Pentagenarians & Beyond: May 4, 2025

Good morning. Today I did yoga/mobility for 18 minutes.

Diane Sue, nice job with CDorner low impact version of cardio mashup and CDorner neck and upper back stretch.

Hello to everyone and have a wonderful day.
 
Today I did Live Metabolic Upper Body. That is a very tough workout. Going to be a bit rainy the next few days.

Carolyn glad you were able to do the Farmer's Market before the rain.

Diane Sue have you tried pouring boiling water on weeds growing in cracks. I've seen it recommended but never tried it. Though it is best for small weeds, with shallow root systems.
 
We use straight white vinegar on weeds in addition to flaming option. the flaming option is not ok when its dry and fire is a possibility, and it is not a good choice near fencing or desirable plants as it can singe them . we have a huge long gravel driveway and parking areas where we use it most. vinegar works best if its warm and sunny after spraying.
 
Today is a rest day for me. I will have to try boiling water and vinegar. I keep a gallon jug of white vinegar for various things around the house.

Carolyn, nice work on the yoga/mobility.

Cathy, good job on Live Metabolic Upper Body.
 
Good morning, ladies. The weekend here was absolutely lovely. Perfect weather! Yard work wasn’t too heavy this time. I took a power walk both Saturday and Sunday. I got out early, about 6:30. That’s the best time to walk before people get out, since we don’t have sidewalks out here and I have to walk on the road.

Carolyn – nice job with your yoga and mobility.

Cathy – Way to go on Live Metabolic Upper Body. I hope the rain isn’t too bad.

Diane – I hope you enjoyed your rest day.

Everybody – Weeds are a way of life out here. I wouldn’t have a yard if I didn’t have weeds, LOL. Boiling water sort of works. Depends on the weeds and how tough they are. Some grow back, especially if their roots are deep. Vinegar definitely helps, especially combined with boiling water. But I just usually pull the weeds up by hand. It’s an ongoing thing around here.

I’ve never used herbicides. However, I have used pesticides if I have a pest invasion. Yesterday I used gasoline. Yep, really. We have fire ants out here. Nasty beasts, let me tell you. Poison works sometimes, but there’s this colony that keeps coming back right on the edge of my sidewalk, and I’m afraid Sara is going to step on them. I’ve tried the poison, and last week I tried bleach. Yesterday I gave up and poured about a half gallon of gas on them. They had better die, dang it!

Hello to Judy and Valerie.
 
Today I did JS HiiT Walk which was 30 minutes and 223 calories burned. My average heart rate was 139 and maximum heart rate was 162. I had trouble deciding on a workout that I wanted to do. Cathy’s May rotation had Athletic Training scheduled today, but I really did not want to do that! Jessica was just right for me. Metabolic workouts are too hard on my body these days.

Cathy, great job with Live Metabolic Upper Body. As I mentioned, I am avoiding metabolic workouts.

Shannon, I’m glad that you had a lovely weekend. Pouring gasoline on the ants sounds like something my Dad would have done.

Hello to Valerie, Judy, and Diane Sue.
 
We love the new carpet but the install did not go very smoothly. They were supposed to be here between 8-10 Wednesday morning but didn’t arrive until after 2 pm. They didn’t finish until around 8 pm. They made a few mistakes that we found after they left. We are having someone come out later this week to correct those mistakes. The carpet is very nice though and is a huge improvement for our condo. We spent the rest of the week putting our bedroom and office back together as we had to take almost everything out of those rooms for the install. We still have a lot to do but I think the worst part is done.

Carolyn-Great job with your yoga/mobility work and JS HiiT Walk. Metabolic workouts are harder on me now too. I prefer to do separate cardio and strength workouts. Due to the all that’s been going on here, I haven’t had the time or space to do my usual yoga/PT sessions and I can really feel it. Hopefully I can get back to my normal routine soon.

Cathy-Great job with Live Metabolic Upper Body. That sounds like a tough one.

Diane Sue- I hope you had a good rest day.

Shannon-Great job with your walks.

Hi to Valerie
 
This morning I did the Lower Body Balance Discs and then went and walked at the zoo. Coolest thing. As I was walking up through the woods I heard a Barred Owl. I knew it wasn't the zoos owl, as that was a fair ways behind me at that point, and it was ahead of me. The zoo property is majority wooded, so I figured it was just somewhere in the woods, like most of the birds I hear, but then I saw it sitting in a tree along the path! Definitely had to stop and watch for a few minutes. A blue jay came and harassed it, but never managed to get any others to join in. Usually in that situation an owl or hawk has a whole gang of birds gets called in to try to get it to leave the area. Wasn't the most productive hike from a physical standpoint, as lots of spring migrants were showing up on my sound app, and because of the owl, I decided to do an actual e-bird count, so got slowed adding birds to that. Then stopped to chat with the woman at the giraffe feeding platform, who is now my only source of behind the scenes news. LOL Got the majority of my clothes packed for the trip. More things to do tomorrow, but definite progress.

Judy too bad they have to come back and fix the carpet, but it's always nice when you really love what you've chosen.

Carolyn Athletic Step never clicked with me, as it's not the style of step I prefer. Glad you found something else to do.

Shannon fire ants are just nasty creatures. Happy I don't have them around. My sister and her dog ended up with just a couple on them several years ago. It took a really long time for her to get hers to stop hurting, the dog has fairly dense fur and they tossed him in the bathtub and they floated off him.

Hi Valerie and Diane Sue.
 
Today I started with Raw Your Healthy Back and stopped when she got to the inch worm move and did Jessica Smith Walk Strong 3 deep stretch, 40 minutes total time, 85 calories. I hurt everywhere and just was not up for a workout. My husband and I went to an Italian restaurant that has become our weekly outing. I always eat too much. Although today I chose the salmon with mango sauce and asparagus. I did not eat much of the side of orzo with alfredo sauce.

Shannon, nice job on the power walks and yard work this weekend. If I can ever get Harvey to walk well on the leash I would go early. Our neighborhood has lots of dogs and dog walkers out in the afternoons. I have tried getting him to walk around the back yard and he wraps his legs around my leg and crawls between my legs yesterday he dumped me on the grass. I gather watching vids from trainers that have trained German shepherds that they are stubborn. Also I wish it would quit raining. We had two days of no rain and it is starting back up early in the morning.
I have used a lot of pesticide and granules because we have had terrible ant problems. I find them crawling on my laptop. They nearly killed my crepe myrtle along with aphids.

Carolyn, nice job on JS Hiit Walk today. I probably would not want to do Athletic Step either. I pulled out Walk Strong 3 again today thinking I would do another cardio, but I ache all over and decided it was not a good idea.

Judy, that is too bad that they arrived late to install the carpet and made some mistakes. I do hate waiting for something like that when they are late. Moving furniture for flooring and carpet is a lot of work. Hopefully you can start getting in the stretching. It does make a difference.

Cathy, good job on the balance discs and walk at the zoo.

Hi to Valerie
 
We had some home maintenance things this morning, furnace/AC servicing and the chimney cleaning. took most of the morning but done for the year. one more appt tomorrow and hopefully done for a while.

Ants are not a big issue here. montana has some serious ants. they make these huge gigantic mounds like 6 feet in diameter and you best not accidentally disturb them. its fun to poke a stick into one and watch the frenzy it creates. from a distance of course. the mounds can be so huge you dont realize what they are until you see the ants. important not to sit down or set up a tent near one.

Cathy barred owls are so gorgeous! they dont seem afraid of people and sit and stare back at you. we see them sitting over the road in the mountains often. i think they must pick up mice/voles/rabbit that get run over. last year we were watering our neighbors garden and a barred owl family was in process of turning a young one loose. there was all kinds of hooting and calling and sitting in plain view, flying over us back and forth to get the youngster flying. totally unafraid of us. i thought we might be lucky enough to have some nest in our yard this year with lots of hooting and calling earlier in the year but it never happened.

judy congrats on new carpeting. hope you get all the kinks taken care of quickly.
 
Good morning, ladies. Yesterday I did my condensed version of LMR upper body and lower body combined. Then I got brave and decided to try the upper body balance disc bonus. I previewed it a while back, but never tried it because I knew it would be hard on my hands. It’s quite a core workout with all those plank-based moves. There were a few moves I had to skip and some I modified by going down on my forearms. I probably won’t use it again, but I think I’ll borrow a few moves to add in when I do my own yoga, etc. I liked the boat pose on the disc, and also the side planks. And I think I can make a bird dog move work if I use dumbbells as grips like I do when I do pushups, and then my knees on the discs.

Carolyn – Good job on listening to what your body really needed yesterday. Talk to me again about Jessica Smith. What level do you think most of her workouts are? Beginner or intermediate? I hear a lot of good things about her. Yeah, the gasoline thing is not really my style, but those dang ants are unstoppable.

Judy – I’m so glad you love your new carpet. I’m sorry about the mistakes, but I’m sure they will make good on the repairs. Hopefully you will be able to rest and enjoy your new carpet this weekend.

Cathy – I definitely like the lower body discs better than upper body and need to do that workout more often. Very cool about the wild Barred Owl coming to visit the zoo, and all of the birds you identified. Sometimes the mental “workout” is more important than the physical one, right? Sometimes when I’m out taking my power walk, I just have to stop and admire some of the wildflowers growing on the roadside. Totally worth losing my momentum.

Diane – I’m so sorry you have to deal with so much pain. It must be exhausting. Your Italian meal sounds delicious, and I think it’s perfectly fine for you to eat every bite of it. I wonder why Harvey has so much trouble on the leash. I hope he will learn soon. We have rain coming today, and over the next few days too.

Valerie – I’m glad your HVAC servicing is all squared away. Goodness, remind me not to go to Montana, LOL. Our fire ant hills get pretty big, but I haven’t seen any quite that big! I’ve jabbed many hills with a stick to watch the frenzy too.
 
Today I did P30 Low Impact Hiit and then I did Live Metabolic Lower Body which is the match to the Upper Body one I did the other day. It was definitely not easy, but of the two the Upper Body was harder for me. Rolling along with packing. I have all my workout stuff that I'm taking ready to go, majority of clothes, and all the non fridge/freezer stuff.

Valerie Barreds really don't seem to fear people. I've never experienced, but they will fly behind people in the woods. While I know they are around some, where I live we generally only hear Great-horns and screech owls. Barred owls definitely prefer densely wooded areas and while we have woods near us, it's also an area with a lot of farmed fields, so the woods aren't as extensive as they like.

Diane Sue, I'm so sorry you are in all that pain right now. Is there a dog trainer near you that you could take Harvey, too. We had very smart dogs, who could have been well trained, but we were the ones that failed training. Fortunately, we have a large, fenced yard so they could get plenty of exercise.

Shannon that upper body balance disc workout is hard on the wrists. I'm lucky it doesn't bother me, but I doubt you are alone in that problem.

Hi Judy and Carolyn.
 
Today I did Total Body Barbell, upper body only. That was 39 minutes and 137 calories burned. My average heart rate was 111 and maximum heart rate was 146. The workout that I didn’t do yesterday was Athletic Training from the Low Impact Series. I like Athletic Training just fine but I have to feel up to doing it. I have Athletic Step but I haven’t done it in years. It way down at the bottom of my stack of DVDs.

Judy, that’s great that you love the new carpet.

Cathy, great job with Lower Body Balance discs, walking at the zoo, P30 Low Impact HiiT, and Live Metabolic Lower Body. It sounds like you are well organized for your trip.

Valerie, home maintenance tasks take up a lot of time.

Diane Sue, nice job with Raw Your Healthy Back and Jessica’s WS3 deep stretch.

Shannon, great job with LMR Upper Body and Lower Body combined and Upper Body balance discs. Jessica Smith’s workouts range from beginner to low advanced. The original Walk Strong series seems to be beginner level, but I don’t have that one. I have Walk Strong 2.0 and Walk Strong 3. I consider WS 2 to be more intermediate and WS 3 is more advanced, but neither one is Cathe‘s type of intermediate or advanced. WS3 is a complete program with cardio, strength, and stretching. I find her to be a good change from Cathe.
 
dont worry about ants in montana ... they arent all over the place!. we have a big anthill on a slope above our driveway near our snow fencing. its several feet across . we are aware of it because we were working out there pounding in posts and putting up wire fence and plastic netting. made sure we dodged the anthill. weve seen mounds hiking in the park too. they arent fire ants. bears will dig into anthills and eat ants. dont want to sit near one or set your pack down near one either. mostly they mind their own business.

cathy we have spotted owls in old growth forsest here. they look so much like barred i would not trust myself to tell them apart. spotted are supposed to be shy, and barred are NOT. often out during day time, often very visible and curious. our neighborhood gets a nesting pair most years. we see them in rural areas and also in deep forest. we have great horned short eared and screech and pygmy and occasional great grey too. a few others Ive never seen. barred are the most common. Ive never seen a barn owl even though they are common.

the swifts are back and flying around but too soon to know if they will nest here. last year they didnt.

Diane sue, do you think Harvey might have been abused before you got him? he sounds very timid for a big dog. or just personality? i went to a dog training class at a Y with my first dog to socialize him. he ended up quite well trained but he was a doberman not a shepherd and had been brought up in a kennel. he was not fearful thugh. Enjoy your dinner out! you look like a tiny thing, eat your orzo! arthritis is hard to manage. I understand how rough joint issues can be. i have backed off in the workouts I can do since my surgery. i saw my doc this morning and got the ok to do a new group of exercises but most are stretch type things. they allow more back movement so maybe I can go back to some things Ive been too nervous to try.

I did LMR upper body today after a 15 min warm up spin. I can do everything but I dont like the way supermans feel on my back so I will skip it. it feels they focus on the area that is fused now. it doesnt feel useful or good.
 
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Today I did Jessica Smith Walk Strong 3 Cardio Hiit (I always forget this one is a light kickboxing workout) 30 minutes, 174 calories, heart rate 126/172. I followed with STS 2 Chair yoga 24 minutes, 47 calories. Total time 54 minutes, 221 calories. I am getting an MRI of my thoracic spine Thursday morning. It is raining again!

Shannon, nice work on the condensed LMR upper and lower body. The upper body balanced discs are rough on the wrists. I did try it and did some of it on my knees and skipped a lot as I could feel it in my ribs and was afraid of worsening things. I don't think Harvey has ever had training on the leash which seems odd as he seems to be used to nail trims, adapted to the big crate quickly, and he is pretty good now at not jumping on us and nipping. He sure would like to lick us though. Watching the videos they say German Shepherds have a tendency to get distracted when training. I see it when we play fetch and he heads for the ball and suddenly has his nose in the grass sniffing something he found.

Cathy, good job on P30 Low Impact Hiit and Live Metabolic Lower body. There are trainers around here. If we have to we will try that. I would have to search out a good one. There are also online classes that have question and answer days. I have a dvd course I used with my dog Gertie as she was difficult at first, but ended up being the best dog we ever had.

Carolyn, nice job on Total Body Upper Body Only today. I forgot there is an Athletic Training and Athletic Step. It has been years since I have done either one of them.

Valerie, I am pretty sure sometime in Harvey's life he was abused. It took a while to get him to trust me because every time I would reach out, he would cower and dibble on the floor. He was not afraid of my husband. He would not take treats out of our hands. We had to lay them on the floor. Now we are good and he hangs out when I work out and tries to get in my face. He did revert one day when I was dusting with one of those dusting wands and I walked by, and he ducked and cowered. So, the next time I just used dust cloths. When we tried to walk up the street, he stopped and crawled between my husband's legs when there was a car in someone's driveway. It was pretty much a drag him across the driveway. There was too much activity out there with other dog walkers and people outside to get his attention, so I thought maybe starting in the back yard first. I am curious how he will be when we have our family day since the only time someone else was here was at the start and it was grandson helping set up the bed. He tried to avoid my grandson and peed on the floor when he tried to pet him. He has had a lot of progress since we got him in March. He is getting sit and down. Stay doesn't last long though. There are trainers around here as I have looked just in case. I used a dvd course with my dog Gertie as mentioned above.
Yes, arthritis is hard to manage. I have avoided meds other than the hydroxychloroquine because of all of the side effects. I am hoping to get it under control because right now I am losing a lot of sleep trying to get comfortable. I totally understand holding back. I worry that too heavy or too much bending and twisting might make the fracture worse or keep it from healing. That is good that you have some new moves to do. Maybe you will get a little more mobility in your back. I think it takes much longer as we age for the body to heal and repair itself.
 
Good morning, everyone. Yesterday I did Rodney Yee’s Power Yoga. My DVD got hung up about halfway through. I had to stop it, take it out and clean it. Then I fast forwarded it to the spot where I’d stopped, and everything was fine. So, although I lost the “flow” of the routine, I’m glad the DVD is okay.

Cathy – It sounds like you’re going to pack your car full! How long will you be gone? It makes me think of my trip to California last year. Ugh, what a nasty experience that was. Good work on P30 Low Impact and Live Metabolic Lower Body. That sounds like quite a workout.

Carolyn – nice job with Total Body Barbell. Thanks for the info about Walk Strong. I may check it out, although I don’t know if I’d ever use the full program. But a change from Cathe might be nice. Aside from a few of Ilaria Montagnani’s workouts, Cathe is all I have.

Valerie – I’m glad your giant ant hills aren’t filled with fire ants. I’m glad the bears get to enjoy a nice snack, but I can’t even imagine how many itty bitty ants a bear would have to eat, LOL. Nice work on LMR Upper Body. I’m glad you’re able to do more now, but that’s very wise to skip the supermans. Sometimes they feel weird to me too, and I don’t even have back problems.

Diane – Nice work on JS Cardio HiiT. As mentioned above, I really do need to check into her workouts. I hope the MRI gives you some helpful information. Let us know how it goes. It rained here yesterday too. It was a nice rain, and thank goodness it wasn’t another week of flooding like we had last month. I know you suspect Harvey was abused. Maybe his previous owner was really harsh with him on the leash, or used a choke collar or something. If you use a regular collar around his neck, maybe you could switch to a harness and see what happens. I sure am glad he’s settling in though.

Hello to Judy.
 

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