Category: Fitness

Ski Day

Well after all my complaining about the cold, it seems like someone finally listened and we’re now enjoying a nice mild spell.  All the snow has pretty much melted in the last two days.

Last Saturday Jeannie I went on a day trip skiing without the kids, up to the Berkshires.  And we just barely beat the weather.  When we woke up at the break of day it was 12 degrees out, and by the time we made it to the mountain it was 28 or so.  Just perfect.  Conditions were good and our energy level was high, and we both had a fantastic day skiing.  All that Nordic Track has really been paying off.  By early afternoon the temperature had crept above freezing, as evidenced by the snow sticking to our skis and melting on the ride up the lift.  Still it made it pleasant to be out, so we kept on going, and by the time were ready to go home they had turned on the lights for night skiing.  When we got into the car the thermometer said 44 degrees.

Workout

This post is inspired by friend Nick who recently started doing is own home-rolled workout.  I’ve been doing something similar for years.  I started doing it in the year 2000 when I was living in Brooklyn, and I had been sick for most of the winter and had lots of problems with my back and shoulders from using the computer too much, and had been gaining weight too.  I also had an injured ankle that needed some kind of rehabilitation.  I’d been in pretty good about getting regular exercise in thru college, but once I got a regular desk job I kind of let it slide for a few years.  When I lived in California I biked and skated alot year round, but when I was back in New York City that became a seasonal thing.

So it was time to get back into a workout groove.  I had a baby and was living in an apartment, so it wasn’t feasible to either go out to a gym or get lots of a equipment.  I started with just pushups and situps and a few stretches and sort of added in new things and changed them around over the course of the first year or two. Alot of the focus is on core trunk strength, the back, abdomen and shoulders. The basic idea is to alternate between strength and flexibility exercises in sets or short sequences.  When I got weights I decided to limit myself to a pair of dumbbells that could be easily stowed.  After I got my house I got a bench, cuz I had to modify some exercises where I lift weights over my head so as not to hit the ceiling.

I got most of my stretching ideas from two books:  Yoga for Health by Richard Hittleman and Body Control (Pilates) by Lynn Robinson and Gordon Thompson. Yoga and Pilates are alot alike, except with Yoga it’s tied in with the holistic philosophy and vegetarianism, and the ultimate goal is to be in good enough shape so you can spend hours sitting in meditation without getting tired or losing concentration. Pilates is more western and non-spiritual but both have the goal of using the body as a lever to work itself out.

My workout goes like this:

warmup: 60 jumping jacks
stretch: chest expansion, rishi’s posture (touch opposite knee), toe touch, abdominal lift
25 pushups
stretch: chest expansion, rishi’s posture, toe touch, abdominal lift
25 more pushups

stretch: triangle, waist twist
weights: shoulder roll, arm curls (10x @100 lbs.)
stretch: neck roll, trunk roll
weights: shoulder roll, arm curls (10x @100 lbs.)
stretch: balance posture (stand on one foot), leg stretches
weights: shoulder press (10x @100 lbs.), bench press (10x @100 lbs.)

stretch: leg lifts, ankle rolls, knee-thigh stretch
weights: upright butterfly, tricep curls, horizontal butterfly, backstroke (10x each @ 70 lbs.)
stretch: shoulder stand, plow
weights: upright butterfly, tricep curls, horizontal butterfly, backstroke (10x each @ 70 lbs.)

10 squats
40 full situps
40 oblique crossovers
80 crunches
80 oblique crunches
80 reverse situps
cool down: headstand (2 minutes)

I can usually do it in an hour and 10 minutes.  If I push myself for speed I can do it in an hour even, but this is only possible if my energy level is really good, and when I’m tired I tend to take the stretching slower.

A funny thing, it used to take more like an hour and a half to do the workout.  Then about a year ago I started listening to music while I worked out.  It’s important to have a good CD to workout to, and after trying a few I fell into a groove with Steely Dan Alive In America, which is a great album, but only half the songs are really uptempo.  A few months ago I switched to Moving Pictures by the great Canadian power trio Rush.  A good high energy record and perhaps their greatest disc.  I had thought the record was 45 minutes long, and really hustled to stay on pace, and when I was done I realized the album was only 40 minutes long and I had shaved 10 minutes off my workout!

Another thing: I never did a headstand in my life until I was over 30. Now I can do it for 10 minutes or more.

Nowadays I usually work out 6 days a week. I do the workout I just described three times a week and on the alternate days I do a cardio thing, which when the weather is good means rollerblading or bike riding, and now in the winter it’s the Nordic Track or sometimes just a walk.  The Nordic Track is new this winter for me and seems to be working pretty good so far.  As evidenced by the recent ski trip…

Winter Workout

Well winter is here. One morning last week we had our first snow flurry of the year to the absolute delight of the kids and the mild consternation or utter indifference of everyone else. I work out regularly with weights and yoga-like exercises, but on the days I don’t do that I like to do some kind of aerobic (i.e. speed-oriented) thing, which is rollerblading or biking most of the year. About a month ago when it got too dark to go rollerblading after work, I switched to night biking, a mode of transport that has a light and a brake. Now it’s too cold out to do even that. So I need an indoor aerobic activity to see me thru until the spring.

Jeannie has a NordicTrack cross-country skiing machine that she’s been using happily for years. Just a few weeks ago when the clocks shifted an hour she started getting up early in the morning and doing a few kilometers on it before everyone else gets up for school and work. I must say I am really impressed at this; it’s something I could never do. She says it’s better than working out after the kids go to bed, which is what I usually do, and can indeed be harsh at the end of a long day.

I have not used the Nordic Track all this time, but last week I finally decided to give it a shot. I’ve never really liked the idea of working out on a treadmill, stationary bike or anything like that, because it makes you feel like a droid, in an existential post-modern post-industrial post-ironic kind of way. Meh! I’ve always thought it would be cool to hook an exercise machine up to some kind of VR or videogame to provide some fun and adventure, or at least some scenery. Ah well, I can listen to music I suppose.

Once I tried the NordicTrack I remembered another reason why I don’t use it. I’d tried it once when it was new, only to realize that it was not designed for really tall people (as is the case with so many things). It was simply not high enough or long enough for me to use properly. The pad you’re supposed to lean against was too low for proper balance, and I kept kicking the back of the machine. So it was time to start hacking! It turns out the pad is on arm that can swing up and forward when it’s time to put the machine away. I was able to make a shim and jam it in under the arm, so that it would stay in a semi-deployed position, which made enough of a difference that I could use it comfortably.

And now, having used it a couple of times, I can say it’s a pretty good workout. I can go 5 kilometers in 25 minutes or so, which is comparable to what I do on real skates, and with a similar level of effort. So it looks though it will do to see me thru the winter. Now I just have to find the right music to work out to.

Bad Luck With Things With Wheels

The weather this fall has been really great. Exceptionally mild, sunny and in the 70’s quite often. It’s been getting dark earlier, and soon (probably tomorrow) I’ll have to switch to biking from skating after work, favoring the mode of exercise that has lights and brakes. And not long after that we enter the season of getting up for work in the morning while it’s dark out.

So last Sunday I went to take my Mustang for a ride, possible for the last time this season, depending on the weather. When I parked it I noticed something leaking from the engine, looks like oil or maybe gas. Grumble, grumble. Well it stopped shortly after the motor shut off, and of course it might not be a big deal to fix but you never know, and the hassle factor makes it a bit daunting. And this on the heels of fixing up my every day car.

After that I thought I’d go for a bike ride. I haven’t ridden in a couple weeks and my bike had a flat. After fretting over the Mustang I didn’t really feel like dealing with this too, so I decided to go rollerblading instead. Well as soon as I got down the road my left skate started going thump-thump-thump every time I shifted my weight to that side. About a mile later on of the wheels just tore right off! Well at least this put and end to the noise and rattle.

So I was able to fix my flat and replace the wheel on my skate with a spare old wheel I had lying around. All the wheels are pretty worn but it’s late in the season, and I thought I’d wait until the spring to put on a new set. At this point I’m thinking of getting a whole new pair of skates anyway, since my skates are original Rollerblades that date back to the early 1990’s and are pretty worn.

As for the Mustang, the path of least resistance just to leave it garaged for the winter and deal with it in the spring. But you never know, I just might get motivated sooner if the good weather holds.

Happy Autumn, Part I

Today was the Equinox, and I’m into the fall groove over here. Getting caught up on some little things and starting in on a bunch of projects. Getting around to everything in the inevitable rotation of activities.

The weather has been really nice this September. Soon we should have a whole lot of ripe figs. Meanwhile I’ve been enjoying skating as always, and going for bike rides on our local trails in the Nature Study Woods. Mountain biking is fun, and in another month or so I’ll have to switch from skating to biking after work cuz it’ll be dark out, so I’ve started biking once a week after doing almost no biking the whole summer. The NSW is a nice place, with woods and lakes and horses and swans all kinds of birds and critters. The only real problem with the place is the trails are kind of eroded and need some work. Some of the hills are too hard to go up, not because they are steep but because they are so rocky.

I’ve also been taking my old Mustang out for a ride now and again. It started making a noise a little while ago in the engine, like the lifters were clacking. I remember from when I lived in California and used to drive that car every day, that when that happened I just needed to top of the oil. So I checked the oil but the dipstick said full. So I didn’t quite know what to, and just sort of worried and figured I’d get it checked out in the spring. I’ll probably only drive it once or twice more this fall. Yesterday before I drove it I topped off the oil anyway, and shawnuff the noise mostly went away after a few minutes. Damn dipstick, I guess it must be reading off. Well what do you expect for an old car. I’m still gonna get it checked out in the spring, but still I’m relieved about that.

A couple weeks ago I finally decided to do something about my downstairs stereo, so I could listen to tunes while I work out. My old CD player died a couple years ago, and I had been using an old discman as a replacement, but it had problems with the jack or the cables and one side never sounded right and would drop out from time to time. I didn’t know if the problem was in the CD player, the receiver, the speakers or the cabling somewhere. So as an experiment I repatched the system to use my DVD deck as the CD player, using its extra audio out. Works like a charm and sounds great. I’ve been listening to Steely Dan’s Alive in America for 2 or three weeks now every time I work out.

Now on to what are the works in progress.

Our major home improvement project this fall is to paint all the bedrooms. A much easier job than tiling, for sure, and also this year I don’t have to do all kinds of concrete work, so I’m grateful for that. In any event, it’s September and we figured we’d better get started. Got colors picked out for the girls rooms and everything. We decided to do Michelle’s room first. We were all set to paint the walls, but when I was doing the prep work I noticed some spots that needed spackling, which necessitated painting the ceiling too. So got that done over the weekend, and the wall are coming next.

Ski

One of the few things I really love about winter is skiing, so I was really happy that we finally had a chance to go this year. Technically, we went skiing way back in December at a local hill near my parent’s house, but that barely counts cuz the main purpose of that trip was to introduce the girls to skiing, and mostly they took a lesson and I took a few slushy runs down a very short slope. I don’t think Jeannie ever even put her skis on. Still, it accomplished it’s primary goal, and Lizzy took to it, and Michelle liked the idea although did not do so well on the rope tow.

Then January and February flew by in a blur as I worked alot weekends and I had an injured foot anyway, so, like, whatever. Finally, with my project gone live and back to a normal schedule I was determined to have a real day skiing before winter’s end. Lizzy was thrilled, but Michelle decided she didn’t want to come, so we spilt the kids up, which turned out to be the perfect move. It’s something we rarely do, but they’re really at different levels, and Michelle had a great time with Nana and Poppy.

Of course the other wild card was the weather. The day before was pouring rain and stormy, to the point where my friend Nick had major flooding issues with his new basement, and my next door neighbor lost a chunk of his garage roof, and we had a rather heavy fallout of tree branches in our yard. But then it turned freezing overnight, so we went to bed hoping for the best. We got up way early, a problem made worse by the fact our government, in keeping with its recent trend of terrible policy making, decreed that this was the night we’d move our clocks ahead instead of a more sensible date in April. So off we went.

It turned out to be great day for skiing. The weather was in the upper 20’s and amazingly they had groomed large amounts of the mountain to decent conditions. The place we picked to go was Catamount, in the Berkshires in Massachusetts , about 100 miles from our house. They’re not a huge mountain, but big enough to be fun. Another nice thing about it is you can park close to the lodge. We started with Lizzy on the bunny hill, and discovered they had a conveyer belt instead of a tow rope. Michelle will be thrilled to hear about this. Lizzy took a lesson, and by the time she was done she’d been up the chair lift and down a real slope. Meanwhile Jeannie and I got in a bunch of good runs. One of the nice thing about Catamount is alot of the trails wind thru the trees, and my last run was very peaceful (and high-speed), as I was the only one on the trail. Perfect moment of ski Zen.

After lunch we spent our time with Lizzy and she was doing great zigzagging down the hill. She really wanted to make it the whole way down with out falling, and was well on her way, but toward the bottom she picked up some speed and the wind came up, and she almost lost her hat, and in saving her hat she lost her balance. I told her if that happened again just let the hat go; I was right behind and would grab it. Shaw’nuff next run the same happened, and she let her hat go, and made it to the bottom, quite triumphantly!

So that was it, now I’m ready for spring. As luck would have it, the weather is getting milder, and our government, going against its recent trend of deplorable policymaking, rolled back the clocks a month earlier than usual, so even though I’m getting up before it’s light out again, today I got to go out for a bike ride after work in the daylight.

South Side of the Sky

Good news: my project for work is going live this week, which means no more working nights and weeks to meet the deadline. I worked basically continually from Thursday morning thru last night. At least it’s a good time of year to be sitting inside in front of the computer. I feel like I’ve made it through the worst of the winter, and the days are getting longer. On the other hand, I’ve been not devoting as much time to music and origami as would have liked this winter, not to mention playing Super Mario Galaxy, and need to make that up. Oh yeah and finishing tiling my 2nd bathroom.

At least I got out on my bike a few times when there was a break in the weather. I find I can tolerate 40 degrees or higher pretty comfortably. And I got my bike fixed up just recently. I originally bought my bike when I moved to California, and Jeannie and I were sharing a car, and my commute was shorter, so I did it on bike. I bought it at Palo Alto Bicycles, which at the time had a little neon sign that said “Google” in the window in the floor above the bike shop, the home of a tiny internet startup. Jeannie and I had a conversation something like this:

I though it was spelled Googol. I wonder what they do.”

“I think they do search or something like that.”

“Sounds interesting, I wonder if I should apply for a job there.”

“Nah, most startups tank. And Alta Vista already owns search.   I’m sure they’ll be gone in a year.   Stick with the job you’re at.”

It was a basic but well made mountain bike (a Trek if you’re curious), that has held up well over the years. No shock on the front, cuz in those days it was a pretty high-end feature. Palo Alto has lots of bike paths and I used to pass over a cute little bridge and by a kind-of farm with donkeys, so it was very pleasant.

So I switched to biking in the evenings after work when it got too dark to skate, and kept it up into November, and here and there in December, January and February. But then I got a flat tire, and not only my tubes but my tires were shot, so into the shop it went. This time it was Pelham Bicycles, with no internet startup on the floor above. They put on new tires, trued the wheels and replaced the brakes and cables. Now it rides as good as new. Of course as soon as I got it back from the shop, I rode it once and it was back to the cold and snow again that very evening. Ah well spring is getting closer. I’m looking forward to taking a few days off to catch up on things, and hopefully getting a day of skiing in before it’s too late, and get a bit of a spring break.