Four different workouts

Saturday, January 21, 2012
I started the morning with my first real snow shoveling workout.  There was about four inches on the driveway, but two feet plowed into the bottom.  I turn it into an aerobic workout by pushing fast and steady.  My neighbor had half his driveway done when I started and so I decided I’d hustle, get mine done and then go help him finish his.  I was sweating when I arrived at the bottom of his drive to help him finish and then shoveled out the bottom of the neighbor’s drive between us on my way back home. 

Since I was already sweaty, I jumped in the car and headed for the park and a run.  The trails were still snow packed and with the frigid conditions, I again found myself alone.  I started on the bridle trails and was having great difficulty with the footing.  This didn’t matter to me though, because I could tell my heart was pumping hard as I tried to maintain balance and manage any kind of speed.  I suppose I was running about two minutes a mile slower than I would normally, but when I checked my heart rate, it was 10 beats higher than usual. 

I’d decided to run a longer course, thinking I’d likely go more than the 50 minutes I’d run last week.  As I progressed on the course though, I could see that I might be closer to an hour before finishing.  I passed the sled riding hill and found the only other people using the park.  By the time I was approaching the car, I could see that I’d have around 56 minutes of running, so I passed it by and added the time I needed to get to an hour.  Later, I would check my log to find that it was the longest I’d run since October of 2010.  My legs are healthy and though my left foot is a little sore, it seems to be getting better since buying the new shoes.

I came home drenched, but cold.  I’d worn a short-sleeved t-shirt with socks covering my hands in 20-degree weather, and sweated like it was July.  I quickly climbed on the bike and put in another hour watching Everest: Beyond the Limit.  There was a particularly disturbing section when one of the climbers on the team the show was covering, came upon a person huddled under a rock at 27,000 feet.  In radio contact with the Expedition Leader, he asked what he should do to help the climber.  He offered oxygen, but the climber was too far gone to get up and walk and was slowly freezing to death.  Whatever team he’d been climbing with had left him there and offered no support in getting back down.  He would die later that night.

I suppose everyone that climbs on Everest knows the chances they are taking.  Over 200 people have died in the attempt and in many places, their frozen bodies can be seen by the climbers making their way to and from the summit.  It is an inhospitable climate where man was not meant to be.  The climber who had summited and then had to leave the helpless man to die, was devastated when he returned to base camp.  I’m sure the knowledge that he’d left a living, breathing fellow human to die will haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.

After the ride and a shower, Holly and I headed back to the park for a hike through the snow.  By now, my legs were spent and I was having difficulty keeping up any kind of pace for the 45-minute trek.  I’d burned more calories during the day than I had in months, but it wasn’t long before I was shoveling them back in.  I went to Pizzazz and picked up a Sicilian calzone…which is delicious and fattening.  Ah well, I’d done four workouts through the day and figured I deserved it.

Run Duration:  60 minutes.  Bike Duration:  60 minutes.  Hike duration: 45 minutes.  Shoveling: 45 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 150 running, 120 cycling, 80 hiking, 120 shoveling.
Calories burned during workout: 1020 running, 850 biking, 200 hiking, 500 shoveling.