Walkies

[mdlbear]

(Cross-posted to healthy_fen.)

Went out this morning for a walk around the rose garden, with my new running shoes and 2.5 pounds of sand wrapped loosely around each wrist. (They call 'em "5-lb wrist/ankle weights" -- 5 is the total for the pair.) I got a 10-lb set as well, but decided to change only one variable at a time at the end of my legs.

Got about 1 mile -- to the corner across the street from the Rose Garden -- before my arms became too tired to continue pumping the weights. A bit more of a workout than I'm used to, though not quite enough. After about half a trip around the Rose Garden I went back to my old walking pace. The shoes were definitely an improvement, but I still had some shin tightness, so it's safe to assume I'm still doing something wrong.

I was sleepy all afternoon; ended up taking a nap. Oh, and based on what I saw at Play It Again Sports yesterday, there's no way to get any kind of exercise machine into the house. Those things are bloody huge -- even the fold-up treadmill would take up too much space. So I'll be using machines at the gym, if at all.

Comments

Exercise Machines, Weights, Hills

[andyheninger.livejournal.com]

I've only tried exercise machines a few times, and really didn't like them at all. Exercising in one spot with nothing interesting to watch go by, and no breeze to help keep cool and dry the sweat, is really boring.

My old IBM site had an employee gym with treadmills, stationary bikes and various weight machines. Barb's dad has a Nordic Track machine that now collects dust in their basement. I found them all to be tedious.

Machines are definitely something to try for a while in a gym before buying, but since you don't have room for one, it's not an issue anyway.

Regarding weights, your feet end up carrying all the weight, no matter where it is on you. With foot or shin issues, I'd be cautious with adding any weight. For me, my feet and my hips both start complaining if my weight gets much over 200, which it is at the moment :-(

Here's a good hilly hike I like, part in Rancho San Antonio park, and part on neighboring residential streets.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=37.338108,-122.098253&spn=0.010475,0.0156&t=h&z=16&om=1&msid=105276660390128284442.00043b774e27b8ab20575

Take the Magdalena exit from 280, head south on EastBrook (the frontage road on the West side of the Freeway) for about a mile, and park near the corner of Mora and EastBrook (there's room on the far side of the intersection). Start walking up Mora.

Mora is steep, it touches 22% in a couple of places (I measured it, with yard stick, level and ruler). It'll definitely get your heart going. Mora ends at a trailhead to the park at the top of the hill. Just inside the gate, turn right off the road onto the trail (there's only one, it'll be obvious), follow it across the meadow and down until it dead-ends into the Ravensbury trail. Go left until you come out of the trees into a small meadow and the junction of several trails. Go left again, onto the dirt road. Follow this road through Deer Hollow Farm until you come to a gravel road forking off to the left, past an old house and up the hill. This is Mora, it'll take you up another good steep hill, past a water storage tank (look at the tops of the fir trees surrounding the tank, there's often a Red Tail hawk perched there) and then back to the trail head where you entered the park.

The entire walk, back down to the corner of Mora and EastBrook, takes about an hour.