As you get older, the weights get lighter and the threshold for aerobic workouts gets lower, but it doesn’t feel any different. You still feel as if you’re working out just as hard and just as effectively as you always have. You can’t do anything about it, so the bottom line is a big shoulder shrug.
Archive for the ‘Exercise’ Category
Doing less, feeling the same
29 June 2019A harsh day on the surface of the planet
29 March 2015The wind is from the northwest at 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts to 40. The temperature is well below zero Fahrenheit. It may be snowing or not, but if it’s not there’s a strong ground blizzard. In other words, harsh conditions by almost anyone’s standards.
And those conditions excite me in a way that nothing else does. It’s so harsh that I don’t even feel as if I’m on Earth any more. I feel as if it’s a harsh day on the surface of some planet that’s entirely indifferent to my existence, that is not nurturing, that may not even be habitable by humans. And yet there I am, out in it, challenging it to kill me.
And it could kill me. Skipping over all the science-fiction fantasies going on in my head, a fairly simple mistake could result in severe injury or even death. But that’s part of why it’s exciting.
Another part is that usually when I’m outside in those conditions, I’m moving — snowshoeing, skiing, walking, running, biking — and both my mind and body are fully engaged in staying upright, moving forward, and calculating direction and location. It’s an intensity of mental and physical effort that completely involves all that I am, and crowds everything else out of my mind. On the best days, I approach a meditative state, focused entirely on the now.
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Paleo
2 May 2011I’ve been reading a lot about the so-called Paleo diet and lifestyle recently, the idea that for optimal health we should eat and act much like our ancestors did before the relatively recent introduction of agriculture. The concept makes a lot of sense to me.
There are certainly differences among the Paleo gurus (PGs), and that’s where each of us has to make decisions based on our own experience and common sense.
For example, only Mark Sisson says that we should spend a lot of time walking or otherwise performing low-level cardio (in addition to the high-intensity exercise pretty much everyone agrees on). But even though that exercise prescription is rare among the PGs, it makes sense to me and I’m going to continue doing it. It just seems likely that if we were hunters and gatherers, we would spend a lot of time walking and gathering, and even the hunting part of it would often mean slowly tracking for long distances before the active part of the hunt.
I still haven’t decided how or if to incorporate the ideas from Born to Run. When I read that, I was sold on the idea of persistence hunting and the concomitant long-distance running. But that idea does not make it into anyone else’s view of Paleo existence. The fact remains that humans are superb endurance athletes, and it’s unlikely that’s just an accident.
Trail Running
2 May 2011The whole family went for about an hour-long walk to Madison School Forest yesterday afternoon. For the first two thirds of the walk, G and D were spontaneously running ahead on the trail through the woods. Nobody told them to do it, nobody suggested it. It was awesome to glimpse them through the trees, running. It made me feel good about them and optimistic about their future.
And maybe we’ll get to do it together some day.
Composting
13 February 2011Three days after the blizzard of 2/1/2011, the active compost pile had an internal temperature of 105°F; today, it was down to 100°F. It had a lot of snow around it acting as insulation. I’m thinking that next year I should stack straw bales around the active compost pile in October.
I added 70 gallons of coffee grounds and 15 gallons of kitchen waste to the compost pile today. I tend to let it build up when it’s cold outside, but this was a bit much — it took over two hours, and it was definitely a workout
It’s sunny, breezy, and in the mid-40s today. Just a few days ago it was 12 below.
I was going to get up on the roof and sweep the chimney today, but there was still too much snow up there for me to do it safely. We’re supposed to have this mild weather for another several days, so I may get a chance yet this week.
Ending and Beginning 