Bluegrass workout

A brief summary of the last 10 months:

rowing machine, courtesy of CoolClips

I stopped running. Instead, I continued with my personal trainer and with replicating the workouts with him on my own in the gym. He turned me on to the rowing machine. For a while, that worked well for me. I was taking a lot of aggression out on the rowing machine and then I was lifting weights afterwards. All good.

Then I switched jobs. I took a job at a different organization (with a 10 percent pay increase–not bad!) and didn’t have easy access to the gym anymore. I started working out in the mornings at home. We have a treadmill and I bought some weights and for a few weeks, that was OK. But gradually I began to notice that because my new job was and is so much less stressful than my old job, I am not as interested anymore in working out.

It’s like I used to go to the gym to prove something.

Now that the stress is gone, there’s a heck of a lot less to prove. It’s hard to take aggression out at the gym when you really don’t have much aggression.

I also took about four weeks off from working out around the holidays. And we had an absurd winter–180 inches of snow, which limited going out of the house to work out, and frankly, all that snow made working out inside the house somewhat uninspiring.

But now I’m back. My personal trainer is moving away in mid-May, so I have invested in two days a week with him from now until then.  I replicate that workout on my own once a week. I do my yoga classes (still a devotee of ‘Chelle) twice a week. Now that warm weather has finally started to arrive, I’ll also start to walk/run/bike outside again.

Alison Krauss

I have some new music to listen to when working out–I’m a late arrival to the Alison Krauss fan club. She is awesome! And I’ve downloaded a ton of bluegrass music. It reminds me of the place where I grew up. I love the fiddle and banjo. It reminds me of rolling green hills and the way the air felt on a spring morning. The smell of honeysuckle and lilacs. Soft southern light. Soft southern breezes.

I don’t know what I will do when my personal trainer moves away. Until then, I have nice definition in my arms and abs. I can feel the glutes started to firm up.If only I didn’t love food so very very much I would be in stunning shape…

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18 Inch Storm

Boulders of snow at the end of our driveway

After roughly 36 hours of snow, we ended up with roughly 18 inches of snow to shovel off our driveway. There’s really no where else to put the snow. Too, the snowplow keeps coming by and dropping more street snow–all icy and chunky and dirty–onto the end of our driveway. This heavy wet dirty icy snow is not fun to shovel.

At the same time, it’s actually ‘warm’ out–about 35 degrees (trust me, that’s warm) so the snow that is currently falling is also wet and yet not sticking. It’s supposed to be in the high 30s for the next week so hopefully a lot of what has fallen will melt.

Today, a Saturday, I had to go into work to do a little CYA. Sad.

Afterwards, I went to the gym, where I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical listening to Jay-Z, and then I transitioned into my full body workout listening to Ray LaMontagne. I did:

• Crunches
• Reverse crunches, done by holding a ball between your feet and lifting your feet/legs in and out
• Standing Y-raises with 5 LBS weights
• Single-arm, single-leg lift with 25 LBS weights
• Stiff-legged deadlift with two 15 LBS weights
• High arm raises in pushup position with two 5 LBS weights
• Partial lunges with single arm press with 10 LBS weights

Then I walked home listening to Milow and shoveled more snowplow-left-behind snow….

Japanese Maple in Snow

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Eastern Standard Time

Yesterday, I left work at 5 p.m., walked outside and looked up, startled.

The sky was still light.

(My office at work has a window but I sit with my back to it and there’s a big building across the street so the sky is easy to miss).

Each day that we are further away from the winter soltice, we gain approximately three minutes of daylight. And it’s started to be noticeable. And it started to make me feel more positive. As in, “Oh, the days are getting longer, which means spring is coming, which means this cold weather will leave us.”

I took this newly-re-found positivism to the gym where I hopped on the elliptical listening to my new favorites Milow and Maroon 5. Then I did free weights, where I was, again, the only female. Which made me feel stronger, even more positive.

Unfortunately, I still struggled with sleep last night. I woke up from a dream where two people were unexpectedly taking my bike apart and charging me $35 to do so, even though there was nothing wrong with the bike. I socked one of them in the eye, which was the worst part of the dream….

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Three songs

I made it to the gym last night. It was pretty crowded. And I was a bit late, so I only did 20 minutes/200 calories on the elliptical.

When I was done, I did ab work and lifted weights (I was the only woman in the free weights section of the gym….).

The entire workout, I listened to only three songs by two artists who could not be more different from each other: Jay-Z, “Empire State of Mind,” which I listened to mostly on the elliptical. I am trying to memorize all the lyrics. I love that song.

And David Newman who does Kirtan chanting and devotional music. I mostly listened to him while doing my weights. His song “Shiva Om” I find very calming–almost too calming. I realized last night it reminds me of music you’d hear at a memorial service after someone has died… And his song “Love, Peace, and Freedom” reminds me of all the songs I loved in my youth–those songs that galvinize people and ‘preach’ a way of life and a way of thinking that, if adopted, would transform the world into a better place. He is actually scheduled to lead some Kirtan chanting here in January. I have not decided yet if I will go.

In other workout news, I have arranged to start my personal training after the New Year–January 7th is the first appointment. This is with an eye toward making sure I am in good form for the half-marathon in May.

Today’s workout will include shoveling snow….

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Death Penalty Debate Workout

After a fight on Facebook with my cousin about the death penalty, I went to the gym. It seemed like eons since I had last been to the gym. I had to reintroduce myself to the equipment.

And boy did I need to workout! I burned 300 calories on the ellipical. I am getting a little bored with my playlists, so I put the iPod Nano on ‘shuffle’ and just listened to whatever came up. The first song was “Seven Chinese Brothers” by REM, and that really took me back to the first time I heard REM back in the mid-1980s when I was a teenager living in Northern Virginia. I remember walking into the family room where my brother was watching TV and seeing Michael Stipe with his long curly hair and thin black-clad body singing into the microphone and I was transfixed. I finally had found music that described me.

More than two decades later, I am definitely in a music slump. Somewhere along the way, I stopped being able to keep up with new music, and I no longer know which contemporary bands are making music that describes me. How can I find out? I want to know! I don’t want to be one of those people who only listens to music from when I was a teenager. One of my aunts is like that. You can’t get in a car with her without listening to a radio station that plays only music from the 1950s. I don’t even know how she finds these radio stations!

I don’t think the radio will help me discover new music anyway. The music I have always liked best is not played on the radio….

After the elliptical, I lifted weights and did my ab work. I was in a bit of a rush to meet my husband so we could get to a restuarant on time to celebrate a birthday with a friend. We were late anyway.

This morning, I put on some tan lipstick to match the Fall colors and looked online to see what countries have abolished the death penalty and which countries still permit the death penalty. The United States is not in good company.

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Boots

Today was a rainy Fall day and it appears the fashion trend this Fall is polka dot or striped rubber rain boots, larger versions of the kind you might have worn as a child. I am not in the market for these kinds of boots. I don’t think I could rock them.

The Athelta catalog came last night, and I did spend some time looking at a pair of boots in the catalog. And then I went online to Zappos.com and looked at more boots (did you know Zappos is hiring? I confess, I clicked on the “We’re Hiring” banner…you never know!). But I did not buy anything, and today, walking around in the rain in the boots I already own, my feet got cold and wet….

Tonight’s workout was terrific. I did my 30 minutes on the elliptical, listening to “Born to Run.” Were there ever greater lyrics written in the late 20th Century rock-n-roll genre than: “Baby, this town rips the bones from your back.” I mean, talk about visceral.

I did my crunches and leg lifts and weights. And then I walked home in the cool evening (it finally stopped raining), listening to “2,000 Miles” by the Pretenders. “Our hearts were singing….It felt like Christmastime.”

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Travel Day Workout

I am leaving for Chicago later today so did not go into work. I had an ‘appointment’ this morning, but when I got there, the ‘appointment’ was cancelled. So I took advantage of the extra time in my day and went to the gym.

“Born to Run” started off my playlist. I burned my 300 (actually, 313, though still estimated) calories on the ellipitcal, pretending I was a folk singer the entire time. I think I could really rock it in a good pair of cowboy boots, a denim skirt, and a tan faux-suede vest, though these are things I probably would never wear in real life. I would need to learn how to play guitar, but that’s a minor detail…

After the elliptical, I did my ab work. I did it slowly this time (since I had time). The good thing about ab work is that you can do it pretty much anywhere. Like a hotel room.

Then I lifted weights. I listened twice to an old Joan Baez song: “I could have loved you better, didn’t mean to be unkind, you know that was the last thing on my mind.” I think I could really rock that song. I remember about 10 years ago, my mother, aunt, and I went to West Virginia for the weekend. We went to the only bar in the small town in which we were staying, and there was a band playing. Two guys and a gal, one guitar, one bass, drums. They sang “Angel from Montgomery” and I ordered, for some odd reason, a whiskey, and it was great evening. I think I would love to live in that town, sing in that band, and drink whiskey.

Instead, I rode my bike home from the gym.

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Thursday Night Workout

Tonight’s workout was awesome. I went to the non-dungeon-like gym at work and even though it was crowded, I was able to use an elliptical and burned 300 calories (estimated!!) in approximately 25 minutes. While I was working out, I was listening to music I downloaded over the weekend to my iPod Nano. The Pretenders. Erasure. Bruce Springsteen. Peter, Paul, and Mary. 10,000 Maniacs. EVen Joan Baez. It was so great. I felt like I was floating or dancing on that elliptical. It hardly felt like working out.

After the elliptical, I did my crunches, bicycle, other ab work and lifted weights. I felt strong, invincible, powerful, and empowered. Isn’t that a way we should feel all day, every day??

I walked home in the dark.

Also, wanted to mention Title Nine. Not Title IX, the law. Though that’s a good thing to mention.

Title Nine the clothing company. They sent me their catalog yesterday. I had never seen it before. Perhaps they found me through Athleta? It was great. I was riveted. Salivating. Coveting. I finally put the catalog in the recycling bin, but it lingered first on the couch with me. It lingered.

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Tuesday’s Workout

My organization has a special gym….. it’s dungeon-like and out-dated, but it’s convenient and free. So I make a point of using it at least twice a week.

Last night, after work, I hopped on the elliptical and burned 300 calories in 25 minutes. (I’ve always wondered if those calorie-burning counters are accurate….for more on this subject, visit Ezine Articles) Unfortunately, I’d forgotten my iPod Nano (gotten for free from a company that wanted my organization to place ads in one of its publications; we declined), so it was not nearly as fun of a workout as it is when I am listening to Coldplay, U2, or Indigo Girls (whatever happened to them??).

When I was done on the elliptical, I did ab work–bicycle and sit-ups and leg lifts. Then I lifted weights. The new one I am experimenting with is standing on one leg while bent over, lifting a 15-pounder to my chest. This is what I mean, though this is not me:

Lifting weights while leaning over

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