Four workouts...one day.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The day started with a calorie-burning snow shoveling…and never let up. I had to move about three inches that had fallen overnight, which wasn’t a big deal, but took about 20 minutes and had me sweating a little.

I went to the Metropark for a run, planning on doing 50 minutes, but was forced to the bike path because there was just too much snow on the trails to run. They plow the bike path, but I am reluctant to run on such a hard surface…it’s paved…but it was that or the road. I made it to the 39-minute mark when I felt a sharp pain in my right calf and stopped immediately. Damn…injured again. I returned to the car and figured I’d be off running a few days and would have to ride later.

I had a good six inches in the driveway when I got home and pushed that, which took 45 minutes. I was thinking how beautiful it was in the park and decided to take Dakota and head up there to walk the marsh trail.

My calf was hurting slightly as I began the hike, but it was manageable. The snow was quite deep…coming up to Dakota’s chest and making the hike more of a workout for her than me. Still…we were off-trail and since no one had preceded us, every step through eight inches of snow was a labor. We made our way down to the marsh and when I stopped to check my pulse, was happy to find that it was up to 90 – not a bad level for walking without a pack.

We saw only one person on our hike, which wasn’t too surprising considering the road conditions and the snow on the trails. Yet for anyone trying to get a workout, the conditions were perfect. Anyway, I returned home and decided I needed a little more aerobic work so I hopped on the bike and watched an episode of ‘Lost’.

I suppose I could consider it four separate workouts, but however it’s catalogued, I burned a ton of calories. Had I made it through the run pain-free, it would have been the perfect workout day.

Bike duration: 40 minutes. Hike duration: 70 minutes Run duration: 39 minutes.
Shoveling duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 biking. 90 hiking. Running: 140. Shoveling: 100.
Calories burned during workout: 600 biking. 450 hiking. 650 running. 400 shoveling.