I won’t write this with some conviction that this will again become a regular publication as I have had many stops and starts over the past year. I will write it to inform readers that I have personally recommitted to getting my fitness and wellness back to the top of my priority list.
For way too long, I’ve been hit or miss, consoling myself that my very active job and my side jobs would keep me fit…or at least slim. They do the ‘slim’ part, but fitness is another story. I have always needed a goal and recent events have put those back into play. My longtime hiking buddy and friend, John, is certainly part of that.
“Man…I need a mental health break,” he told me in a recent conversation. For a variety of reasons I may or may not get into later, so did I.
“Adirondacks, John. Let’s go. Soon,” I countered.
“Totally out of shape,” he lamented.
And so was I for any serious climbing or backcountry camping, but there is more available in six million acres. I reminded him of that and we vowed to go up the weekend of the 24th for some serene camping and manageable day hikes and climbs. I have been on several peaks with spectacular views that I could do if I weighed 100 pounds more. I’ll take him there.
So…I need to do some riding and I particularly want to get back to the Survival Workout and the tone I’ve lost. I’m also working on a business plan that would utilize my skills as a coach and trainer and so must again walk the talk. More on that later.
I arrived at the park after painting ten hours Saturday and another eight on Sunday. I’d stopped to cut Kimberly’s lawn in the rain, as well. I had loaded the mower back in the Jeep and was ready to drive home when I decided I was a complete mess and the driving rain might feel good while working out.
It did. I started with 75 push-ups…rather encouraging since I’d not done one in three weeks, and then dips, pull-ups, curls and crunches followed. I tried my surgically repaired heel with a run across the rugby field to the woods beyond, a trip of about four hundred yards. It felt okay, but my breathing was heavy.
I lifted rocks and logs and did many more sets of upper body work, but noticed my endurance slipping away quickly. I squeezed out only 35 push-ups in the second set and barely 25 in the third. The layoff had totally sapped my ability to do repeated movements over extended time. Naturally. That’ll come back quickly.
I finished the workout barely able to move and nixed the idea of going to the bleachers on the way home. Enough was enough and I knew I’d feel it all the next day.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories Burned: 600
welcome back.
ReplyDeleteI was beginning to think you soured upon writing anymore.