Feeling pudgy and lazy I am trying to get back into shape again after the last 6 months of letting myself go. I had thought I’d be able to use the UPEI gym now that I am a student however only full time students have a gym membership included in their tuition and I’d have to pay a fee (a reasonable one) to use it. Not being a fan of indoor exercise anyway I started thinking of alternatives.
This morning at 6:00am I got up, put on some thermals, sweater and pants, jacket, hat, boots and gloves and strapped on some snowshoes and set out for a long walk in the fields around the Shire. I was accompanied by Rosie and the sweet sweet voice of my new musical obsession Ariana Gillis in my headphones. 40 minutes and 2.5 kilometers later I arrived back home my heart rate up, jacket open and feeling great.
The really nice thing about snow shoeing is that your route is pretty much whatever you want it to be. This boundless type of exercising appeals to me even more than my morning runs on the Mill Road did and is definitely something I want to continue year round, snow shoes and maybe x-country skis in the winter and trail/x-country running possibly paddling in the summer.
When I was a kid I remember one of the joys of being in the woods was getting off the farm/logging trails and just scrambling cross country in a straight(ish) line finding ways through around and over obstacles. I’m sure it also is a more natural way to exercise with a full body component that jogging down a road could never match. It speaks to me like rock climbing (also on my to do list) and tree climbing (which I miss!) do. So here’s to a more natural year of activity and enjoying the woods and hills and fields all around me!
I’ve started making bread from scratch. Not totally from scratch using a sourdough starter without yeast or anything crazy like that (yet) but plain white bread kneaded and risen, punched down and formed into loaves, risen again and baked in the oven. It’s a very simple and pleasing enterprise and nothing tastes better than bread you made yourself, that your 16 month old daughter makes little impressed noises at through the oven door window (oooOOooh!) and gobbles down with relish when it’s ready to eat.
The more I rediscover old ways of doing things and preparing our own foods the more I think I could really enjoy being a stay at home Dad! I am going to branch into other types of bread this weekend I think, maybe even try making a beer bread!
Published on
November 12, 2009 in
Health.
Tuesday morning I restarted my relationship with running and Robert Ullrey and his C25K running podcasts. It’s been two years since I regularly ran and it shows. Week one, while being easier than the first time I tried it years ago, wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be being a “former runner”. It feels good to work up a sweat with aerobic exercise again though.
The heavy lifting and continuous work of building our house and stuccoing it might have built up some muscle on my body and burnt some calories but it’s nowhere near the same sort of feeling of pushing yourself aerobically. In fact the work on the house has if anything made me feel worse and worse, as strains and injuries pile up!
I am running early mornings on the Mill Road next to our home and enjoying the quiet natural beauty of the area again. The road follows a stream on it’s east side and meanders along in a natural soothing path. The brisk frosty air this morning with clear skies and a moon and sunrise to light the way was very peaceful and quiet. This time of year there are few birds around and the only sounds were the quiet music in my headphones, the water flowing in the stream beside me and a faint rustle of gentle breezes in the evergreens and beech leaves stubbornly holding fast to their branches.
I have the first two days down on the C25K program and 28 more to go, hoping to be back to 5K runs by January!