Skip to main content

Hiccup in Activity

My active lifestyle has been through a bit of a hiccup. My 89-year-old mother moved in with me. She cannot be alone so I spent most of my time at home. I stopped hiking. Stopped going to Planet Fitness. Started waking up several times a night to help mom get to the bathroom. I spent a lot of time on the couch resting from lack of sleep. But all journeys end somewhere. After six months of living with me Mom went into the hospital for an impacted colon. She is now living at a skilled nursing facility. She receives 24-hour care from very nice people. I can sleep all night and all morning if I chose.

I went back to Planet Fitness this week and realized how fast fitness vanishes. A twenty-minute walk on a treadmill got me up to 10,000 steps for the day. The long-range plan is to run a 5K by New Years.  With the help of a Couch to 5K app and an air-conditioned Planet Fitness with dozens of treadmills, it seems doable. Maybe not a 10-minute mile, but something not embarrassing.

The most important thing is to get back in there. Start doing it again. Soon I will start searching for 5K walks on Saturday morning. Just to get the feel of the race. The plan is to work out Tuesdays and Thursdays after work, dinner, and visiting mom. Slowly increase my speed and distance then start the C25K app.

Wish me luck and no pulled muscles!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Still working towards a goal.

The picture is not me! But this is what I am hoping to become after age 60. I am currently 59 and not retired. The process begins with working out 5 times a week and doing gardening on Saturday. Monday is mini-cross fit at the dog park. I am able to do 20 repetitions of jumping jacks, squats, pushups, and squat-jumps. There is a very short distance of running but mostly walking around the dog park for now. Tuesday is a 30-minute treadmill walk/run at Planet Fitness.   Wednesday is a “killer kettlebell workout”. The internet calls it that. I am using a 3-pound dumbbell and few reps. Those will increase over time. Thursday is another walk/run on the treadmill. Friday is another mini-cross fit workout. How long will it take to become a fit-retired-lady. Who knows? But I plan to keep working towards that and hopefully one day my picture will be posted on this site.
Post a Comment
Read more
Hike #15 at Moss Rock Preserve on October 14, 2017. 2.75 miles,  2 hours 16 minutes. Today’s hike began at 7am on a cool morning. I traveled the white trail beside a stream then uphill for a mile. I turned off the white trail onto a cut through to the green trail, also called the power line trail. The green trail is a slim path through tall grass underneath very high power lines.  I took the green trail to avoid the rocky stream beds of the blue trail. Little did I know the green trail had two ravines of rock covered streams. After hiking the green trail for ½ mile the path ahead seem to drop straight down out of site. It dropped down about 10 feet to several big rocks with a small stream running through. I slowly made my way down the hill and stepped onto the first rock, then stepped on the second 4x4 foot rock only to lose my balance and fall backwards onto the rock. I struggled to get my feet back on the ground. Then I continued by crawling across the remaining roc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Back at it!

My life has changed again. My mother under went a hospital stay and is now living in a skilled nursing facility. She is receiving excellent care and I am able to return to my old life. This means returning to activities. Currently I visit my mother most Tuesdays and Thursdays then go to Planet Fitness for a 30-minute walk on a treadmill. It is surprising how much stamina is lost in six months of staying home. It feels like starting from the beginning again. Thirty minutes and a 3.0 speed makes me sweat. So, sweat I do. Hopefully the speed will begin to move up as time goes on. Additionally, I am doing a mini cross-fit workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There is a pet park two blocks from home. It has a circular track which I walk around one time then do 5 jumping jacks. Then walk again followed by 5 squats. This routine continues through pushups and squat jumps. It adds 3,000 steps to my day. The plan is to add one repetition each day. Yesterday 6 repetitions of each cal...
Post a Comment
Read more