This week I watched with interest as other states–and other regions of my state–began lifting stay-at-home orders and permitting at least some “non-essential” businesses to open to some extent. Because the D.C. area is still a coronavirus hot spot, that hasn’t happened for us. With reports of 700-1000 new cases a day in Virginia and 30-40 new cases a day in my city, I am trying to keep calm at the thought of more people being out and about and content to stay home.
#seenonmyrun
Trying To Keep Calm And Stay Home
I’ve gotten into a habit of spending my evenings scrolling Facebook for the latest coronavirus updates debates. Most of my friends feel the same way I do, but some live in areas that never saw the level of cases we are still experiencing and others are more directly impacted by the plummeting economy, so my feed isn’t quite an echo chamber of my own personal views. I’ve realized the disagreement over everything–are we opening too soon or too slowly? should we never have closed or should we never do X again?–raises my stress level (duh) and am trying to step back.
Image Credit: NAIAD-RML
In reality, my personal opinion doesn’t matter. I don’t have to decide what activity is safe for my city/state/country. It’s not my job to talk to public health specialists, virologists, infectious disease specialists, doctors and nurses. I don’t have to read the “scientific” articles and dig into the underlying data to confirm they justify the headline-grabbing conclusions. I don’t have to meet with business owners and economists to try to figure out how to bring the local economy back to life and what to do for those who can’t or won’t reopen under the new reality–whatever that is. I’m grateful these weighty decisions don’t fall on my shoulders.
Image Credit: NAIAD-RML
In reality, I don’t even have to make any personal decisions any time soon. Even when local restrictions are eased, I know my husband is going to be at least as cautious as I am, so I don’t think we will be going on group bike rides or going out to eat any time soon. My office is going to take a gradual, conservative approach, and won’t require anyone to come in for a while. The Bishop of my church is permitting priests to record worship services in church buildings, but we won’t be worshiping in person until more health/safety benchmarks are met–no matter what the president says. Probably the first decision I will be faced with is whether to go back to any of my studio classes, but since those aren’t allowed to open yet, I’ll save those mixed feelings for another time.
All this is to convince myself to keep calm while others debate these choices and decisions, and convince myself to stay out of the fray as I continue stay home.
Weekly Run Down
Even in the best of times, I don’t always roll out of bed eager to work out, but Scooby is always ready to go for a run, and my husband is always willing to go for a bike ride, so I’ve got them to encourage me when my own motivation is low. This week I also discovered “two for one” Peloton workouts led by two coaches. I found their banter to be a good antidote to the social isolation of two months of staying home.
Monday: 60 min Peloton Black History Month Bootcamp
Chase Tucker and Jess Sims tag-teamed this bootcamp program, taking turns leading treadmill and strength blocks. Their interaction and banter really lifted my mood, even as their workout left me exhausted. Of course, the music was great too.
My expression: what just happened?
Tuesday: 6.15 Scooby Miles
Got out early enough to catch this lovely sunrise, and tried a new route that ended up being a bit longer than my usual loop. With no early conference call, I could afford to be “late for work.” 🙂
No, I don’t run laps with Scooby!
Wednesday: Corepower Yoga + Peloton Stretching
My body was needing a lighter day, so I opted for a 1/2 hour CPY2 program and a 15 minute Peloton stretching program with Deborah’s favorite instructor.
Thursday: 30 min Peloton Strength Workouts
I did one new-to-me Peloton strength workout and one I’ve done a few times–the 10 min strength for runners. If you wonder if a 10 minute workout really can do anything, give it a try and get back to me. 😉
Friday: 5.4 Scooby Miles
After a week of overcast skies, we finally got rain on Friday. It was just rolling in when I took Scooby out, but mostly stayed at drizzle level until we got home.
Saturday: 21 mile bike ride
It was another steamy Saturday, with sunshine and temperatures in the 80s. Since my Mom didn’t need anything from the grocery store, we rode from our house, exploring different neighborhoods.
The dead-ends reflect our haphazard approach as we decided to “see where this road goes.”
Sunday : 8.25 Scooby Miles
Waking up to cloudy skies and a cool breeze, I knew it would be good running weather. I thought about trying to run through some of the neighborhoods we rode through on Saturday, but decided I should map it out first, so we did our usual 8 mile loop.
Thanks to Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Run Down link up. It’s always great for motivation and encouragement, but now it’s especially important for distance socializing. We may be physically apart, but we are in this together!
Is your locality reopening? How do you feel about it?
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
I can understand both sides of the reopening debate as well. Illinois so far has not initiated any reopenings regionally, and there are many downstate counties that have almost non-existent COVID numbers so I’m so I’m not sure our governor is taking the correct approach. COVID cases in my city are <50 with zero deaths. It's all very difficult and I loathe how politicized it's become. I'm very interested to see the impact on cases in the states like GA and FL that have reopened.
The new case numbers for my city are discouraging!
Awesome job on your workouts this week! I agree that the bootcamp with Jess and Chase was really cool – you can tel they love to joke around with each other 🙂
So my state is in phase 1 of re-opening as of Wednesday. Some people have opted to go back to the restaurants (outdoor seating only) and go to the stores (some retail stores are open) but I’m still staying home and only leaving my house to go grocery shopping and to run/walk outside. I’m just not comfortable being out and about just yet.
I did go out to pick up a Starbucks mobile order or two … 🙂
I fully agree a ten-minute workout can be highly effective!
Yesterday, I went running in a group of 5 for the first time. It was strange and exhilarating at the same time. As long as our numbers are low, I think we’ll be fine.
Our specialists are now talking about ”mini-lockdowns” in targeted areas. This seems to make sense to me.
Hopefully, all will go well for your area!
It does become more difficult to stay home and be calm when you see others being allowed out, doesn’t it? Our region of the state is allowed to open up somewhat on June 5. Awesome workouts this week. I’m sure your partner loves all those Scooby-miles! Happy Memorial Day!
The challenge will come when I’m ready to venture out and my husband isn’t, although he may have to go back to the office before I do ….
For me it’s a difficult decision whether or not to go hang out with my running group. We’re typically as much as 8-10 people, and stay talking for hours afterward. Of course I could & probably would leave earlier. This week the decision was somewhat easy since I ran yesterday. Yes, I could have joined them for outdoor brunch. It still doesn’t feel right to me. Everyone’s got to make their own decisions & everyone’s circumstances are different.
I don’t watch a lot of news (I have Mr Judy for that). But there are less cases here than in NYC.
Anyhoo, another solid week for you, Coco. Scooby is a good trainer. 🙂
I was debating a socially distant run at the track with my BRF — but then she got sick with some fever/body ache thing — even though her Covid test was negative, it scared me into running alone for a while longer.
Eeek! I’d bail on that too.
I’m glad I don’t have to make the decisions on this stuff either! For the most part we’re at home although we *could* be out and about doing other things. My state was aggressive about shutting down early and then in late April once our numbers started trending down they gave the green light to slowly open back up. It seems like our numbers are low and flat so far.
That is great news. I don’t know why our numbers are staying so high, but hopefully they will drop off soon.
I totally agree with you and am also glad I’m not the one making the decisions. The governor of Minnesota is doing the best he can, but no matter what, people are upset. I do not want his job.
Scooby is a great motivator! Ruth did two 4 milers with me this week. Looking forward to slowly building her up a bit more! She seems to love it so far.
Ruth is such a cutie! Scooby is getting very insistent about going for his runs, and gets impatient if I take too long to get ready.
I have been pleasantly surprised by how good the 10 min workouts can be! I often pair a few to find exactly what I am looking for. it’s great! I think I am going to try some bootcamps outside this week so I trick myself into some running. I am also leery of things reopening but the one thing I do not do is go on FB. 🙂
LOL, you are more disciplined than I am. I feel like I need to catch up on the news of the day — although it is tiresome when there is nothing “new”. 🙂
I agree with you — I’ve had to avoid the debates for my own sanity. Even when I nominally agree, it gets too yelly. See also, every day since November 2016.
I wondered how you felt about services. My mom sits on her church’s reopening committee, and even though that’s a small scale, I’m glad that’s not my job either.
I’m overall pleased with the job Cuomo is doing. Like Va, NY is too big and too large a population spread to have everyone in the same phase.
I’m really reluctant to go back to church because Facebook Live and Zoom are working well — and I’m ok not getting Communion. I think the rest of my congregation is cautious too. I think 99% of us are in at-risk categories. And Bishop Curry is all about Love Thy Neighbor by staying home.
one thing mom’s church is talking about to deal with spreading the population is a communion service for people who need/want that more than the service.
It’s like the pre existing conditions in the incessant attempts to repeal the ACA, we’re all at risk
I have been avoiding a lot of the debate I’ve seen on Facebook. Massachusetts just started a very conservative phase 1 this week, but I already know that I’m pretty content to hang on the sidelines and watch how things play out for a bit.
I know what you mean about that 10 min. Strength for Runners workout – those 10 mins certainly got my attention LOL!
Those short workouts are no joke! They remind me of the OTF blocks.
I agree with your thoughts, too. I can honestly see all of this stuff from both sides, and both sides have valid arguments. The fighting and name-calling and belittling banter have left me void of much interest in watching the news or reading much on FB. It will be interesting to see how things play out as more businesses re-open. I love all your workouts! For someone who claims they’re not always motivated to get up early and get it done…you definitely get it done 😉
My FB feed doesn’t get too ugly, but I think I have too much empathy will all the sides. For me these days, the hardest step is getting out of bed — I blame my husband for sleeping later.
We are a hot spot too, but things are starting to open up again. We start phase 3 this week. I think the protests are ridiculous, but our leader isn’t helping matters.
Where did my comment just disappear to? Gobbled up by internet goblins..
Anyways, here we go:
Yes, a 10 minute workout can absolutely be an effective workout! I do it all the time and end up with quite a bit of DOMS.
We are allowed to run in groups of 5, and I had my first run with friends last Saturday. It felt odd and exhilarating at the same time. Our numbers are very low and continue to stay low, so it looks like things are working out nicely. For now – as long as people stay reasonable.
I’m feeling similar to you, that there are still so many new cases, I’m not ready to leave home. We slowly started opening a few things which had me confused. Maryland had our highest number of new cases (like 1,800) last week. I am also glad I dont have to make big decisions. I am also just so grateful that everyone in my family still has jobs and we dont have to worry directly about the financial side of this- although our economy as a whole is suffering. The biggest decision I am trying to make is when I will feel comfortable seeing my parents again. My husband and dad both have to go to their offices, so it makes it tricky.
I don’t envy anyone these decisions right now. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback, but it’s really difficult in the heat of things happening to make the right choice. I don’t even know that there is a right choice in all of this. We are all just doing the best we can. <3
Everytime a decision is made, someone will be unhappy. Not everyone will be happy. I do get both sides but for now I am OK with staying home and waiting for things to get better. The question is when will that be? At least I can go outside to run and go to the store to get things I need. I would be horrible if we had a complete lockdown. There would be more people complaining.
I love your approach to thinking about coronavirus as restrictions ease up. We all have to make the right choice for ourselves!! Your peloton workout sounds amazing; I didn’t know there were Black History Month peloton workouts. That’s so awesome.
We have been opening up here in Ohio. I feel like it’s the right amount, at the right time. I worry about our businesses going under honestly. Luckily there has not been a rush of people getting back into the places like malls, shops and restaurants.