I shoveled the backyard

Yeah, you heard me. Instead of going out for a run tonight, I shoveled snow from a big area in the backyard for exercise.

Why would I do that? Because the weekend is coming, and I need for Stella to get outside. Another weekend inside is not acceptable.

Since our backyard is on the north side of the house, and there was still 5 inches of snow on the ground, my math said that it might last the weekend. So I took matters into my own hands. By Saturday, the area all around her playset will be nice green grass. Take that, nature.

And it wasn’t a bad way to get some exercise.

Runner Motivation Report: January 11th, 2010

My previous entry explains my gigantic lapse in running. This entry describes my comeback.

January 11th Obstacles

• It was dark and icy out there at 8pm (but warmer than it was in December)
• Back to square one when it comes to my fitness. Its going to hurt.

January 11th Solutions and Motivators

• I had a blood workup done, and my cholesterol is bad again. Will need to go back in 3 months to do another check. Need to drop some pounds, eat a little better, and get some exercise.
• While not balmy, the low 40’s at 8pm is feeling pretty good relative to what we have been seeing. Also, after 3 days of sunshine, the road is clearing up. There are still some serious ice patches out there, but enough dry spots to make running possible.

Results

Let’s not talk about it. I am just happy to be out there again.

I’m Back

Its January 11th. My previous blog entry was September 24th. “Oh, so Peter has been forgetting to update his blog.” I wish. I just ran again for the first time in almost 4 months. What happened?

That Knee

I was complaining about my knee in my blog entries in September. I thought I was beyond it, but it kept coming back. After my last run, I was having issues again. I decided to lay low for the last week of September.

Daycare Apocalypse

When we put Stella into day care, people warned us that the first year is rough. “She’s going to be sick a lot”, was the message we got from a few sources. We went 2 months (Aug-Sept) without an issue, and so it seemed like we were going to do alright.

October 1st arrived, and so did 2 months of agony. We went through several colds without a break, and then on Halloween we into a 4 week fun trip called H1N1. Stella was not healthy for 2 solid months, and neither was I. Everything she got, I got. The entire month of November I was coughing junk out of my lungs, thanks to H1N1.

I finally fully recovered at the beginning of December. But was loath to rekindle any latent germ so was in no hurry to get out and run again. Especially with…

Winter Wonderland

Starting in December, it got cold. Looking at wunderground, they say our average high was just 36 degrees and the average snow depth on the ground was 1 inch.

The Holidays

The final element of my lapse in running was the arrival of Christmas. No, we didn’t do anything major, but we worked hard on decluttering the house, decorating, and spending healthy time with the kids.

I am the Cliché

Its just after the New Year, and all sorts of couch potatoes packing their entire year’s exercise in the next few weeks. They will be reattaching themselves to the couch shortly. Am I one of those?

I hope not. As of tonight, I’m “back out there”. Let’s see where it takes me.