Survival Workout indoors...

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I changed into my workout clothes and headed off into the bowels of the Y to do my indoor version of the Survival Workout.  I’ve been very inconsistent with the workout though I had done a tough one on Monday and because of that inconsistency, was feeling the ache of inactivity in my core.  I started as I always do; feet up on a rail and into the push-up position.  This move requires good core strength and control, which also means if your core is sore, you’ll quickly know it.  I managed 65 reps before collapsing to the floor.

I added one new move during the workout that proved to be quite difficult.  Though I have often taken stairs two at a time, I’ve never tried hopping up two stairs at a time, which proved to be much more difficult than I would have imagined.  I did this for three flights and was ready to heave when I reached the top step.  Though I would normally do a particular set three times during a workout, I concluded one of these was enough for today.

I’m trying to create a ‘boot camp’ workout for the Y to include all the ingredients of a complete workout.  Moves of speed, power, agility, balance, muscular endurance for all the muscle groups will find their way into the final product.  I’m hoping to convert an unused Racquet Ball court into a room where we will utilize a Boxmaster to simulate boxing, traverse rock climbing wall, hitting heavy bags, rope skipping, core and agility work and drills, rope climbs, and a myriad of calisthenics for the total body workout.  Once it’s in place, we will offer something unique to the community and it’ll work.  We will have an actual prize fighter taking people through the workout session, probably a little less than an hour, so they will be getting authenticity.  I anticipate doing it myself on a regular basis.

I arrived home late and did not do a bike ride; so no double.  The time change is coming (spring ahead on Sunday) and then I’ll arrive home with enough daylight to go out for a ride.  Once that happens, I know I’ll drop the winter weight quickly and find it much easier to stick with my routine.  I can’t wait.

Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories Burned: 600.

A very good double...

Tuesday, March 4, 2014
At last there is daylight late enough to be driving home in it.  I drove straight to the North Chagrin Reservation, but found that my special parking space had not been plowed.  No matter.  I managed to get off the road and not buried so deeply in snow as not to be able to pull out later and climbed from the car.  The bridle trails remained snow covered with all the frozen foot tracks that make navigation such a challenge, but there was a narrow corridor down the middle that was becoming reasonably well packed, bearing some resemblance to flatness.  Some. 

I ran along the trail past the Rugby field and on to Clear Creek, which was practically frozen over.  It was solid enough in parts to walk across; a true testament to just how cold this winter has been since the water beneath is still flowing quickly.  I made my way across River Road and into the woods behind the sledding hill before making actually descending the hill…without falling.  I made my way back across River Road and ran around Squires Castle before returning the way I had come.

It was a challenging, but beautiful run.  The snow’s depth probably slowed me by 2 minutes a mile, but my heart rate and effort was high.  Running along a bluff overlooking a partially frozen Chagrin River was an additional treat.  A run that would normally take 30 minutes took 40 to complete.  I drove home thinking ‘if I can make myself get on that trainer, I could have a solid double’.  The ‘me’ that has been slacking for some time was fighting with the new old ‘me’ that is trying to get my ass in high gear again. 

I walked in the house and stripped off my sweaty clothes, immediately donning my cycling gear and heading for my office.  I loaded an episode of ‘The West Wing’ on Netflix, climbed on the trainer and began to ride.  After five minutes I was again drenched and pushed myself through to the one-hour mark.  Damn…nice double, I thought as I headed for the shower.

So there.  I CAN still do it.  Tomorrow I’m planning a Survival Workout at the Y and then a ride once I get home.  It’s March.  The snow is bound to melt and the roads should once again become clear for riding.  I’m already planning a point to which I can drive my car in the morning and then park it, pull out the bike, and ride the remainder of the distance to Warren and work.  At the end of the work day, I’ll ride back to the car and then drive home.  I can get 40-50 miles of riding a day that way.  I’m completely ready to be in great shape again.

Run Workout:  40 minutes.  Bike Workout:  60 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm running and 120 on the trainer.
Calories burned during workout:  700 running and 850 riding.

Half a loaf...

Monday, March 3, 2014

I had very good intentions…again.  I was planning on doing the Survival Workout at the YMCA and then going home to spend some time on the trainer.  A tough double.  Well, it began as intended.  I made my way around the Y using railings to do push-ups and dips, three flights of stairs to work in some cardio, a 25-lap to the mile track, dumbbells and free weights, and other miscellaneous things to complete my back to basic effort.  It was an excellent workout and I definitely had a ‘pump’ by the conclusion, but not doing it outside in the Metropark left something to be desired.

I’ve made several trips to the park to try and do the workout over the past weeks, but always passed it up.  True, there is a considerable amount of snow on the trails and covering the rocks and logs I like to use, but it’s been more than that.  Somewhere along the way, maybe as far back as Tour Ohio, I lost my drive.  Is it the new job?  Things in my personal life?  Probably a little bit of both, but that is no reason and I know it.  It’s time to get back on that horse that brought me so far from where I’d been back into the fitness world and start riding again.  If I have to do it at the Y for a couple more weeks, then so be it.  No more excuses.

Of course then I got home and decided I’d done enough and started cooking instead of riding.  I did make something quite Paleo, baking a large piece of salmon.  I made some rice too, but that was for Jack. 

It has been a tough winter for any of us who like to do our workouts outside.  Stay the course.  Fight the good fight.  This one’s for the Gipper.  I don’t know…clichés…but I do know I’m human and I also know that no one can do it for me.  At least I did something.

Survival Workout:  60 minutes

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm.

Calories burned:  600

Brutally Cold...

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Many, many years ago, I considered myself a runner.  It was my primary form of exercise and I did to not only to stay in shape, but to be competitive.  There was a time back then…and I’m talking about the mid-90’s…when I would run regardless of the weather.  In fact, I was on a kick for one stretch that covered about five years where, regardless of the temperature, I ran without covering my legs.  It wasn’t particularly smart as there were days when I found the thermometer hovering near zero, but I was manly and determined and manly.

I drove to the park to do a 30-minute run, I thought.  I stepped out of the car and heard that crunch of snow under my shoe; that sound it makes ONLY when it’s like…way below zero.  I was there though, manly and determined.  I did have running pants on, as well.

I started the run on the snow-covered bridle trail, slipping and dipping as my feet tried to find something level on which to run.  Frozen foot tracks and cross country ski grooves make that quite impossible.  My real problem though, was breathing.  Never…and I mean NEVER…have I ever had so much trouble catching my breath.  The air was simply too cold and I was completely unacclimatized.  I’d spent a winter exercising indoors and here I was on one of the coldest days in the history of Northeast Ohio trying to suck in enough air to run, which is much greater than the demand for simple walking, and my throat and lungs were having none of it.  I realized I was heading into the wind, which meant the chill factor was probably about 200 below, and figured if I could just make it into the shelter of the trees and out of the wind, I’d be okay.

To some degree, that worked.  I continued to have problems with the footing though, and about 11 minutes into the run, decided to turn and head back for the car.  I was running with socks covering my hands, as I normally would, but could feel the tips of my fingers beginning to freeze, so by the time I made it back to the car with advanced pain in the digits, realized I’d made my turn-around at the appropriate time.

It was only 22 minutes of running, but I got through it.  I think my determination is turning an important corner.  I’ve made it three days in a row doing something, which is more than I can say about my exercise patterns since the beginning of the year.  Let’s see how the week and month plays out before I get to excited about myself.

Run duration:  22 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm.

Calories burned:  350.

Special places...special things

Saturday, March 1, 2014

I’d spent all evening Friday doing something I haven’t done in maybe the 17 years I’ve lived in my current house…clean my office from top to bottom.  It’s much more than an office though, it’s kind of a man cave and sanctuary all rolled into one.  From the walls hang newspaper pages, framed, of some historic sports moments.  Then there are the pictures of family, present and past, wonderful friends and sports legends.  On my desk and on the shelves and bookcases sit pieces of personal importance from parents, grandparents, a special brother and wonderful things from artistic children who wanted to honor their dad with their talents.  It’s a pretty special place, but likely only to me.

One piece, sitting on a counter behind me as I type these blogs, is not working.  It’s an old electric Sessions clock with a beautiful Westminster chime that was owned by my grandparents and is easily the most significant sound I remember from my past.  It stopped chiming over 20 years ago and I inherited it when my grandmother died, but have been told that it can’t be repaired.  Then I got wind of the Suburban Clock Shop in Berea, being told by another clock repair shop that if it could possibly be fixed, they were the ones.

With the office dusting complete and working around that old clock, I decided that it was time to take a road trip to Berea.  I brought the clock in the shop, handed it to the man behind the counter and without saying a word about the issue, watched him open the back and make his pronouncement.  “Can’t be fixed,” he said.

“Why not?” I said with disappointment evident in my voice.

“They just don’t make the parts anymore.  We could replace all the elements with a battery-operated Westminster chime system,” he offered.

I declined that out of hand.  I had a Westminster Chime clock that closely resembled my grandparents’ given to me by Holly many years ago.  It was close, but the chimes were just not the same and my ear knew it.  “Could I buy another clock from the same year and take the chimes out of it to put in mine?” I asked.

They said I might find something on e-bay like that, but I’d be lucky if the chimes were working for very long after I got it.  A temporary setback.

I drove out to Patterson’s and picked up a couple of their amazing pies for the family dinner we were planning for that evening.  I stopped in the Metropark on the way home and did about a forty minute hike with Dakota.  I’d wanted to do a little off-trail stuff to check for antlers and to see the condition of the trails for some running and a Survival Workout.  It didn’t look particularly good for either.

I returned home and climbed on the bike for a 45 minute ride before I needed to begin dinner preparations.  With Savannah in town and it being a special evening, Holly prepared dumplings and with the pie and ice cream to follow, I easily ate twice as many calories as I’d burned. 

Bike duration:  45 minutes.  Hike duration: 35 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm on the bike and 80 on the hike.

Calories burned during workout:  625 on the bike and 175 on the hike.

Restoring an old boat...

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Normally, I would have gotten up Sunday morning and put in some time on the trainer before church.  This was far from a normal Sunday morning, though.
I’d been sitting quietly the night before, watching an episode of ‘The West Wing’ when my cell phone began to vibrate.  I looked at the name; one I recognized as a very good friend, but knew immediately it would be something unusual since it was 10:30 p.m.
“John…hey…I’m kinda drunk,” she said, with slurred speech and a slight giggle.  “I’m in Chagrin Falls at…um…Gate Keepers of something.”
“Do you mean ‘Gamekeepers’,” I suggested.
It was and after getting the address from her, I went upstairs and warned Jack we would be having an overnight visitor and he needed to make up the guest room and clean up his bathroom while I drove to pick her up.
I made it to the bar in 30 minutes, but she wasn’t there.  I started worrying that she’d forgotten she’d called me and had tried to drive home.  I finally found her outside near her car. 
“Why are you out here walking around in 4-degree weather?  If you’d fallen in a snowbank, you might have frozen to death,” I said.
She wasn’t completely with it and gave me some story about needing to check her car.  I packed her in my car and tried to question her as to why she was alone in Chagrin Falls when she lived in Lakewood.
“I wasn’t alone.  My friends are in the bar.  We were at this shower thing...” she said.
I knew I might not be getting an accurate accounting, but what kind of friends wouldn’t have been assisting her with getting home?  I was more than happy to help out, but that seemed pretty bizarre.   I drove her to our house and showed her to the guest room and bathroom.  I’d made no arrangements for garments beyond what she was wearing.  It didn’t seem to matter though since she went into the bedroom and never made another sound.
Jack came downstairs to talk about the situation.  “I don’t get why people go to a bar and drink too much when they have to drive,” he said.
“Well…not being a drinker I don’t know for sure, but I suspect they go and have a drink or two…or three…and then realize suddenly they’ve had too much and shouldn’t be driving.  The good news is my friend had the sense to call me and get a ride,” I said.  He nodded agreement and maybe learned a very valuable lesson.
She came downstairs in the morning to my kitchen cleaning.  I offered to make breakfast, but instead we went to ‘Yours Truly’ where I got a story about friends having their husbands with them and not being available to help her get home.  Bad friends, if you ask me.  I ate pancakes with lots of fake syrup instead of riding my bike, though.
I spent some time with my nephews in the early afternoon looking over my late father’s ruined 1968 Chris Craft Sea Skiff.  It’s up on blocks, where it has rested for the past few years, rotting away.  During the kayak portion of ‘Tour Ohio’, Nathan had discussed with me the possibility of purchasing and restoring the boat to its original glory.
“It’s worth almost nothing right now and if it stays out of the water another year, he’ll have to scrap it entirely,” Nathan explained. 
I told him I was very interested in the project and so there we were trudging through a foot of snow to have a look at what was left.  Nathan and Jonathon pointed out the issues where the hull was collapsing due to the improper placement of the jacks holding it up to the rotting transom and wood throughout the interior.  The twin, 327 Chevy engines that powered the boat appeared to be winterized and were something Nathan could rebuild regardless.

“It’ll be expensive and I don’t know anything about working on wood Uncle John, but I’d be willing to tackle it if you would,” Nathan said.  I knew Jonathon felt the same way since he’s spent many hours working on it with his grandfather so many years ago.
I returned home, grabbed Dakota and drove to Mimi’s to catch up with her granddaughter, Mikala, who I’d promised a hike in the park on her next visit.  Though there was a foot of snow on the trails, she was seven and couldn’t have cared less.
“How about we hike into the beaver marsh and walk across the ice to the beaver lodge,” I suggested to her and her mom.
We bundled up, drove to the park and hopped out and into the snow.  It was deep and walking was difficult.  The hike to the marsh took 30 minutes, but it was frozen and we were able to walk out to the lodges.  On the return trip, Mikala asked for a ride so I placed her on my shoulders and carried her for a half mile.  It proved to be an excellent workout, especially since she insisted we climb ‘a mountain’, which meant hiking up the steep slope I normally use for my karaoke workout.
Hike:  90 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate:  70-100 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  450.

"There's a beeping and a red light flashing..."

Thursday, January 2, 2014
The first two days of 2014 started pretty much the same way…snow removal.  I didn’t have time to shovel out the neighbor’s drive before heading off to work, but had only gotten half way to Warren when I received a call from my son, Jack, who was experiencing vehicular problems. 

“The red warning light came on and it was beeping and flashing so I pulled into a parking lot and turned it off,” he said.

“That was a good move.  Was the heater blowing heat when you turned it off?”

I’d driven the van on Christmas Eve and it had never gotten warm.  Jack was in the vehicle and said it took a while, but would eventually warm up.  It never did.  He said he really didn’t mind, but I tried to dissuade him from ‘being tough’ on these kinds of things.

“If the car isn’t heating up, something’s wrong and you need to let me know,” I told him.  When I checked the fluid levels the following day, I found the radiator was low.  I added water and anti-freeze and it was again blowing hot.

“No – it was still cold,” he said.

I knew what the problem was, but refrained from reminding him how I’d told him to let me know if it happened again.  I drove home, filled up two gallon jugs with water, grabbed the anti-freeze and headed for his last known location.

Once I found him and lifted the hood, I quickly discovered the nature of the beeping and red lights on the dashboard.  The radiator was practically empty.  We refilled it and drove it to Dan’s in Chardon for a weekend repair after which I took him to work in Mentor on snow-covered roads.  By the time I finally arrived back in Highland Heights, it was close to noon and Warren, a two-hour drive in the winter conditions we were experiencing, was looking like a very bad idea.  I aborted that quest and began shoveling again.

It turned out to be a good decision.  Warren was on a winter storm warning with the police advising residents to stay off the roads.  We closed the YMCA at 6 p.m. to allow employees the chance to get home before it got worse.  Few members had ventured to the facility, in any event.  I managed another three hours of snow removal throughout the day and added a 1-hour ride on the trainer, as well.  I received a call from Performance Bike telling me my bike was ready to go.  Good thing – I could see I’d be riding it soon. 

Bike Workout:  60 minutes.  Snow removal:  Three hours 
Training Heart Rate:  120 on the trainer and 80-120 bpm on snow removal.
Calories burned during workout:  850 riding and 1250 on snow removal.