Hi from Ron

Hi Everyone,

Good to read those weekly summaries.  Record keeping is one of my passions too.  I know it is not always easy.

I just returned from about 12 miles of vigorous cycling.  Not exactly the Alps or the Pyrennes here in Kansas, but there are some steep hills and I had pretty good leg strength today.  Saw a bunch of sheep in one field, and a herd of black angus cattle in another.  So that was the nature portion of today’s event.

I biked indoors yesterday and went fairly hard, so tomorrow will be a treadmill day.  I like to give those bicycle muscles a rest every third day.

I am getting psyched for the Tour de France.  Those guys are amazing!

Best good wishes to one and all from sunny Kansas,

Ron

Sandy – week up to June 29th

A very mixed week I’m afraid.

Monday:  4010 steps

Tuesday: nearly an hour of gardening  but the whole afternoon eating (see blog)

Wednesday: incredibly stiff muscles from gardening so mooched around the house without pedometer

Thursday: 3671 steps – lunch in town

Friday: another gardening session (and I didn’t suffer quite so badly afterwards) but went out for lunch again with friends.

Saturday: 5841 steps – including walking neighbour’s dog.

Sunday: This was the day I polished my halo:  an hour of gardening and three doggie walks – 7854 steps.

The downside: all that extra eating and I’ve put on weight!

Bikinjo – Wk Ending 6/28/08

Walking: Structured regular sked still pending my strong commitment to begin.

Warmup type exercising and wt lifting with 5 lb. dumbells sked resumption weak — 2/5 days.

Food Intake: Balanced food groups and portions as usual — more consistent 2 meals per day; cont. ice cream daily.

Water: good amt. but need to measure.

Obviously, psyching myself up for more of a commitment here is needed.

Claude – June 23rd to June 29th

June 23rd: 12,000 steps, 30mn fast biking
June 24th: 30 mn fast biking, 1 hour Feldenkrais session, walking so little that there’s no point mentioning it 😉
June 25th: One hour stretching exercise, 17,000 steps. A great day with a blogging friend visiting Paris. And a great walk as well!

On our 17,000 step walk, across the Seine from Notre-Dame de Paris

June 26th: one-hour Feldenkrais session, 15,000 steps, another good walking day.
June 27th: hardly any walking at all, went searching for a bathing suit. I’ve decided to go to the swimming pool when in Normandy. Let’s see if I stick to that. I’ve had a haircut and bought a bathing suit, so I should have no excuse not to go swimming.
45mn aerobics on the Wii and 30 mn balance exercise.
June 28th: 13,000 steps and a lot of eating. The next week will be mostly walking as I am going to be visiting cemeteries with my friends Leo and Elly from Norwich, on a photo safari.

Naomi – June 26, checking in

June 15 left NYC for Portland, Oregon, to visit family.  Dutiful about pedometer use…less so on the food end.  Way more red meat than at home.

Too much time in auto but wonderful time with grandkids.  Trade-offs.  Chocolate not too bad but miss having more control of food intake.  More next week when I return.

Lia – a bit like a dry run

This week’s exercise program was as follows:

Friday: nothing

Saturday: walking around town for an hour

Sunday: 1 hr walking (fast)

Monday: 6 km cycling, 40 min. walking

Tuesday: 20 minutes walking

Wednesday: nothing

Thursday: 40 min. walking (fast), 1 hr yoga

It’s been a difficult week to exercise. Too much stress at work. Too much confusion at home (in Luebeck). Too many worries about family (in Canada). I’m off for the weekend and hope that good talks with friends and fresh air during our walks will restore my energy.

I wish you all a very good weekend.

We all start somewhere

Hi Everyone,

If I seem like an overly eager exerciser, it’s because I’ve been at it for a couple decades.  Around age 40 my wife and I decided to start taking the advice coming out about diet and exercise.  I became a vegetarian without too much trouble, and we both began to work out daily.  Looking back, we did not do either long nor especially hard workouts.

When I started biking seriously it was a chore to do 6 miles and that was in my second chain ring and not the big one.  I kept at it, and got both older and better.

I loath competition in exercise.  I don’t race my bike, and rarely ride with anyone except my wife.  To me it is about fitness and about feeling good about taking a positive action.  I watch the pro bikers slog up and down the Alps and the Pyrennes and so on in the big European races, and I wish them well.  But that’s not me.

At our house, only major illness or something else extraordinary keeps us from spending an hour in our exercise room.  It is just a personal style and a part of our lives.  We do no envy those who go harder and faster.  There is always someone out there who will do that.

So, good luck to everyone.  Anything we can do to make ourselves healthier is a good thing.

Best from sunny Kansas,

Ron

Today’s workout

Hi Everyone!

Hoped to get out and bike, but it rained enough to discourage that.  So I did an hour on the treadmill. About 3.5 mph on flat ground, so nothing epic.  I did a hard (defined as using big gears) indoor workout on the bike trainer yesterday.

What we hoped for today, but maybe can do tomorrow if weather allows, is to bike up to our favorite deli for lunch.  We do that often.  It is about 4 miles including one hill that might get a Category 4 designation on some pro road race stages were it a bit longer.  It’s enough to work up an appetite, for sure.

Coming home its a 35-40 mph coast down that big hill, then some flat, and the last 2 miles include three short but steep grades.  I like that because as a diabetic it helps me burn some of those carbs from lunch.  We try to find the glass half full in all our exercise pursuits.

Best from sunny (except for today) Kansas,

Ron

Claude – June 16th to June 23rd

Not much fast walking or fast biking this week. But lots of playing with my new toy.
I started this week differently, as I don’t want to replace fast walking or biking with Wii Fit aerobics, but add to my programme.
June 16, pedometer said 9,000 steps and I had a one-hour Feldenkrais session.
June 17th, pedometer: 11,000 steps, 35 mn aerobics on the Wii Fit
June 18th, pedometer: 14,000 steps, 31 mn aerobics on Wii Fit
June 19: pedometer said 8,000 steps, 35mn Wii Fit
June 20: Pedometer: only 5,000 steps, 35 mn aerobic son the Wii Fit,
June 21: only 5,000 steps but 32mn fast biking, and 35mn aerobics on the Wii Fit
June 22: 8,000 steps, 35mn aerobics on Wii Fit.

Lia- Luebeck a Walker’s Paradise

It is wonderful that all of us on this site is living and exercising in different corners of the world. I just came back from a walk along the Luebeck Trave canal. This is a canal that surrounds the island of Luebeck. At eleven o’clock on a sunny Sunday, the walkways are populated with walkers, runners, parents and grandparents pushing children carriages, dog owners and their dogs, and people sitting in waterfront cafés enjoying a leisurely brunch.

I was struck this morning at how many old people there were walking, running, bicycling along the canal. There were even two four-seater skulls (wo)manned by women well into their 60s and 70s. Talk about Grey Panthers!

I wanted to share with you some of the beauty of my walk.