Category Archives: working out

Almost a Run

I don’t suppose anybody has been waiting with bated breath for Running Commentary from Mohawk Valley Girl. Still, I have been unhappy about not running. However, this morning it was cold with potentially icy sidewalks. I could deal with the cold, but the sidewalks gave me pause. If I fell, I couldn’t be sure of landing where most of the padding is. More likely I would twist myself around in an effort to keep from falling and pull some muscle I didn’t even know was there.

My sister had suggested running on a mini-tramp. Easier on the knees and feet, she said. In fact, I did this for a short time some years ago. I still have the tramp. Full disclosure: it’s my mother’s and she hasn’t asked for it back yet. Thanks, Mom!

Earlier this morning I had done ten minutes’ worth of push-ups, crunches and whatever other exercises suggested themselves. Hey, you have to start somewhere and I haven’t been doing much besides walk lately. After Steven left for work, I hauled the mini-tramp out from under the bed in the second bedroom, put on running clothes and gave it a try.

My sister watches movies on her tramp. I was doing this too (in fact, I still haven’t seen the end of The Unsinkable Molly Brown)(oh, well, I’ve seen the ending, but I started watching it and didn’t run long enough… you know what I mean). I still have several horror movies on the DVR from October. I thought I’d try Devil Doll.

No, I’m not going to do a running/movie write-up. I have too much to say about this movie, and I only ran for 20 minutes.

If you could call it running.

This mini-tramp business will take some getting used to. Obviously your feet can’t move the same way. And I had a problem right away in that I wanted to make some notes from Robert Osborne’s pre-movie commentary. It’s on DVR, I reminded myself. Just don’t erase it at the end and you can watch the commentary again. Then I laughed at myself for thinking I was going to make it through an hour and a half movie on the mini-tramp.

Soon I came to the depressing conclusion that I do not find a movie as interesting to me as the outsides of other people’s houses. But I persevered. I mean, I liked the movie; I look forward to seeing the rest of it. But I would have preferred to be crocheting with pauses to make notes in the TV Journal.

Well, one can’t have everything. I did get some exercise in. A little later in the morning I took Tabby for a walk. That might be the subject of tomorrow’s blog post.

I Get So Proud of Myself

I went all day without being able to think of a single blog topic. I was seriously thinking of reinstating Wuss Out Wednesday, a feature I toyed with last Halloween. Then after work I went to Curves to exercise, and I will attempt to entertain with what transpired.

In case you didn’t know, Curves is circuit training. You go around a circle twice, exercising on the various machines and running in place on pads in between. At least, you don’t have to run in place. You can march in place, or do aerobics, anything to keep your heart rate up. I’ve seen some ladies shadow box. I usually dance. I like to do the twist. I figure it worked for Chubby Checkers, it’ll work for me.

At each machine, there is a little box into which you insert this computer tag they give you. It is set to you and records your workout. The little box flashes green if you’re doing good, orange if not. Monday I was unable to make the orange go away entirely on some of those machines. So today I wore an bright orange shirt, as a kind of a “Fine! Be that way!” to my body.

At Curves, I tend to be kind of a comic relief. I sing along to the songs I know. I make remarks about some of the lyrics (for example, have you ever noticed that Madonna’s “Open Your Heart To Me” is a total stalker song?). I sometimes dance in a very silly fashion. And when I get no orange or make the orange go away on a machine, when I’m done on that machine, I shake my fist at it and say, “Got you that time, you bastard!” I shook my fist a lot today.

After the workout (and stretching — LOVE the stretching!), you can put your tag into the computer and view your results. One of the results screen shows two views of a body (generic, not your own) with green or yellow dots on the various muscle groups. I keep getting yellow dots. Grrr! Today I got all green!

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” I jumped around and pumped my fist in the air. “I get so proud of myself,” I explained sheepishly.

And that is my story for today. I don’t know if Curves commentary is as interesting as running commentary, but this is all I got. I don’t know what I’ll come up with for tomorrow, but remember it’ll be Non-Sequitur Thursday. Hope to see you then.