Lämmchen's Workout Thread

[Lamb]

It can be pretty intense, depending on how deep it is and what area you're clearing.

Sometimes my wife and I have chalked up several thousand steps just clearing snow from our driveway. When it's deep and heavy, and we need to walk back and forth working with partial shovel widths at a time, it's surprising how fast they add up.

My fitbit doesn't always register all those steps!

 

[tango]

My fitbit doesn't always register all those steps!

If you have a watch and you're pushing something along the ground it may not register, as your wrist isn't making the movements typically associated with steps. The same can happen when pushing a shopping cart or a lawnmower or similar.

The old Fitbit One was a handy unit - long battery life, simple, clipped to just about anything. But in their infinite wisdom Fitbit decided to discontinue it, replacing it with a unit that didn't meet the needs of most of the One users. And then, rather than listen to the numerous One users explaining why the new thing wasn't a suitable replacement, they kept repeating their mantra that it was.

I wonder how many customers they lost over that. They certainly lost me.

 

[Lamb]

On January 26th the trail I like to walk on will close for hunting and I'm hoping the weather starts to warm up so I can hike again

 

[tango]

A different kind of workout. Breaking my house was a lot of work these last two days, as I took down the bottom half of a chimney stack. Breaking it all apart is easy enough with a rotary hammer - a nice fat chisel bit slams into the mortar seams until they give, then a big wrecking bar pulls the whole lot apart. But hauling the blocks away takes some work - there were about 30 of them and they weigh around 70lb each. Then inside the stack was a load of scrap concrete, some from when I took out the top half of the stack and some from when it was put in. Then the bottom was solid concrete, and breaking that apart was an exercise in frustration with a wrecking bar and a pry bar to lift it out.

For good measure I also took down the drywall covering the stack and a few other patches, and hauled another 300lb or so of scraps out of the house. So in two days I've carried somewhere north of a ton of junk around. No wonder my arms are tired.

Then this afternoon after finishing with the chimney I went for a run in the snow. I did five miles today, and it was harder than it should have been. I'm not sure if it was because of the cold, the lower than usual amount of running I've been doing with the recent cold weather, or because my system is tired after moving all the crud around.

 

[Lamb]

I'm not sure if it was because of the cold, the lower than usual amount of running I've been doing with the recent cold weather, or because my system is tired after moving all the crud around.

I'd say all of the above!! But you did it

 

[tango]

Warmer weather for a couple of days so I took the chance to get a longer run in. Monday I ran 10 miles, yesterday I didn't feel like running (more specifically my calf muscles didn't feel like running) but it was warm again so I went for a gentle run. It's a struggle to keep my speed down but I think I'm slowly getting there (no pun intended).

Today we might get snow this afternoon so I might take another gentle run to get some miles in before it gets cold again. What happens annoyingly often is my watch suggests a hard workout on the days that we have gales, ice storms or similar. I don't mind running when the weather isn't brilliant but trying to maintain a fast pace up a hill into a gale when my face is getting lashed with ice isn't something I really have any interest in doing at all.

 

[tango]

My suggested workout was a 30-minute recovery run but I figured with rain coming I can recover tomorrow. I set off and within less than half a mile wondered whether I should go back home and put more layers on for a walk instead of a run but decided to stick with it. The first mile felt like a bit of a slog, largely because of the cold, but then I warmed up a bit and felt pretty strong so pushed the pace a little. Then for the second half I pushed the pace harder, seeing some potential milestones I could hit with a bit of extra effort so went for it.

Still a fair way off personal best territory but the fastest I've covered the distance for several months, which felt good. Now my calf muscles really don't like me. I think I'll need to spend some extra time stretching them this evening. The end result was that my 30-minute recovery run turned into a 60-minute threshold level run.

 

[Lamb]

Big ice storm today so everyone is staying home, schools are off, etc... we probably won't get mail? So I'm doing my steps inside today. I hurt my back a little the other day and it's taken 5 days now to get the tightness to go away. It's still not back to normal and I'm wondering if it's just a pinched nerve? I normally don't have back problems, but every couple of years it will feel sore. I thought walking would help ease it but it made it worse.

 

[tango]

My watch had a 5k challenge this weekend. Yesterday was nasty so I walked. Tomorrow is supposed to be nasty so I didn't want to leave it any longer. It was cold during the run but by the time I finished I'd worked up quite a sweat. My watch, the same watch that pairs with the software offering the challenge that I entered, suggested a rest day today. Because you can easily meet running challenges by resting.

I can rest tomorrow with another walk. Today I went for my 5k run and pushed it a bit for no reason other than that I felt like it. So instead of a rest I had another threshold level workout that went a little over 10k. I add a loop to my regular 5-mile route because otherwise I don't get enough steps in - my stride length when running is naturally quite a bit longer than my stride length when walking, and the faster I run the more pronounced the difference is.

Although it's sometimes discouraging when running at a faster pace results in needing to take more recovery breaks, it is encouraging to see that the 10k times I regarded as a goal in the past are now the kind of times I can clock even when taking walk breaks as often as I feel like.