Every Single Day

Days 118-121.

Whoa. Life is BUSY. Being kitchenless means that the creation and consumption of meals is a lot more complicated than normal, so we're eating out, or at the homes of friends and family. That, in turn, means a lot of evenings away from home, and thus a lot less time for after-work walks, runs, and bike rides. Plus, there's that monster brief I'm writing. Excuses, excuses, but really, this has been a tough week for exercise.

I did manage the following: Tuesday, I did an hour of yoga. Wednesday morning, I rode the bike for 45 minutes and then did crunches and stretches. Thursday, I climbed in the gym with Steve and Dawn. That was a good workout, and I'm starting to see a real improvement in my strength and technique - 5.11s are starting to feel comfortable and manageable, at last, although they wear me out fast. Today was almost a fail. I couldn't get out of bed in the morning, I had a hectic day at work, and then we had evening plans. But I got off the bus one stop early, and had a nice 20-minute walk to our friends' house. I'm counting it.

Steve has had almost no exercise this week, aside from Thursday's climbing. He'll get back on the wagon, but he's been running back and forth between work and home all week, supervising the remodeling progress. That's chewed up any time he might have had available to work out, and since we need the kitchen to happen sooner, rather than later, I'm cutting him slack.

Day 117.

We woke today to find several inches of snow on the ground. Spring seems to be playing hooky, and we are ready to send the truant officers to find her. Chill notwithstanding, we all went for a very nice walk after work. We walked for about 35 minutes, then stopped off to see friends who just moved down to our end of town yesterday, then walked another 10 minutes home. Which became 15, because Milo decided to vacate the stroller and walk/jump/swing/flail his way down the last block.

Days 114, 115, & 116.

Steve's exercise continues to involve demolition and framing - long, hard days of it. He's anxious to get the remodel into the hands of professionals (starting tomorrow - yay!) and to have time for real - or at least fun - exercise again.

I rode the bike for 45 minutes Friday morning, and did some crunches and stretching, too. Yesterday was tough - I had to keep Milo out of the house all day, and the weather was crummy. I ended up doing an hour-plus of crunches, pushups, lunges, dips, shoulder lifts, etc., while watching TV, after Milo went to bed. Today, we had sunshine again, so the day went much better. I did a lot of walking - to and from the park, and down to Pearl Street. Also a lot of running around - our park trip mostly involved mad dashes across the soccer fields and around the bases on the baseball fields, and very little time playing on the structures. I'm exhausted, though I can't really claim any kind of serious workout.

Day 113.

This morning, I did an hour of crunches, push-ups, lunges, squats, Magic Ring exercises, dips, bicep curls, and shoulder raises. Steve played a round of golf with his dad, then did another 4 hours of hard manual labor tearing out pieces of the kitchen.

Days 111 & 112.

Steve is in the throes of tearing our kitchen out of the house, and that has been his primary exercise for the past two days. He also rode his bike to and from the office yesterday, about 20 minutes each way. The remodeling work is hours and hours of serious physical labor, so he gets full credit and then some for the effort.

I ran for almost 40 minutes after work yesterday, with Milo in the jogger. This morning, I did an hour of yoga stretching, abs, push ups, and tricep dips.

Day 110.

Another Monday, another 45 minutes on the bike trainer. With a few brief interruptions, unfortunately, because our trainer is cheap and has started loosening itself up as I ride. We'll probably try to get through the rest of the inside riding season (which hopefully means only another week or two), then get ourselves a better-quality trainer in the fall.

Steve went for a walk this afternoon with his parents and Milo. The sun was out, and they had a nice time.

Days 107, 108, 109.

As most of you know, we got walloped with horrendous weather on Thursday, which lasted until Saturday afternoon. Steve took advantage of the mess by heading up to the high country for a hut trip. He skied in about 5 miles on Friday, had a full day of backcountry skiing on Saturday, and skied out today. Plenty of exercise all around for him!

For me, Friday was pretty close to a fail. Between MIlo's 4am wakeup, my crazy work day, and the weather, all I managed was 20 minutes of shoveling. But this was seriously heavy snow, so the shoveling was hard work.

Saturday, I rode the bike for about 45 minutes, while MIlo napped. Today, Milo and I went for a 20-30 minute walk with friends, and then I stretched and did crunches and pushups for an hour while he napped. The weather is gorgeous again, so this week should bring better exercise opportunities.

Day 106.

Dawn and I had a great workout at the climbing gym tonight. We did a bunch of pumpy, challenging routes, and did pretty well on all of them. Steve stayed home with Milo; I think he did a half-hour of stretching, mostly while sipping a glass of wine. He's leaving tomorrow morning for a backcountry ski trip, though, so he needed to save his strength!

Day 105.

I got up early this morning and did an hour of yoga and stretching. Steve rode for about an hour, outside, after work. Supposedly, it's going to snow tomorrow - I keep hoping to get into a true outside exercise routine, and start treating biking and running like it's almost triathlon season, and then the weather thumbs its nose at me.

Days 103 & 104.

We've had a couple of good days, taking advantage of nice weather. I rode the bike for 45 minutes early yesterday morning. That did NOT involve any nice weather enjoyment, although I am hoping it will soon be warm and light enough in the early mornings for outside rides. Steve did get outside - he went for a 40-minute run at lunch.

Today, we both exercised outside after work I ran for 40 minutes, pushing Milo in the jogging stroller. Steve rode his bike for just over an hour, and did two climbs up the NCAR hill. He was working on power, and using the biggest gears he could handle. Sounds like a great workout (says the woman who does most of that hill in her granniest granny gear).