Oct 18 to 29

Chilly but a golden moment

Whoops, missed a week.

No matter, the last two weeks have been pleasantly dull. Morning stretches have turned into morning Yoga sessions because of my weird thing going on and waking up at 5:30 am.

The afternoons are a combination of yoga and HITT sessions now - lots of kettlebell, bodyweight and band training.  I'm also using a big stretching ball on the quads and a smaller roller on my hips and gastrocs. I'm bringing the 16-kilo bell in this week coming up.

I'm using the bands to work on my hamstrings and hip flexors. Still looking for further education on that. Still, my hips like it. These sessions used to be 20 minutes and are now at least 30, sometimes closer to 40.

I've been swimming in the evenings, too - went at least twice each week. Good fitness and mobility training all around. Really though, I'm glad I bought the snorkel as it makes the workouts better and I worry less about drowning. The pool is now open until 11pm though the week. Another thing going back to "normal".

I did make it to the beach Oct 30th - the shot for this post is from that adventure. Like I said, I want this year to be nice and boring and doing boring stuff like walking on the beach is boring but fun. All I want is boring. Boring means I get fit without the cops being called. No drama.

Oct 11 to 17

Yeah, more of the same - yoga in the afternoon, followed by yoga in the evening or a swim. 

Work does tend to get in the way, but I did manage a 1 km walk at work while on break. It was a nice sunny day and needed to get some reading done. Twenty minutes of a walk was a nice addition to the day. I'd like to say that I'll make that a regular part of my routine, but it is cold and rainy told, so I'll stay indoors and prep.

I got a HITT session done this week, too. I'd had enough of the back of my brain telling me to get it done and so I got this done:

2 minutes on the elliptical

2 minutes of kettlebell lifting - swings, cleans and presses, halos whatever.

1-minute rest

I got four or fie rounds of that done - it ended up being 35 minutes all told. A good workout and lots of perceived effort. Also, I finished off the day's rings all in one go, basically.

I did extend my "closing the rings" record to another "all time" to 56 days. I'm sad because I had a few years of that behind me. Alas, I have to start again. 

Oct 2 to 10

 

I did a lot of yoga, some swimming some walking/hiking this week. I did sleep in a New to me RV one day this weekend. I had done more than 70 minutes of yoga that day and took Advil, so I slept well. The RV was on an angle, but it was fun for the first time sleeping in it.

I woke up to a golden set of trees at sunrise. My phone was dead, otherwise, I'd be posting a pic of it. The beginning of great things I hope.

In any case, when I say yoga, I mean the session I do in the afternoon where I do this:

Warm up - face down, rocking back and forth, switching to a 90 / 90 pose, lots of others, hips stretching, QL stretching and then shoulder stretching. I will also get some rolling done now, and I use a kettlebell as a Graston tool and strip my hip flexor.  Yes, I screamed.

A bit more of a warm-up - getting into standing poses, one leg out, "runner's stretch" - and then at least three rounds of:

20 KB swings

10 kb cleans

10 kb presses

10 goblet squats

Then a yoga flow in which I go from planks to one leg up to standing on both feet back down to one, then get the leg out the back in a "bird dog" position, then back and forth.

I usually end this session with a warm down, getting my heart rate back under control and being happy. 

I do something similar in the evenings, leaving out the Graston and just getting down into a very low squat. Significantly less screaming, I must say.

What else? Oh, I swam 1.1 km in the pool this evening, too. I like the tools and toys I've collected for that. I do need to find a set time when the various swim teams leave me in peace. Tonight they had some sort of meet and were going to go after closing. Meh, whatever. I hit the outdoor pool in 10-degree weather and had a great time. I was done by closing time and ran away. The water was warmer than the air.

Taken Oct 10/22. Hashtag awesome

Sept 25 to Oct 1

There was a lot of stretching and HIIT this week - at least I got my circles filled every day this week - or whatever I'm supposed to be calling them. I moved my Move goal up this week, but I know it needs to be more if I want to do fun stuff next summer.

I did think about getting out on the kayak one more time this week, but just couldn't do it. I also took possession of an RV this week and now have to make sure that I can get it into storage for the winter.

I also want to get that out once before I put it to bed, so to speak. Lots of places to go and see.

I did get out for a hike today, then got out to an outdoor pub in an orchard. That was so wonderfully sunny and fun, especially after the last two years. It was nice to be able to support a local business, too. 

The afternoon sessions continue with the stretching into HIIT.

The swimming had to take a back seat as I had to run around this week for the RV. I did get into the water on Friday and did 650m in 25 minutes. Don't be impressed, I nearly drowned like six times. 

Lots of stretching sessions in the afternoon and evening though. All the time, I know I need to get moving and get walking/hiking and sprinting back in the mix.

From the hike this afternoon.