Thursday evening’s thunderstorm had done more than make my hiking trails in the Metroparks a quagmire, which I discovered as I pulled in Mimi’s driveway Saturday morning. I couldn’t help but notice the small creek, normally found separating her property from her neighbor’s, moving through the middle of her lawn. I had to start by trying to divert the portion of the creek that had hopped the bank and headed through her yard, which I did with some fancy spade work. I then spent the remainder of the morning shoveling sludge, river bed stone, bricks, sticks and rocks into a wheelbarrow for a return to the banks of where the creek was supposed to run. I learned quickly that a fully loaded wheelbarrow moved poorly across a sodden lawn and cut back to half loads. The temperature quickly climbed to a St. Patrick’s Day record 77 degrees and I had the sweat to prove it. I could see that this was likely to be my workout for the day since I’d be too pooped to do much else later, so I put my back into it and tried to burn every calorie I could.
I worked until 3 p.m. before crawling into my car for the return home and more chores. I’d promised Holly I’d pull out the old grout in our shower, clean it with the muriatic acid Donnie and I had purchased, and re-grout for that cleaner, fresher look. It didn’t matter how tired I was…it had to be done. I tackled it with vigor and a face mask…muriatic acid is really nasty stuff…and after a couple of hours, had it to the point where, after an overnight drying, I could re-grout. I’d also promised to wash the van and headed outside for fresh air and my final chore of the day.
Sometimes you get in a workout…and sometimes you just let life be your workout. Today was the latter. I knew I would have extremely sore hamstrings the following day from all the bending required to pick up the sticks and twigs that had covered portions of Mimi’s lawn…and that would be good pain. The shoveling and hauling of a creek bed had exercised muscles I’d been training with the Survival Workout for the last couple of years, but adding the wheelbarrow and transporting the slop had plugged in the cardio portion to the workout. In all, I burned more calories than I would have in a 3-hour bike ride and managed to get plenty accomplished and make a couple of folks happy…something my workouts seldom achieved. A good day.
Yard and Shower work duration: About 9 hours.
Training Heart Rate: 75 to 150 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 3,000.
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