Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 4/10/22

T

Traildoggie

Cathlete
good morning, our drive back went badly. we are fine, but exhausted. what a totally rotten day .

the morning after. our drive was normal for 9 hours. as we approached the interstate mountain pass, snowing and windy. this was a well predicted storm. drivers here are casual about snow and drive too fast for conditions... we were half hour away from the pass when we saw warnings... road closed due to wrecks/ spin outs. we were close to an exit ramp. after waiting half hour without movement, including from the DOT web site, we exited, turned around, drove back 30 miles and took another route. traffic was backed up at least 20 miles already and got worse. pass #2 is longer drive , the same weather. all was fine going to #2 until a short distance near summit, snow accumulated and no snowplows. No clue where the DOT was, this was a predicted storm, a busy weekend. people behaved like idiots. stopped traffic, pushing their cars, lying in the snow putting on chains. cars spun out all over. we carefully wound our way thru the chaos with a few other cars and worked our way thru. it was chaotic another 5 miles going down, then bare and wet. still 2 hour drive but we made it. my neighbor texted me some info along the way. our neighborhood power had gone out again suddenly, after being out because of a fallen tree for much of the day before. we found our garage door opener has a battery back-up! got in and almost immediately the power came back on. we found out the interstate didn't open until 6 hours we turned around. the pass we got thru also closed shortly after we got through.
I am disgusted with the lack of expertise by the state DOT. it snows here all the time. no excuse for not having crews plowing the major ( and only) cross mountain routes. one sweep by a plow would have prevented/ fixed the whole thing.

I am taking the day off today! did not sleep well. over tired and stressed.

diane sue, e-bike is a bicycle with a built-in electric motor mounted on the downtube. resemble regular bikes, are quiet. use full power or power pedal assist. they are legal in some (not all) bike trails. they aren't motor cycles.... they go up to 30 mph. a cheat for people too lazy to pedal uphill. there are reasons why people get them but they should be prohibited from routes for real bicycles pedestrians, and horses.

judy we felt like heros riding up the hill. a lot of people were walking their bikes. some even walking e bikes! it isn't that steep, just long. the altitude of > 6000 feet is a factor too. there is another mt bike route we want to try but too snowy. maybe in a month or two.
 
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This morning I did Jane Adams Gentle Yoga Morning Energy practice for 18 minutes. That’s it for me today.

Valerie, I’m sorry that your drive home was so terrible. I can understand not sleeping well last night after that drive.

Diane Sue, great job with Cardio Fit Hi/Lo Cardio and CDORNER Inner Thighs and Abs. You are smart to not go too high with your weight choices.

Hello to Judy and Cathy.
 
Wow Valerie that is a very nasty drive. So glad you made it home okay and I hope you were able to rest up today.

Carolyn nice job with the yoga!

I know I need to go back to at least Friday. That was Time to Hiit it Low Impact. Yesterday was week 3 chest and back. This is the heaviest weight week and I'm actually a couple pounds lighter than I was 13 years ago when it came out. My forearms are rather sore today though. At I have a few days till biceps, since tomorrow is legs. Today I did Hearts of Fire which I've never done. Warmup, kickboxing, Hiit and then Hi/Lo. Good solid workout. We did more yard cleanup today from the big tree. DH got the rest of the fence off and dug far enough to discover that the two bent over posts are set in cement. Only real option is to find someone to cut them off and then fill in the dirt around them. We're leaving the others for potential future fence. I picked up the rest of the bigger sticks/bark. Also went up on the roof of the shed to knock them off of that. It was steeper than I expected and I ended up at the far end from my ladder, and there are a mutiple old lilacs on that end, so I did what any reasonable 61 yo would do and climbed down through the lilac bushes. LOL Fortunately I'm small and quite flexible. At one point, my right leg was stretched rather high up as I had to reach down to find a foothold for the left. But it was certainly doable. Also went and walked the paths, boots on for sure. They have even more water than the last time I walked and we are supposed to get more rain this week.
 
Yesterday was an awful drive but I'm SO GLAD we did it when we did. it's much worse today! same kind of conditions but over a much larger area. this is unusual for april. day off today. errands and catch up tomorrow.
 
This morning I did Cardio Slam, no mat cardio premix. That was 34 minutes and 252 calories burned. My average heart rate was 138 and maximum heart rate was 165. I used low impact modifications for some of the moves.

Cathy, you are doing great with STS. You are really working hard on the outside clean up. We only had a small amount of yard debris to clean up after the wind and rain. Having those trees removed last summer helped with that.

Hello to Valerie, Judy, and Diane Sue.
 
No workout. I may still do something short when my husband goes to work. I want to get to bed early as the next two morning I have to be up and out of the house early. Tomorrow is ladies game day and Wednesday is my appointment with my surgeon. We will see how it goes. My PT says I have done well and he thinks I am pretty much as far as I can go there. Otherwise it is just time and care to finish getting all of my strength back. It is like going from nothing to back to normal. I told him I read that even at 6 months you are generally 50%. He says what the surgeon said, and that is about a year for full recovery. I told my PT I was interested in maybe getting the Body Blade. He said he had one client that hated it so much because how hard it is and told her family. They all got together and gave her one for her birthday as a joke.

Valerie, I hate running into those unexpected bad weather. We have had that happen and it took forever to get home. One time we had to get a hotel in a small town in Mexico because it was blizzard type weather and road closed. I swear that little city was more a nightmare because we were stuck there more than one trip. One of them we had car trouble though while travelling from California. Another a tire blow out. We always gave a sigh of relief when we got through it as it seemed the jinx every time. Thanks on the description of the e bike. I am not sure why someone would want one unless it was their mode of transportation for something like work or school. It is definitely not something for exercise and climbing fun.

Carolyn, I always forget that I have the Jane Adams yoga workouts. Same with the Jessica Smith ones I have on Amazon. We got rid of the two trees that were planted when we moved in as we knew we did not want large trees to deal with again. We replaced one with a flower bed and the one if front with a fast growing pine. We have had so many homes with loads of large oaks and pecans and tons of acorns, leaves and broken branches from storms. They cause roof damage and if not kept trimmed they invite squirrels that get in the attic and wreak havoc.

Cathy, that type of clean up is exercise on it's own.
 
Today was STS Legs, heaviest of the weeks. So, far I haven't really been feeling sore for legs in Meso 3 which seems weird. Sleep has been so erratic the last few days. 8 hours; wake up middle of the night for a few hours, go back to sleep; repeat previous night; 8 hours sleep; wake up middle of the night, go back to sleep; switch it up wake up 3:45 don't go back to sleep. At 6:00, you decide to try and doze for a bit, but no Chester brings a mouse downstairs and I spend the next 20 minutes trying to net the darn thing before I get it and take it outside. After you've chased a mouse around the basement, sleep isn't happening. So, based on all that tonight should be another 8 hour night. Not holding my breath. LOL

Carolyn great job with Cardio Slam!

Diane Sue, you have made excellent progress with your PT, and it sounds like you have all the tools you need to finish rehabbing.
 
Today I did PHA2 (LiTE). My time was 52 minutes with 277 calories burned. Average heart rate was 122 and maximum heart rate was 153.

Diane Sue, I really like some of the Jane Adams Yoga practices. The Evening Practice, Core and More, and Morning Energy are my favorites.

Cathy, great job with STS Legs. I’m sorry that your sleep pattern has been so erratic. I hope that last night was better.

Hello to Judy and Valerie.
 
oh cathy that is a hoot... yes mouse pursuit would wake you up completely. we are working on spring clean up too. after replacing our garden walls last year, it will be a lot different and easier.

diane sue that is great progress with your shoulder. Keep it up.
there are reasons why some need an electric bike, but they shouldn't be used in non motorized areas. on a road with regular vehicles they're fine. they go much faster than a non motorized bicycle can go and often the riders are not experienced riders. a crash at 20 or 30 mph is a big deal. my neighbors bought them to make riding easier. they look like a regular bike and are quiet, it's hard to spot them until they zoom by going up hill at 30 mph. dead give away. they pedal like regular bikes and you can turn on the electrical assist when you need it. people who commute to work might like them. you can ride them like a normal bike, but most people we see are using them like a motor bike.

It seems like when things start to go wrong, the problems multiply. we were so glad to get through the drive without crashing. then to find out power was out, was too much. we would have needed to open up our camper and after 13+ hours of driving, that didn't sound good at all. it was such a relief when I heard the blink-blink sounds of the power coming on not 5 min after we got home.
 
I did Boxing Hiit Express this morning, followed by the abs and stretch from KPC. Beautiful upper 60's and sunny here today. I've been out walking a couple times and going out again in a few minutes. Looking forward to the day, if it ever comes, when I can walk the paths without my boots on. More rain coming tomorrow. Valerie fortunately most of the things that need to be caught and removed from the house happen during waking hours. The most unique one was the time in the middle of the night when I pulled out the fridge, yes the fridge, to discover that what he was trying to recatch, was a frog. Yes, a frog.

That's too bad about people misusing the electric bikes as they certainly have their place. But, so many recreational vehicles are misused these days and causing so many problems. There were a lot of snowmobile accidents this winter, and quite a few deaths. From what I can tell in addition to those who are inclined to drink and speed on them, a lot of people are going north and renting them, who don't fully understand how to use them.

Carolyn great job with PHA2!
 
I ended up working 6 days in a row, mostly short shifts, but still made it more challenging to get workouts in. I did one 8 hour garden shift and got almost 20,000 steps in. I've been doing 15-30 minute Peloton rides and short upper body workouts most day. I plan to do longer workouts tomorrow and Thursday.

Carolyn-Great job with Jane Adams Gentle Yoga Morning Energy practice, Cardio Slam, no mat cardio premix and PHA2. PHA2 is a favorite of mine. I should do it again soon.

Valerie-I really need to get outside this summer and do some hill training, both biking and on foot. I haven't done hill training in a long time and I'm sure it will be a bit challenging.

Cathy-Great job with STS Legs and Boxing Hiit Express. It was so nice out here today too. The rest of the week doesn't look as good.

Diane Sue-Awesome work with PT. You have made great progress!
 
This morning I did Rock’m Sock’m kickboxing, a timesaver with 5 segments gone. That was 35 minutes and 268 calories burned. My average heart rate was 138 and maximum heart rate was 164.

Valerie, a lot of people use electric bikes inside the city here for commuting short distances and running errands.

Cathy, great job with Boxing HiiT Express and Abs from KPC. I like the Abs from KPC, but I never think to do them. I saw Cathe’s announcement about STS 2.0. It sounds exciting.

Judy, you have had a busy work week! 20,000 steps for the day shows how busy you have been.

Hello to Diane Sue. Have a great day everyone.
 
Today I did PHA 2, a 10 minute Peloton core workout and 10 minutes of stretching. I might do a short Peloton ride tonight too.

Carolyn-Great job with Rock'm Sock'm KB. Last week went by so fast. I'm scheduling extra days off from May-July, so that I don't end up being scheduled too many days in a row.

Hi to Valerie, Cathy & Diane Sue
 
I think electric bikes are fine used appropriately. they don't belong on bike trails designed for bikes people pedal. mostly a speed issue. they are more like a vehicle and should be on roads, not trails with walkers, bikes and horses.

yesterday I did a few sets of pushups, dips, tricep pushups and curls and Abs from x train. this morning we xc skied. 3 hrs and 40 minutes. it was unexpectedly nice out. yesterday weather was nasty with rain, snow, sleet, hail, and wind. today we had a good ski of several miles up and then back down. we got a whole load of snow in the last week .
cathy that is so right... people die on snowmobiles regularly here. most of them can't even spell "avalanche". less likely to get into trouble on xc skis. its a lot of energy to get into terrain that's dangerous, and you have a lot of time to see it and think about it. the power of snowmobiles gets inexperienced people into terrain they know nothing about in a few minutes. there are also things like barbed wire fences that can be a big hazard.

Judy, uphill is regular for us, hiking, skiing and biking. it helps to do it regularly.
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Shoulders, Biceps and Triceps today and was able to do the weights it told me to use! Only one week to go. Shopping tomorrow.

Judy that's a lot of steps for a work day, but a nice bonus of the job. Great job fitting in the Peloton and upper body workouts and on PHA2!

Carolyn great job with Rock'm Sock'm Kickboxing!

Valerie, fantastic that you were able to get in a long xc ski this morning, and great job with the mixed workout yesterday. There are a ton of snowmobile trails in the UP, no danger of avalanche at all. What you get is people taking a curve to fast and driving head on into a tree, and another thing I'm seeing is people not staying on their side of the trail and coming around a curve and hitting another snowmobiler head on. Sometimes it's crossing a road. Alcohol, speed and inexperience. Same with the northern lower peninsula. For most people in the lower peninsula the UP is quite doable for a weekend trip, so whenever you are up there in the winter you see a lot of them, and the bars you pass on the road often have parking lots full of snowmobiles. Not uncommon for hotels, bars, restaurants to be along trail systems. Michigan has 6500 miles of groomed trails, and not all the trails ridden on are groomed. Interesting fact that surprised me, Wisconsin has the most registered snowmobiles. Of course you see a lot of people from Wisconsin in the UP, as unlike the lower peninsula they actually share a border.
 
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I am not a snowmobile fan. as usual, speed and alcohol end up being huge factors. it's a little like boating,0 where one would think common sense says being drunk is a risk. guess not! Trees and head-on collisions are pretty harsh.
we hike and ski in areas used by snowmobiles in winter, and referred to it as " the beer can pathway". we found money, wallets, tools, expensive down gloves, jackets, and all manner of trash. especially beer cans. makes you wonder what goes into the tank on those things! we try to steer clear but snowmobilers tend to go wherever they want and not respect wilderness boundaries and ski routes. every now and then someone goes into a crevasse or triggers an avalanche. not a lot of sympathy here.

not sure what to do today, both feeling a little burned out from yesterday. thought we would mt bike but no movement from either party here. or maybe there is movement. will see how things progress.
 
This morning I did a timesaver from Afterburn, intervals 1-5. That was 31 minutes with 209 calories burned. Average heart rate was 131 and maximum heart rate was 157.

Judy, way to go with PHA2! Great job adding Peloton Abs and stretching.

Valerie, nice job with your own upper body workout with push-ups, dips, tricep push-ups and curls, and XTrain Abs. Sounds like you need a bit more down time.

Cathy, great job with STS Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps and using the recommended weights.

Hello to Diane Sue.
 
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