Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 12/26

T

Traildoggie

Cathlete
good morning. got a load of snow since yesterday. was rain, snow, freezing rain, hail, and finally snow. 6 or so inches. we just finished shoveling driveway, walkways and decks since it will be around for a while. sometimes its fleeting and not worth removing but supposed to stay cold for the week. these forecasts are always iffy but best get it off while still light and fluffy dry. still snowing so we will likely need to do it again today. all the hummingbirds are buzzing around the feeders. they freeze at night when its this cold so i put out fresh "juice" in the morning. so many people feed them during winter that they have extended their range as far as canada. they never used to overwinter here until about 2014 and then we started to see them all year.

I did a 40 min spin yesterday and push ups expecting we might go ski today but roadways are a mess so that got changed early on.

we had a good quiet holiday. texting and emailing with family. I made a turkey roast and also a batch of honey buns that are a version of cinnamon rolls. so good!. haven't made them in years. froze half of them right away. they reheat beautifully. its a yeast dough but pretty easy to work with.
 
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Yesterday I did Bands, Loops and Weights Oh My. Not nearly as sore as the first time I did it. I do really like that workout as there's a lot of variety. This morning I did what I've been telling myself I need to do, IMAX3. The whole thing. After the first blast, I was like WTH have I gotten myself into! But, I stuck with it. I did a lot, but not all the impact moves and I think it helped that I'm so familiar with the combos that I could get my wind back during them. I haven't done that workout in a LOT of years! The one blast that will forever be an issue for me is the one where she jumps the length of the steps, jumps sideways and does a tuck jump. Clearing the end of the step with my little legs is a never happening thing, so I have to move at odd angles to do it. Try to place myself so I'm part way up the step to start or jump at an angle at the end.

We had a good day yesterday. DH was better Saturday and way better today. Don't know what he had and there are more options than COVID for him because he spends most of the year with some level of coughing, congestion etc. Still I'm going to cancel the boys appointments. Cases are such now that even if they haven't been exposed, appointments where they have to take off their masks are risky for them. WE'll see how the next few days go, but I'm leaning towards going to my parents after lunch and wearing masks while there. I have KN95's. They are still going and walking everyday and shopping and my Mom is a sloppy mask wearer. They can choose what they want, but the way we protect them and ourselves. Nick will only be 5 days from his flight at the point. Assuming it's not cancelled! We'll decide now when he can come back for a week this summer and I'll reschedule his appointments for then. We're in wait and see mode as to whether or not colleges go virtual. Nick needs to go back regardless, but Derek could potentially be home longer.

Great job with the spin and push ups Valerie! Glad you had a nice day for Christmas.

Hope everyone else enjoyed their Christmas, too.
 
This morning I did Jane Adams Gentle Yoga Morning Energy practice which was 18 minutes. Other than that I’m having a lazy day. We had a wonderful Christmas and now we are taking it easy. My husband has the two gifts that he has been complaining about for months, the new phone and a new Fitbit Charge 5. I did the one for you, one for me and got a new Fitbit for myself also.

Valerie, that’s great news about your cousin and a relief for you I’m sure. Nice job with 40 minutes of spinning and push ups.

Cathy, great job with Bands, Loops, and Weights and IMAX 3. My daughter and her family went to Rhode Island to spend the holidays with her husband’s mother and they immediately got sick. Her mother-in-law was sick with a stomach bug, then her daughter and granddaughter got it. When my daughter and family arrived two of them also came down with it. They all took several covid tests and have decided that it was just a stomach thing. Fortunately everyone is better now, but a terrible way to start the holiday.

Hello to Judy and Diane Sue.
 
It is very cold here, 10 degrees this morning. ended up with at least 8 inches of snow. sunny out but high of 20 ish. ugh. too cold to be fun and roads are a mess. yesterday shoveling counted for exercise. today will do something inside. we are done with all festivities. might zoom with cousin as he recovers from his URI. that felt like an unnecessary close call.
carolyn that sounds like the kind of thing that plagues cruise ships! downer of a way to start things off.

NYE always used to be my favorite holiday but nobody does much with it anymore. I used to slog thru christmas and look forward to a great NY dinner out and some live entertainment. now everyone sits home. nothing much on TV either.
 
Today I did Cardio Party and the Extended Stretch One. My time was 49 minutes with 232 calories burned. Average heart rate was 105 and maximum heart rate was 161.

Valerie, the west is really being hammered with winter weather while we have unseasonably warm temperatures. Everything is so mixed up these days! I’m just the opposite of you with holidays. Christmas has always been a major holiday for us and New Years just a quiet evening at home. When my husband was active duty there was often a social gathering that was “unofficial” but a must attend event. Usually an afternoon reception or tea at the commanding officer‘s home.

Diane Sue, I hope that you are recovering and starting to feel better.

Hello to Judy and Cathy.
 
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sitting here deciding if I should go to the store for groceries. I guess so...

just like last summer was unseasonably hot, with heard of temps, this is darn cold for here. some records set for sure. we have a big hanging light next to one of our hummingbird feeders to keep the juice from freezing up too quickly. this must be hard on them but they are sucking down liquid from the feeders all day.
I keep forgetting to say hello and merry christmas and happy new year to both Deb and Lori who probably look in here sometimes. hope all is going well.
Diane sue, I also hope things are going well and you are doing your PT and on the road to recovery.

maybe the NYE event was a midwestern thing? it used to be a huge party night with great dinners and cocktail lounges with live entertainment. piano bar and great local singers. never found anything like that out west.
 
New Year’s Eve is a big party night for many people, just not for us. It’s not the type of entertainment that I enjoyed, even when I was younger. They have the Peach Drop here and all of the typical New Year’s Eve events.
 
Yesterday was a non workout day. Was awake in the middle of the night and reset my alarm to 7:00 which would have worked except...woke up at 7:39 to DH putting up the living room blind. Looked and I'd set it for PM! Ugh Had to run Derek to Lansing later in the morning, so no go. This morning I did Total Body Barre, which I find to be a pretty tough workout. High reps with 8's and 5's for upper body, love the stuff with the yoga ball for legs, balance and coordination, there's some core work and finishing with legs with the barre. Would love it if she did even a 15 minute yoga ball workout for balance and coordination.

We are getting weird weather here, too. Forecast will look good, then all of a sudden it's 1-3" of snow, followed by temps above freezing and it melts to slop. A week out from taking Nick to the airport in Grand Rapids, following the next day with taking Derek back. Looking good for Nick, but conflicting info for the drive north. One looks okay, the other would put me up there at least two nights. Tempted to do it in one day if the roads are good, so I don't have a hotel stay, but this time of year that would be 3 hours on both ends of driving in the dark.

Never was a NYE fan. Too many drunks on the road, so I think there was only one night, a long time ago when my boyfriend and I went somewhere for a small gathering.

Valerie shoveling is definitely a workout!

Carolyn great job with Cardio Party and the stretch!

Hi to everyone else!
 
Today I did Stacked Sets Upper Body for 40 minutes and 159 calories burned. My average heart rate was 108 and maximum heart rate was 138.

Cathy, great job with Total Body Barre. Interrupted sleep is tough.

Hello to Valerie, Judy, and Diane Sue and big waves to Lori and Deb. Like Valerie, I hope that you read the thread from time to time. Have a good day everyone.
 
I went for my post op yesterday. They removed stitches and put glue and steri strips on. Feel a bit down as this surgery was a bit complicated as they showed me photos of what they did. They had to reattach the biceps tendon and do repairs along with attaching and mending the shoulder tear. He said something about making holes for the attachment. They rearranged the sling/immobilizer as it was put on wrong and they do not want me lifting the shoulder. It still all hurts and said it would take awhile and with what was done it would hurt from the neck to my hand. So, they want me to start pt next week and i made an appointment for Monday. I have a sheet with the protocol for the therapist. He said he would call my surgeons office for info.
 
Hi Everyone,

I'm catching up on posts today. Sunday I did a 45 minute Peloton ride and Muscle Meltdowns, Triceps and Shoulders. Yesterday I worked and took a rest day from working out. Today I did a 60 minute Peloton ride and plan on doing a Muscle Meltdown and some stretching tonight.

Carolyn-Nice job with Stacked Sets Upper Body. I've never been into NYE parties either.

Valerie-Shoveling is a good workout. We haven't gotten much snow here yet, but we did get a little yesterday and it looks like more is on the way for tonight.

Cathy-Nice job with Total Body Barre. I plan on trying that one soon. Agree about too many drunk drivers on the road on NYE.

Diane Sue-I'm sorry you are feeling down. I don't blame you. I hope the pt helps and that your shoulder will be feeling much better soon.

Hi to Lori & Deb, hope that everything is going well for you.
 
Did grocery shopping yesterday as roads were still very messy and we expect more snow thursday so didnt want to wait too long. no workout.
today we did a xc ski. planned on a longer drive to mountains but the roads are still dicey. we would not be using freeways but much lesser roads. we skied at the tree farm, where we mt bike so often. my idea. wow did I have to work to get DH to try it. turned out there was enough snow and it was fun seeing what it looks like under a foot of snow. plenty of mileage there to keep us busy. very short drive. the first ski (or two) dont go that well. always forget several things. it takes as trip or two to remember how to do ski. we were amazed at how many animal tracks we saw, deer and coyotes. hardly ever see any animals when riding or even footprints. snow is good for showing whats around that you dont normally see during daylight. we went for 3.5 hours and I am totally whipped. things that are easy on a bike are not easy on skis. we didnt plan to go that long so didn't bring lunch along. xc skiing is a massive calorie burner plus the coldness. was only 15 or so when we started.

might do it again today but on a lesser basis. we found the things we forgot and added to the pack. wax we forgot ski wax yesterday. a plastic scraper to clean ski bottoms. I put anti fog on my sunglasses that fogged up relentlessly yesterday. we only have a few days to take advantage of low level snow. will be back to 40's by weekend and it will turn into heavy sticky glop.

diane sue at least it was a definite fixable problem. when I blew out my ACL xc skiing . THAT hurt! it knocked me out and I had to get out of the snow and ski several miles back to our car afterward. I went for several years without one before getting a diagnosis. it wasn't a vague problem. the tendon tore from its attachment and a substitute tendon had to be screwed in place. I was lucky. I had very little pain associated with the surgery. I did everything they told me as often as they said, and checked with the surgeon before branching out into more activity. he said "let pain and swelling be your guide". I specifically asked about riding an exercise bike. he said as long as it didn't hurt, go for it. so I did. I was terrified to full circle the pedals the first time, but I did it slowly and carefully. it didn't hurt. I still limited it to 10 min the first time. I "did it" but didnt "overdo". I always push the envelope a bit but I don't ignore cautions. You have nowhere to go but up.
 
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This morning I did JS Pyramid Walk which was 31 minutes. I am still learning my new Fitbit Charge 5 and I chose the wrong workout which messed up my data for today. I knew exactly what I had done, but wasn’t too worried about it.

Diane Sue, it’s not surprising that you were in such pain with that amount of damage. I’m glad that they could make the repairs and start you on the road to recovery.

Judy, great job with the Peloton rides and Muscle Meltdowns.

Valerie, great job getting in the cross country skiing. At least you are able to enjoy the snow while it lasts.

Hello to Cathy. Have a wonderful day everyone.
 
This morning I did LiTE Metabolic Blast for 42 minutes and 187 calories burned. My average heart rate was 112 and maximum heart rate was 139.

Hello to everyone and have a great day.
 
Yesterday was another, I didn't sleep much night, so no workout. This morning Nick and I went shopping early and then an hour after we got home, left to go to my parents for a couple hours. All of us masked. I will be glad to get through the next week. Tuesday I have an oil change, tire rotation and brake inspection. Didn't want to make another long drive up to Marquette without getting those done. Wednesday I take Nick to the airport, Thursday Derek and I head north. As much as I don't relish 3 hours in the dark on both ends, I really am not wanting to stay in a hotel right now. Can take food, 3 stops for gas and as few rest stops as I can manage. I generally drink a lot of water and stop at least 4 times each way. Anywhere from every 1 1/2-3 hours. I doubt I can do it in under 15 hours. By late spring that's not a big deal, as it's light most of the trip, but we've barely passed winter solstice.

Valerie that's great that you got in a good x-country ski session. Animals are far more in evidence when there's snow on the ground. That's when we discover what animals are coming into our yard at night. Last winter a small group of deer had clearly come into the yard at night to eat the apples. Trampled the snow down and left "evidence" behind. They had to have jumped the fence to get in, but it's only 4'.

Carolyn great job with JS Pyramid Walk and LITE Metabolic Blast!

Judy great job with the Peloton and Muscle Meltdown workouts!

Diane Sue I'm so sorry that you have so much pain. I hope it tapers off soon and that the PT helps.
 
more snow last night and this morning so we shoveled for exercise today. at least 6 more inches. dh does more shoveling than I do but I do a decent chunk of it. definitely takes the starch out of you!

we had a really beautiful woodpecker ( sapsucker actually) hangong in one of our hummingbird feeder stoday. a red breasted sapsucker. just gorgeous!. hung around at least half an hour and not skittish.

going to try to ski tomorrow.

thats a long day cathy. definitely tougher in winter with the dark hours really adding up. be cautious you arent getting too tired.

definitely snow is the way to find out who else lives in the neighborhood! this snow is too dry and fluffy for good prints, loose snow falls back over the prints.
 
This morning I did Cathe's Live from yesterday the New Years Countdown and WOW that is definitely one of the most intense workouts I've ever done. She packed a ton into 28 minutes. It's a Hiit Metabolic combo, and she uses 10's, 12's and 15's for the Metabolic parts. You do 10 Hiit moves with reps of 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, then 5 Metabolic exercises, repeat the Hiit moves and do 5 different Metabolic exercises and finish off with the 10 Hiit moves again. Very face paced workout.

Valerie that's great that you had a Red breasted Sapsucker. We don't get those there. The Yellow-bellied are around, but I've only seen one a couple times. We did have one here briefly, long enough to add it to our yard list. We started the list soon after we moved in, and it's somewhere near 80 different birds that have been in our yard or flown over it. Some very briefly like a Pileated and a Yellow-headed Blackbird (the one was really cool.)

Sunday will be our turn to shovel as we are supposed to get 4-8". Originally there wasn't any snow in the forecast while Nick was home, but we've ended up with an inch a couple times and now this!

Happy New Year everyone! My it truly, in the end, be a better year, cause sadly the beginning is NOT going to be.
 
Today I did KCM’s Step Boxing, workout one, for 33 minutes and 236 calories burned. Average heart rate was 131 and maximum heart rate was 153.

We are planning a quiet evening at home, nothing special for New Years. Oldest daughter left on Tuesday and the youngest is going to spend the night with her close friend who is a physician. Everyone in their small group of 4 is being very cautious.

Cathy, I’m sorry that you are having such a hard time sleeping. Great job with Cathe Live New Years Countdown. It sounds like a tough one. You are wise to have your car serviced before getting on the highway again. I salute you for planning to make that trip in one day, something I would not be able to do.

Valerie, it’s great that you saw a red breasted sapsucker.

Hello to Diane Sue and Judy.
 
this might be too much of a good thing. sapsucker is back and is monopolizing a feeder. he hangs on the bottom of it upside down and licks juice off of it. he doesn't sit on the feeder and drink from the ports like the hummers do. it's still freezing, about 15degrees last night, in low 20's now. we went skiing again at the tree farm. another foot of new snow. it was nice. we both skied better than the first day so covered much of the ground we did 2 days ago in much less time. so 1 hour 38 minutes of skiing. the poling gives a good upper body workout too.


cathy I have a sibley birding app on my phone. I LOVE it!. so helpful and easy to use. we used to bird watch more. need to get reminded of what each looks like. this little guy is beautiful and does not mind being watched. im pretty sure we have yellow bellied here too but we watch in many places and I need to check ranges of where each bird is found. we have lots of pileated here. yellow headed blackbirds we see in MT and eastern WA. the ranges of some birds have changed and sometimes the names get changed so i like an app that keeps me updated rather than a book that's hard to lug around.
sounds like a tough workout. thats a long day for sure, but Id want to get it over with in one day too.

can I say how happy I am and lucky we feel that we got our AZ trip in before everything basically "hit the fan". we missed the covid surge, had uninterrupted flights both directions and decent weather. cousin was mocking me for not checking luggage. I knew to never ever travel from christmas thru new years, but this year really wins the booby prize. yes cathy, 2022 has a chance to be a big improvement over 2021 but isnt starting off nicely.

steeling ourselves for the new years eve celebration. people set off fireworks here just like on the 4th. I don't like it and usually go to bed early enough to be asleep and get thru most of it. it gets really loud but its cold enough this year to maybe settle it down a bit.
 
Wednesday and yesterday I did short Peloton rides. I'm taking a few rest days and will start with strength training again early next week. We did some shopping this morning and are planning on a quiet evening at home tonight.

Carolyn-Great job with KCM’s Step Boxing, workout one.

Cathy-Nice job with the Live workout. I might have to give that one a try next week. I'm sorry about the sleep. We are expecting snow here tomorrow night and Sunday.

Valerie-Great job skiing. I hope the fireworks aren't too bad this year.

Happy New Year everyone!
 
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