For some reason work was crazy busy this week. Even though I came close to burning the midnight oil a few nights, I managed to enjoy a week of festive workouts to keep me in the holiday mood and balance out all that sitting in front of my computer. One upside of dark o’clock runs is being able to enjoy the holiday lights in my neighborhood.
A dark o’clock picture of my favorite neighborhood display.
A Week Of Festive Workouts
My busy work week was followed by a busy weekend with my husband’s birthday on Saturday and my cookie bake-a-thon on Sunday. So I’m going to jump right to my recap. As you’ve guessed by now, I did a lot of festive workouts, from outdoor runs illuminated by holiday lights to holiday-themed Peloton workouts.
Monday: 4.1 Scooby Miles + 40 min Peloton Strength
I started my run with Rebecca, but after I stopped to take another picture of Snoopy (above), I couldn’t get that class to resume playing, so I switched to Matt Wilpers instead. I hadn’t hit the snooze button, so I still had time for 30 min of strength workouts after my run.
Tuesday: 3.5 Scooby Miles + 30 min Peloton Strength
I listened to Andy Spear’s 30 min Holiday Run, and hated it. The playlist probably was great, but he talked over it the whole time narrating a made-up story based loosely on Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. It was creative, but I felt like I was listening to someone tell me about their weird dream. It didn’t have the holiday vibe I was looking for!
At least this house got it right. 😉
Can you see the little lights projected on the house?
After enduring that, I really enjoyed the music of Adrian’s Outkast strength workout–and then realized it was my 350th Peloton strength class!
Badges for taking an artist series class,
my 350th strength workout, and
a class taken by 5 other friends.
Wednesday: 30 min Core Bike Bootcamp + 30 min Holiday Ride
I tried one of Jess Sims Core Bike Bootcamp classes, and really liked it. The program was 8 min bike-14 min core-8 min bike. Then I did Emma’s holiday ride which was everything Andy’s run wasn’t! A great mix of old and new holiday songs, with minimal chatting.
Don’t you love my rainbow lights fan?
It’s a rechargeable neck fan (!) you can find on Amazon
(^^that’s an affiliate link^^)
Thursday: 10 min Peloton Core + 5.1 Scooby Miles
After my frustration with Andy’s holiday run, I took a break from Peloton and listened to the Holiday Favorites channel on Amazon Music. It has a decent mix of classic and modern songs, but not the newer songs in the Peloton library.
Friday : 30 min Peloton Strength + 20 min Peloton Bike
It’s hard to explain why I loved Matty’s creativity in this workout, but hated Andy’s, but based on the reviews I’m not alone. Matty rhymed just enough of the the workout cues to be fun, and got me to laugh just when I was about to curse all the core moves he was putting us through.
I followed Matty’s class with Kedall’s holiday ride, which was another good one. When she used a quiet song to address people facing an empty chair at their holiday table this year, I was choking up. 🙁
Saturday: 10 min Peloton Core + 5.7 Scooby Miles + 21 mile bike ride
It was a really foggy morning. Definitely made me think of Rudolph!
Luckily the fog burned off for our bike ride. It wasn’t quite sunny or warm, but it was definitely mild for mid-December.
There are still several holiday-themed Peloton classes I want to do, including Matty’s holiday treadmill class as Mara, Denis’s holiday ride, Christine’s Pentatonix ride …, I really should make a plan for the week ahead.
Sunday: 4.0 Scooby Miles + 25 Min Peloton Strength
I set my alarm early so I’d have time for a short run before my cookie baking. I chose the “New Music Holiday” channel on Spotify and took a different route out of my neighborhood in the hope this house would have its lights on. I was so glad to see it all lit up!
As usual, I did a 10 min core workout before my run, and then I did Jess Sims’s latest Flash 15 Strength Workout (12 min of EMOMs).
There are still several holiday-themed Peloton classes I want to take, and a few more new ones scheduled for this week. I have to take Matty’s run as Mara, I’ve heard great things about Denis’s festive ride, and I think I’d really like Christine’s Pentatonix ride. I should make a schedule or something. 😉
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 home overrun with Amazon boxes?
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
Full marks for getting all these workouts done despite a hectic work week (and a Birthday and a bake-a-thon!)
That irritating 30-minute class on Tuesday! I probably would have seen that as an excuse to cut it short. 🙂
Sometimes you just have to find out how it ends. 😉
Jess’ bike boot camps are the best! What is that marathon running prep class? Another full week for you of great Peloton workouts. For some reason, the outdoor run classes are the only thing I don’t love happy cookie baking
That class is part of the marathon training program. I think it was coached as one of the last runs before race day. Interesting to hear his advice even though there are no race days in my near future — and no marathons ever. 😉
I have a ton of holiday themed workouts bookmarked on the app so I’m hoping to get to some of them next week. I’ll probably take a bunch the week of Christmas.
Oh Andy! I have the same complaint about him. He tends to talk A LOT during his runs, he did the same thing during the Outkast run. I loved both of Matty’s holiday classes primarily because they were fun, cheeky and the stories were easy to follow too.
I’m trying to get into the bike bootcamps, but I’m not 100% sold yet – I just love the tread bootcamps so much!
Cheeky is a great word for Matty’s classes! I like the 30 min bike bootcamps and 60 min tread bootcamps. I’ve heard Chase’s 45 min holiday tread bootcamp is a good one too ….
Great job getting in your workouts even with a busy work week! We don’t have many houses that put up lights around here. It’s always nice to see a few that do!
I usually only see the lights left on all night. Last night I was going out to pick up our take-out and realized how many more houses have lights and decorations. I guess it’s a thing around here!
So many boxes here this year, more than usual. I really need to start wrapping!
I don’t listen to Christmas music on my runs. I’m all about getting lost in the music, can’t do that with Christmas music, lol!
My husband is addicted to Amazon. Especially now, he orders the junk food he’s too embarrassed to ask me to buy at the grocery store. :-). I plan to wrap next weekend – what little I have to wrap.
Yes, you should make a schedule! I haven’t checked out any of the holiday classes. But you know my feelings about instructors sometimes being too chatty. It’s not easy, that’s for sure!
As always a really solid week for you, Coco. Especially with the countdown to the holiday on & extra burning of midnight oil!
A very festive week! Love the holiday decorations in your neighborhood. There’s one lake I often run, Lake of the Isles, with these beautiful homes where they MUST hire professionals to put up their lights b/c they’re way too perfect! But I definitely enjoy them in the early morning!
Our neighbor hired a company to do their lights (they have a yard sign) but they are not super fancy or over the top — just nice lights in their trees.
I love to run around the neighborhoods to see all the holiday decorations – always makes me smile!
I got out of my music-on-the-run mode (with all the biking this fall), and don’t think to bring it along with me anymore. Ugh. Whodda thunk I’d ever do such a thing? I was pleasantly surprised to see so many holiday lights on my early morning run this morning. The temps were cold, but calm, and it was just.so.perfect. Happy bday to the hubby 😉
I’m extra-appreciative of people who leave their lights on all night! I love running to Christmas music — dashing through the snow and all that!
Great week Coco! You’re right there are so many holiday-themed workouts on Peloton I want to try – I think I need to make a plan too. And I’ll be sure to steer clear of Andy’s run. LOL!
Happy birthday to your husband!
What is it with all of the talking? I simply do not get it. Just STOP taking! 🙂 Ugh, I put a hold on my Peloton membership but now have FOMO.
I know that’s a common complaint, but probably just as many others like it. There are instructors that talk less!
I wished there was an option to hear more of the music like they do for the cycling classes.
Great job getting in all the workouts! We’ve started leaving our holiday lights on overnight because I love seeing them on our early walks and runs. So festive and pretty!
My husband adjusted our so I could see them when I take Scooby out first thing.
Wow, you really know how to make it fun! All those workouts on top of your busy schedule, plus a cookie bake-a-thon… I want to see a picture of those cookies!
Hope you have another great week!
The cookies will make an appearance tomorrow!
Anything with Pentatonix is bound to be good. I love them and have been listening to their holiday album quite often.
You know I love Scooby’s ears. He’s the sweetest thing.
Great week for you! I always find when I have more to do, I magically become more productive. It’s weird how that works.
I did the Pentatonix ride today and it was fantastic! She threw in a few other songs for a change of pace, but it was mostly their stuff — sooo good!
Wow congrats on 350! That’s an amazing number! Matty is one of my favorite instructors, he is so much fun and usually has me laughing in most of his classes. I have been meaning to listen to his holiday run with Mara…I loved the Halloween one he did with her!
Definitely do the Mara run while you’re still in the mood for a holiday theme!