow of daybreak!

The sky over Lake Michigan was overcast so I didn’t get any sunrise photos, but I ran out on a pier to capture the skyline behind me.

Tuesday I got up at 4:00 am to use the Peloton bike in the hotel gym before heading to O’Hare for my 8 am flight home. I was surprised the trainer was in the gym when I got there—I guess he was tidying up after the evening users before the morning folks got there.

Yep, I started that class at 4:16 am!

I’m probably going to have a similar itinerary for my April trip to Chicago, but I’m not sure I’ll hit the gym at 4 am again. It was stressful with no time to spare before the Uber I’d ordered for 5:45.

The rest of my week I was back to my normal routine at home. I took all the classes for my Breakthrough Crew Shamrock Shuffle challenge—I can’t believe there’s only one more week to go.

I gave my hamstring two days off after Monday’s 4 mile run and it actually seemed to feel better after Thursday’s tread run than it did before. 🤷‍♀️ I had my last shockwave treatment on Friday, so fingers crossed my recovery continues. If not, the next option probably is PRP injections but I’m really hoping that’s not necessary!

A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up. And thanks to all of you for putting up with my hamstring saga!

Did you wear green on St. Patrick’s Day?