Congrats to all of the PRs, near PRs, and just getting into a routine. That is the key, I think. And add me to the list of those who feel like they’re settling into a workable routine. I’m a happier person if I have a routine. What I do isn’t as important as the routine.
Day 14 C-gym/day 6 WFH – the 44* would have felt nice for the run had it not come with the windy rain. To be fair, it was just a light mist especially by the end. The wind was worse than the rain. My runs have been improving. I’m getting back to normal easy pace. Today was a double hilly loop – roughly 9-10 miles once you include the walking w/u and c/d. Then the video of the day was legs. I had a lot of fun with it today. And some pull-ups just because I can.
I’ve been participating in a virtual conference this week. It’s geared more toward 9-1-1 response vs GIS, but I sat in on a video about all of the data mapping/analysis for the . It was interesting. But then again, I’m a map and data geek. H was listening to it. I don’t think he was as impressed. However, he did clean out one of his drawers and found a 30ish year old picture of him and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I believe it was taken at one of his Arnold Classics. (It pre-dates our time together.) They both looked so young!
Glad the rower is working out @calmom Sounds like you landed on the right choice! I have a series of meetings (virtual) this morning and will try to get out the door for my run/walk at 9:30 or so. It was very chilly this morning and no reason to get out that early these days!
Not to sound like a broken record, but I’ve been getting out every morning for long, brisk walks, mostly with our pup. As energetic as she (our pup) is, I think she’s actually getting a little tired of all the exercise, so tomorrow i’ll head out alone. I’ve been trying to get out quite early to avoid other people – so far, so good.
Today’s big adventure included my weekly trip to the grocery store. I go at 6 AM to hit the “Seniors Only” time. I go with a list and try to get in and out ASAP. It’s never been my favorite activity; it’s even less so now.
“Ran” repeats up the hill at the nature preserve today. I’m not terribly fast, but the number of times I make it up is increasing and although I may look like death I no longer feel like I’m going to die, so that’s good. When I started doing the hill around November(?), each lap up/down took a little more than 2 minutes and I could barely do 4 without being completely winded. I’ve been adding 1 lap up/down each week and I’m up to 21 as of today, which took me only 36 minutes, so progress.
Getting some work in, including researching if any of the SBA loans that are part of the stimulus package might be a fit for my business and then going to try to do some yoga and weights.
Got in a five mile walk with my D yesterday. She wants to go every T/TH now. Nice to have a partner. I miss our neighbor walking group.
I’m getting out for at least 3 miles/day and some body weight work but I’m eating too much. I need to get more mindful about the intake. I know I’m stress eating.
I’m not trying to sound immodest here, but I’m kinda having the opposite eating problem. I think I’m actually eating less now than I was pre-Corona, when I was still going to work everyday. I’m used to having snacks around at work, like nuts, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal or some sort of a paleo snack. I’m not having those snacks now.
Between the exercising, both the dog and myself, watching the boob tube, or going to get supplies for the house, I’m down a few pounds.
BTW, I discovered that the local CVS get their TP deliveries on Monday night/early Tuesday morning, so 9 AM on Tuesday, I’m lining up to buy one package of TP.
I think I’m eating less for sure, but have upped the wine intake. I haven’t weighed for a couple of weeks, but I am definitely snacking less than at work and my lunches are lighter. I’m eating breakfast later since I don’t have to shovel it down before commuting to work. I’ve done really well with eliminating the evening snack and trying not to eat after 7 or 8 pm, depending when we get dinner finished.
I tried doing the kneeling overheads which worked well. Yesterday I pulled up a bunch of old videos that interesteddad (I miss him. ) posted eons ago. Did a bunch of workouts for 40 minutes. All I know is I was sweaty at the end of it! Went for a short walk around our local pond. It’s a beautiful day today, so I am hoping once DH gets off all his zoom calls we’ll be able to go for a longer walk.
Thanks for that calculation of strokes to meters on the rower @calmom . That’s very helpful.
Wednesday is a run morning for me and I like a routine so I ran 5 today. My running group out here has a FB group and I posted a few pictures there. It’s fun to see everyone getting out there and moving ( at least seeing posts about it).
@Fallgirl – I’m assuming that the strokes to meters calculation would vary with the intensity of the workout & with resistance settings – so what works for me wouldn’t necessarily work for others. I had been logging all my rowing workouts at the gym for a long time— so I had some good data to work with. The gym equipment never gave me a total stroke count like the home rower, but it shows strokes per minute and I know that I generally keep a steady pace of between 24-26 s.p.m. I had also switched recently from recording the s.p.m. to marking down the average 500m time – which the gym machine displays at the end of the workouts. That can vary between 3.5 - 4 minutes for me. But basically it means that, for me, 2000m would take 15-16 minutes. So I would generally row at the gym for about 20 minutes or so, for 2500+ meters.
But all of it is fiction, because neither the gym rower nor the home rower does any traveling. It’s important to me simply because I want a consistent way to compare what I am doing at home vs. what I was doing at the gym. I think I am going to change the home routine – there really is no reason that I can’t row just about every day vs. every-other-day with my previous gym routine, and at home I can break into two shorter sessions – rather than one longer sessions. Less boring that way; since the rower is in the living room in front of the t.v., no particular reason NOT to row-- and since I am not rowing immediately after working with weight machines at the gym, I’m thinking that once I get back into the routine I’ll have more energy. So now rather than scheduling my exercise into an hour or so at the gym, I’m planning on multiple short sessions of different stuff during the day. No reason to ever change out of my exercise clothes — no need to worry about how my exercise clothes look on me (there are things that I would never dream of wearing out in public because they are too skimpy or thin or ragged, that are fine for home), So we’ll see-- maybe I’ll end up in even better shape than before… maybe not.
HR is really the only metric worth bothering about when you have no real power measurement. Work out where that HR zone is the most helpful to you. Put your HRM where you can see it so you don’t start slacking off, I use my Garmin chest strap vs wrist HRM and put the watch where I can see it. If you don’t usually do HR based training, now is a good time to start. A rowing machine alone is so easy to coast LOL. It takes a lot to get into the sort of HR zone I use on the bike trainer.
All good advice. I usually just row for a certain time period (always in front of TV!, usually watching Jeopardy). I was just looking for a kind of ballpark idea of how far.
The last two days I’ve tried a Les Miles Body combat workout. I’ve just done a beginning 10 minute one but boy are my glutes sore. Otherwise I’ve been getting a good long brisk walk in and doing some upper body weight exercises and some Pilates mat exercises for my core. I’m laying off the stair running as my knee was acting up.
I’ve never mastered the push up but I’ve been doing counter pushups. My goal is to increase the number every few days.
@calmom Good example of how we are all adapting.
I rely a lot on heart rate training- even during the injury. It frustrates me that I lost access to the ellipticals since I was able to get my HR up a lot closer and even into my running zone and I am not able to do that with walking. Other people can do it- but I’m just not great at walking with enough energy to get it there.
Walking may be the main thing again for a bit since I want to nurse this knee some more. Well- I don’t WANT to, but I think I need to.
I am loving my daily afternoon walks! I’m still doing a 5 mile walk four days a week, but am calendaring in a 1-2 mile walk every afternoon to get away from my computer and out of my house. I did a 3 mile walk with a friend this afternoon - we stayed on opposite ends of the street which wasn’t a problem with so little car traffic. We just talked loudly - so much more fun than talking on the phone (or zooming, which has been great, but still). Fresh air has been a great psychological boost: being home alone all day has not been a good thing for me.
@Fallgirl – I just discovered something to be wary of with the little home rower — the stroke count comes from the seat sliding along the shaft, NOT from pulls on the handle & the cylinder. That means that you can sit on the rower and do nothing but slide yourself back & forth with your feet and it will count as a “stroke”. (Discovered this by accident because I’m in the habit of pushing myself back a couple of times to make sure I am positioned the way I like on the seat).
@Sybilla – I really don’t have a reliable HR monitor, so that is probably great advice, but doesn’t work for me.
The body was feeling sore in many places, 4 straight days of CF tends to do that, so I decided to run 4 miles (no lifting) and call it a day. No core work today either.
I am posting here to convince myself I need to get out of the house and either walk or ride my bike today. It’s supposed to be in the high 50’s, so I may just try the bike. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to try putting one of my bikes on the indoor bike machine I got 26 years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child.
Did a dumbbell workout with DH yesterday. Hope he didn’t feel bad when I used higher weights than him on some of the deadlifts and rows. He said his wrists were bothering him afterwards, he has some tendinitis. I’m going to do a “first time yoga” workout with him today.
We can get by with the weights we have (1 set 15lb, 2 sets 8 lbs, 2 sets 5 lbs) to do these beginner sessions until I get him more interested, and on days when he bags out I’ll do something more advanced myself.
Also got him to go for a walk the other day, he has accompanied me before but hasn’t done anything else since we had a family gym membership with little kids.
The kicker is he is not overweight and in fact has been unintentionally losing weight for the last year, despite the junk food and sedentary life. Yes he has discussed with PCP and full blood work. My desire to weigh less than him keeps getting the goal posts moved.
) posted eons ago. Did a bunch of workouts for 40 minutes. All I know is I was sweaty at the end of it! Went for a short walk around our local pond. It’s a beautiful day today, so I am hoping once DH gets off all his zoom calls we’ll be able to go for a longer walk.