@jackief – glad you found a place that worked to do the steps.
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@sushiritto Other coast! Surf City NJ is one of my favorite Jersey beaches 
Slowly increasing my minutes on the spin bike. I gotta say, it is mentally very difficult for me to keep going when I get to a certain level of “out of breath-ness”. Exercise used to trigger panic attacks for me for that reason. I have had many tests, so I know it’s all mental, Ijust have to keep pedaling.
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Ahh, we’re in NorCal, but we’ve visited Huntington Beach and they have signs all around the city stating that Huntington Beach is “Surf City USA.”
So, you must be hitting your threshold. If so, then just back off and either reduce your speed or come to a complete stop until you catch your breath. After catching your breath, then proceed again. Start timing how long it takes to get to your “out of breath-ness” stage. Start keeping a log and as you keep exercising, however often that you do, track the length of time to your “out of breath-ness” stage and figure out if it stays the same or hopefully increases over time.
Always safety first. Make sure you’re not passing out. 
Folks here often discuss Apple watches, Garmin, etc. for tracking heart rate and other medical info. Maybe see about buying one. Personally, I don’t have one.
I’m often at a stage of near breathlessness and that’s what I do. But I’m on a program. And you don’t want to do “threshold” workouts each time. Mix in what are tempo (consistent cadence), sprints, long grinds, etc. Mix it up.
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I found that training myself on breathing really helped. I wasn’t doing it right. You can google it but using your diaphragm, staying calm, breathe in the nose, breathe out the mouth. It takes practice and getting used to it but now I don’t feel so panicked.
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DW is out the afternoon/evening so I was going to skip my walk. But instead I texted a soccer buddy and we did 3.8 miles. He’d never been through a park that makes up part of that loop so that was kids of fun.
It is a neat little park that is just a couple of blocks long and exists only because the neigborhood fought against pushing a street through it in the 1950s or 60s.
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Interesting Fitbit thing from this morning. In the activity log, it shows 2 separate activities:
26 minutes of walking ending at 9:23
105 minutes of sport starting at 9:24
This corresponds to when we actually started playing vs just kicking around waiting for people to show up/warm up.
Small numbers today so tons of steps–combining the 2 activities and I’m had 9.5K steps (toss in walk to/from car and I’m north of 10K for the day)
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Thanks @deb922 . The diaphragmatic breathing is something I learned to do in stressful situations but did not think to use during exercise. It was helpful yesterday!
And @sushiritto I think this is definitely mental. I don’t think I am hitting my threshold - I think my brain is saying, Hey, you went from easy breathing (doing nothing) to working out and it’s expecting that increase in respiration to jump again exponentially. I think I have to train my brain to realize I just go from 0 - 60 and they stay at “60”. I don’t need to worry that I will trying to hit “120”. If that makes any sense at all LOL>
I have an Apple watch and use the BPM function when I work out so that gives me a bit of objective data. And I know from the past that I just have to keep getting on that horse (literally!) so that I don’t reinforce negative feelings.
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Could you need a longer/slower warmup? I know that even before I started my walk/jog warm-ups, my first 0.25–0.50 mile of my runs are ridiculously slow. I found that if I tried to start faster, the whole run would suffer.
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I got to combine 2 of my favorite things in my walk this afternoon. I went and did 3 mile walk with a new soccer coach that has asked me to be his mentor. We walked and chatted about soccer coaching stuff-- it was really fun and helpful to both of us.
Still on tap 2 more miles (1 to dinner and 1 back).
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I love how much you love soccer. 
Fighting the winter gray doldrums but getting out there Most days and inside work on the Other days!
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I walked over 8 miles today, then came home from second walk and did some weights and other exercises. Yesterday I did 2 hours on my spin bike. During the week I’m walking MANY sets of stairs (I work on the “9th” floor, and walk up 16 flights at least 4 times a day, at least 3 days a week). I think I’m doing pretty well for winter exercise.
Oops - didn’t mean to “reply” to abasket but just a general reply. Sorry
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Not pretty well, great!
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Thanks @deb922. I know you work hard too.
I feel like I “cheated” on my bike today, but it was nice to catch up with friends, and I didn’t have it on me to ride after all the walking.
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In all seriousness, cross training and not doing the same activity all the time is actually helpful- both physically and mentally!
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Cross training, yes, I can agree with that. 
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@abasket I forgot to respond to you earlier.
I try to do aerobic or weights or 1/2 and 1/2 five times a day. Three days a week, because of Covid, I do workouts that are recorded and sent to me, and then I do another 2x/week with my instructor who is on the 24 hour fitness app and YouTube. They have all kind of things 24/7 – stretching, yoga, HIIT, Silver Sneakers, Zumba – all for free online. My instructor always is on 11 a.m T/Th, but on the app you can replay whenever you want.
Sometimes, I ride the stationary bike if I can’t get in a full workout. And I walk my 14yo dog about a mile every day.
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@abasket – Thanks. The winter doldrums are definitely a thing. Today and yesterday were cold and windy which makes wanting to do stuff outside super hard.
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That should’ve been 5x/week! lol
I try run when I run a few times a week (typically 5k, sometimes more and do walking or short videos other days. I’ve been faithful on Monday 1 hour zoom of zumba gold with rec center, sometimes other classes too. Still “Light”, but so much better than a few years ago.
I’ve had a few days of just resting or walking. The Thursday shingrix shingles shot impacted me much more than the first. Thus I skipped the planned ice skating “appointment” (Covid rules) on Friday at the outdoor rink in town. Was looking forward to the experiment - it has been very many years since my last skating. Had not decided whether to wear a hat or a ski helmut.
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@Youdon_tsay I was getting EXHAUSTED thinking of you doing that 5 times a DAY!!!
Walk/run combo this morning before work. I usually try to get 30 minutes of something in before work and then 30 minutes of something after work. Weather yuck coming in tonight so outside might be off the table if it’s ice tomorrow!
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