Day 91: Shakespeare at the Schwab

While walking back from McKay Park, I noticed that the back parking gate to the Les Schwab Amphitheater was open and people were walking the path between the stage and the river, so I decided to take the adventure.

The steps up to the bare stage were inviting, and so I accepted.  I went to the center of the stage and looked out at the sunny green slope of lawn in front of me.

I doffed my green fedora, gave a deep bow, and and then began  "If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended...."

At the end of my magnificent performance ("...Give me your hands if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends.") I bowed again to the spirits there that had melted into air, into thin air, put my hat back on, and, exiting stage left, resumed my walk.

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On the drive home, I observed that someone had put a Pennyworth clown mask and wig on The Logger statue.

Day 90: Looking back and forward

Wow, 2 years and nine days since I started this.

Today I did the loop walk from Farewell Bend Park and over to the flagged pedestrian bridge in The Old Mill District, and back over the Riverbend/Farewell Bend parks, 1.3 miles.

I will be continuing this blog.

I just can't think of anything more to say right now, just that I'm glad that I'm working at making myself healthier.  I have seen improvements, and hope to continue to do so.

More in the next posts.

To help perserve in yoga practice

https://www.quora.com/How-does-yoga-help-in-weight-loss-Does-it-help-build-muscle-mass-like-weight-training-does-Or-does-it-help-burn-calories-during-exercise-like-cardio-does

89: A wrinkle in the time-space continuum.

Continuum is one of 3 words containing "uu" that are commonly used in English,15 altogether, 16 if "Duusu" is included.  One of my favorite high school band pieces was called "Continuum for Winds," which I never hear on KWAX, although "Pictures at an Exhibition" seems to be a daily requirement.

I went to the gym room later today than I ever have:  3 p.m.  Had a not-so-great attitude, but decided to go anyway.  Did a 35 minute work-out, as the program ("Manual" which I did not select) had a five minute cool-down attached to it. It seemed to take forever, even as the "percent done" updates flashed on the screen every 5 to 10 minutes.

When I still had about 6 minutes left, a guy came into the room and looked at the clock.  It took me a moment to realize that he was staff.  After a brief hello he proceed to wipe down the treadmills and the other machines.  The machine and time itself, of course, ran slower as I wished to hurry up and get out of his way.  The "Jimmy Neutron" DVD was at the point of *SPOILERS!* the chicken dance when the finished screen finally appeared: 5.98 miles, 116 heart rate, 140 calories, rotations per minute--who cares?

I got it done, and that's what matters.

Day 88: Nice time

One of the rewards of doing my yoga routine is how much taller I seem when I finally stand up at the end. I notice it when I look out the window and around the computer room.  I also like how energetic I feel after my workouts, and some times when I'm walking, I feel like running, but I think that people in Fred Meyer would be annoyed if I started sprinting up and down the aisles.

For today's gym workout, I brought a DVD to watch ("Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius") during my workout.  Thankfully, I was the only one in the gym. I figured out the television and the player, the set-up screen for the cycle, and went at it, breaking into a sweat within 5 minutes.  The cycle screen kept reminding me what my heart rate should be, and adjusted the resistance to slow me down.  The program ended *SPOILER!* just as Jimmy's parents were abducted by green aliens.

Distance was over 5 miles, 178 calories, heart rate, I don't remember, nor rate of pedaling.

After the 30 minute program was over (what? the 3 minutes of cool down were in the program? no extra 5 minutes tacked on at the end?) I wiped down the machine and put on a pair of gloves and worked a short bit with the 3 and 10 pound weights.

I did have my cool-down, as I walked to Fred Meyer to get the ingredients for dinner tonight:  Cider braised chicken with apples and kale.  The recipe was in the Natural Grocers good4u magazine that came in the mail, and here it is too:

https://www.naturalgrocers.com/recipe/cider-braised-chicken-with-apples-and-kale/

Not a day

Numbers on the scale haven't changed for a while, but when I put my church clothes on yesterday, the tights slid on nicely and the clothes were loose.

Not a day

After a morning of serious procrastination, I finally put my big girl gym pants on, picked up my Minion party bag, put into it a CD ("Guardians of the Galaxy" soundtrack) and a DVD ("Jimmy Neutron:Boy Genius"), a bottle of water, and a pair of gloves for the free weights and walked to the gym.

"Dave" in the gym, already on the cycle, so I used the Precor treadmill for ten minutes.  I'm not comfortable with it, having not used one previously, so all I did was walk at an easy pace while chatting with Dave.  He's about the age of my daughters, and is a gentle soul.  I didn't suggest putting anything on, as I've done it in the past when he's been there, and he seems to find having the television on confusing.

Dave wiped down the cycle and moved to the elliptical machine.  I got on the bike, set it for my age and weight, and ended up with a hill workout somehow.  It was suppose to go for 45 minutes, but at 20 minutes my bum was aching and I was racked with guilt about stuff not done.  I put the program into a cool down, resistance level one, for a few more moments.   

So, I got my thirty minutes in, and I broke a sweat, but I didn't feel that I'd accomplished what I'd set out to do, of getting a good work-out.  I did report to the apartment manager that one of the treadmills had a non-functioning clip (fancy term for "it's missing its spring").

On the way back, I saw "Jean".  She lives on the ground floor of my building, is about a hundred years old, and walks with a walker.  (She even goes over the field to Fred Meyer to go shopping.)  Jean walks a loop every day around the complex.  We visited for a few minutes as she was headed out.  "My daughter was here this morning, and we went for a walk.  She wants me to walk more."

Lord, forgive me when I whine....

Day 87: Back in the saddle

To help motivate me at my apartment gym workouts, I bought a couple of CDs, both soundtracks from the two "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, and forgot and left both of them at the apartment.  The Las Vegas shootings are still in the forefront of almost every show expect PBS, and for all I know, pledge week is probably going on, so I left the television off. 

Today I got a 50 minute workout with cool down, burning 201 calories (there went either this morning's pretzels or Cheerios), heart rate average 114 (still don't know if that's good or not)*, and covered 7.87 miles (for what it's worth).  If there was another benchmark, I don't remember what it was.

Without music or other entertainment, I looked out the window to my left, watched clouds float by and traffic drive by.  I would at times look to the right, where the wall is one big mirror and see why I was there.

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My season at Parks ended September 30.

My fitness goals for this winter season: to "run and not be weary; walk and not faint."

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* Looks like it's good for moderate exercise at my age:  http://www.healthly.io/en/heart/exercise-pulse-rate-age/61-years/