Fitness for life...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I met with an employment fitness committee to offer my services as their fitness expert as they moved forward with a workplace initiative to help 40 employees gaining a new awareness about their own fitness levels and what they could do to improve them. “Whatever these employees do for the next six weeks, it is all for nothing if they don’t maintain it for the rest of their lives. It’s our responsibility to help them achieve that end,” I said. I think I surprised the committee with my position…something they weren’t really considering. They were there to implement and administer a 6-week competition…trying to motivate participants throughout that period…but only that period. I talked to them about baseline information…”how can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are” stuff, setting achievable goals and having sensible plans to achieve those goals. They weren’t ready for me and my approach, but by the meeting’s end, agreed to retain me as a resource any participant could access to help them with their individual efforts to improve…which had me jazzed.

I went to the park for a workout because I hadn’t had a chance to do anything about fixing the bike. It was somewhere in the 90’s and quite steamy as I strapped my daypack stuffed with 30 pounds of salt to my back. I hit a hilly trail and incorporated 200 step-ups at 7 different stations along the way. My knee ached as I walked…still sore from the bleacher workout this past Saturday…but not enough to make me want to quit…or get surgery. Climbing on top of objects was not nearly as bothersome as climbing back down from them. This makes sense since it is in stepping down that the greatest impact to the knee occurs. I just can’t figure any way to climb peaks in the Adirondacks…and not have to come back down. I should probably not run another step until after the September trips to the mountains…but I’ll feel good at some point and run again…I know myself.

Even walking in the woods and completely in shade, I sweat as heavily as I have this summer. My shoes were saturated with sweat by the conclusion of the hike and my shoulders ached from the 30 pounds pulling on them for over an hour. Still…I managed a good workout without access to a bike. There is always something I can do and the heat…well…what can I do?

Hike workout: 70 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 90 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500.