I couldn’t face another lap in the pool today, so I took a walk instead.
I almost blew off any working out today. Slept in quite late again today after getting my son off to school. I decided to go ahead and get some exercise because it’s gray and nasty. Being tired is okay. Gray and nasty means that depressed might follow, and I liked the nap alternative a lot better than the probability of depressed.
I pushed myself enough that I was sweaty with only a sweatshirt in 36F and rain, so I went reasonably hard. I’m lucky I have decent places to walk. I actually considered going to the gym and using the treadmill, but that’s just too weird for me when it’s over freezing and I have a place outside. And you’re not looking at the world’s biggest fan of the outdoors, either, I like outdoors well enough, but I’m beginning to think I’m a city girl at heart and like “nature” for vacations and stuff. Mom used to call me a houseplant.
But even so, to walk? I’ve got a perfectly good sidewalk in front of my house and I can walk for miles on it. I could see a treadmill in really horrible weather, but weather that’s so bad I’d want to use a treadmill would be weather I’d want a treadmill at home and not a gym because I won’t want to be driving.
I’m actually considering throwing in a half hour walk every morning on top of my other workouts now that the weather has gotten nicer. When I was working at Hogwarts, I probably did walk about a half hour to forty-five minutes throughout the day, what with taking the bus and stuff like that. And that was on top of weights three to four times a week and swimming at least three times a week.
Couldn’t hurt, I suppose. I’ve heard the “magic number” for getting quite fit and easy weight control is five hours of exercise a week. That would be about right if I started throwing in the walks. God knows it would mean exercise variety, which is never a bad thing. Also, I am concerned that I’m not getting much weight bearing work besides the lifting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of swimming, but I’m also concerned about keeping my knee muscles strong. ACL surgery was no damn joke, and I want to protect the rather painful investment by making sure I’m keeping the supporting muscles strong.