The Yard Work Meister...

Saturday, May 1, 2010


I had been dragging all night Friday – the double had really kicked my butt and then I’d come home and done all the yard work for an hour.

Now it was time to go to my part-time landscaping job I did for an old friend who needed help around the house. I work like a dog (not mine – she lays around for a living) when I go there and this would be no exception. I spent almost six hours cutting new edges around all of his trees and gardens, hauling mulch and top soil and moving yard waste into the woods. I sweat buckets, drank diet Snapple all day and was crawling back to my car when I finished around 3 p.m.

I drove past the park on the way home and thought…for a fleeting second…about running. Bag it. I headed for home.

Yet…I couldn’t relax there. I was feeling the guilt. I was just tired…what’s the big deal? I did want a day off of running, but there were other things I could do. I checked with Dakota – she was up for a trip to the park – grabbed the camera and binoculars and we were off.

It was nothing strenuous, but I was burning more calories and loving the scenery. Shortly after going off-trail, I spooked up 5 white tails who really didn’t seem to mind sharing the woods with Dakota and me. I shot a couple of pictures and moved on. We worked our way down to and around the marsh, making it a 70-minute walk. I was actually sweating by the time I returned to the car and hungry as hell.

I’d burned more calories during the day than I had on the double from the day before and was feeling like there was Breyer’s in my future. I managed to wait until after our low-calorie, completely healthy and totally unfulfilling dinner salad to hit the freezer for the ice cream. Breyer’s Vanilla with Natural Bean Specks is the ice cream of choice, though I am not too particular on this food source. I slathered it in chocolate syrup and threw on some healthy peanuts before sitting down to savor the fat and calories.

Some times you just gotta do whatcha gotta do…

Yard work duration: 6 freaking hours. Hike duration: 70 minutes

Training Heart Rate: Up and down for yard work. 65 hiking.

Calories burned during workout: 1,250 yard working. 425 hiking.