Too cold for Dakota...

Sunday, February 17, 2013
My nephew joined me for the Survival Workout Sunday morning.  It was extremely cold by northern Ohio standards…probably in the middle teens…but he’s been working out of Duluth, Minnesota where temperatures are routinely WAY below zero.  He was dressed in an outfit I’d wear if it was forty.

“You gonna be warm enough?  I’ve got some extra stuff in the car if you need something,” I offered.

“Well…I probably should have brought warmer gloves, but otherwise I’m okay,” he said.

Dakota, on the other hand, was not okay.  The ice was forming rapidly in her paws and she was limping in the short time it took us to do some push-ups and pull-ups.  As much as I hated to do it to her, I put her in the Honda before we headed down the trail.

“I haven’t done much of anything for two months.  I’ve taken over as Chief of Maintenance on the ship and there’s always something going on,” he said.

Which was his way of saying ‘go easy if you don’t want to kill me.’  Well…he’s young, thin and extremely active.  I wasn’t too worried about hurting him. 

We did some sprinting and high knees before disappearing into the woods to find our first rock station, which was buried in snow.  As I expected, he struggled to try and do everything I did…and then one more.  This is admirable, but can lead to serious puking if you’re out of shape as he said he was.  He stayed with me for the first set of everything, but his endurance wasn’t there and on the second sets, he resigned himself to the fact that his old Uncle was in better shape.  We discussed in earnest the ‘Tour Ohio’ and his commitment to joining me, but if past experience is any indicator, he’ll get called out early to return to the ships…and he’ll go.  We agreed that he’d join me in two days for another workout as we entered our cars.

I tackled putting the bedroom back together that I’d painted last weekend.  Holly had done some fancy art work on one of the walls and with that behind, I could wash the floors and return all the furniture.  It’s not a workout, but its good activity for burning a few more calories and scores huge points with the person that washes my clothes and makes great Sunday dinners.  I gladly work for these things.

Survival Workout:  60 minutes

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm.
Calories burned:  600