Get Fit (Again) February - Week Two

Why...?

WHY!?

WHYYYYYYYY!?!

Seriously. Why is it whenever I FINALLY get motivated to get out and start getting some REGULAR exercise... SOMETHING... happens to make it even harder... 

It's, like:

Me: Alright, no more of this sluggish, moping around. It's a new month, and I'm going to get OUTSIDE and get some fresh air and exercise EVERY DAY, all month (and maybe even continue that trend all year!) 

Mother Nature: Hold my beer....

Maybe February just isn't the best time to be trying to start a new routine of outdoor exercise... At least in Saskatoon.  

Monday, 8 February 2021

Wait... -51?

Ummmm... that looks cold... Let's call it another "Rest Day"... 

Tuesday, 9 February 2021

Sooooo.... Rest Day....?

Wednesday, 10 February 2021

Me: I think I'm taking another "Rest Day" 

Amanda: Keira has to get to the Orthodontist

Me: [f-bomb]

So we did get out of the house on Wednesday. 

Walked downtown with Keira to the Orthodontist. 

AND over to Broadway to get groceries. 

Grocery hauling mule. 

We spotted these duck on the river. They were constantly dipping under the water. Not, like, diving for food, just a quick dip under every few seconds. Keira asked what they were up to and I wondered aloud if it was them trying to keep warm. Keira asked how that could be - wouldn't the water be cold? My thought was that, while, yes, the water was cold, it was probably only 0°C - having not frozen solid - while the AIR above the water was -40... so... warming up... by dunking into near frozen water....?

Keira was fascinated by all the fog, thinking it looked like a magical mist that could be floating through a forrest.

As cold as it is, I find it very pretty and an anamoured by the contrasts between the greyscale landscape and the occasional bright bit of colour - provided by a brightly coloured jacket - or this pavilion in our nearby park. 

Thursday, 11 February 2021

-55!? Are you shitting me!? 

I am reminded of that comic by Matthew Inman of the Oatmeal

The above illustration is ©2020 Mathew Inman and used here entirely without his permission

Yeah...  It's Hot Chocolate Time, Muthafukka! 

Friday, 12 February 2021

Holy $h!t!? It's ONLY -26 with a -34 windchill out there this morning!? 

That's the nice thing about a few days of -40 weather - and actually getting out in that weather... the rest of the winter ends up feeling like shorts weather! 

And look at that long range forecast: -7 next Thursday!? 

(Which reminds me of a sketch from Rick Mercer... )

Keira and I did our library run... 

WAsn't quite as brutally cold as earlier in the week. 

But still pretty damned cold. 

Saturday, 13 February 2021

Well at least there wasn't any windchill... but the air itself was -33°C... so moving around in it on your own would be COLD! At this point, I'd kind of written off this week and hoped maybe next week would be BETTER!?

Sunday, 14 February 2021

Scroll back up and see how Sunday was supposed to be -16°C... yeah... that didn't happen.... 

Warmer on Sunday, I guess. But, with the wind, it was feeling just as cold. Amanda and I had briefly talked about going out for a walk - just to get out... but then left it a bit late and decided not to... 

So.... 

Wow... 

Yeah... 

Next week... 

Get Fit (Again) February - Week One

 After a particularly sedentary and dpressing last few months, I've decided it's time to GET OUT RIDING again! Or walking!? Or whatever!? I just need to get out and get some fresh air and exercise. 

On the first I went out for a walk/run with Keira, because she'd decided she wanted to take up running and I thought maybe I'd try it out with her. It was really nice and warm out. I discovered that running really isn't my thing. We went about 2Km walking a block then running a block. I made it about 1.5Km and had to give up the running as I was worried I might utterly destroy my knees!? 

Tuesday, I did nearly a 20Km loop of the Circle and Gordie Howe Bridges. 

Wednesday I walked to Broadway with Keira and picked up groceries.  (The picture is on our walk home) 

Thursday I went for another ride. 

Again a loop including the Circle Drive and Gordie Howe bridges... but with a side-trip to Dragon's Den Games. 

It was getting a bit chillier through the week. 

bit of frost on the face..

Friday I just rode downtown with Keira for our weekly Library Run. It was cold. Like, -28°C with a -33 windchill. 

Saturday it was colder still! 

but I was determined to get out for another ride! EVERY DAY was the plan!!!

It was a shorter ride - well, shorter than the bridge loops earlier in teh week. Longer than the library run. I tried to keep to the singletrack by the river - to keep out of the wind. 

Cold ducks. 

So much fog on the river! 

More fog on the river. 

MOAR Frosty Face! 

Sunday... well...

waking up to -51 windchill, I decided I'd wait and see how it warmed up in the afternoon. It didn't much. I don't think the windchill got above -45... 

I decided to call it a "Rest Day"... 

It was disappointing to have to not get out for a day in the FIRST WEEK... 

But I still did more activity this week than any other week in the last few months... so...

It's a START at least! 

Unfortunately the forecast is saying more of the same for the rest of the week!? 

What a terrible month to try and start getting the physical activity up again!? 

January 2021

 January wasn't SUPER cold... maybe there was one week at the end....? Not like the first week of February (when I'm writing this). In fact, I seem to recall the first bit was REALLY warm. 

So warm I was riding in shorts and even had to take mittens off I was getting so warm! 

Section of road that has been closed and will, at some point, be converted to multi use trail. Unfortunately, being closed, they are no longer clearing snow off of it. The path next to it was clear - but a number of days there were just SO MANY people out, I kind of tried to avoid riding there. 

People were out wandering around - often in large groups (becuase the current Public Health Order said no one was to go to another's house... but you could meet up outside... so large groups wandering around the trails together... not bothering to get out of the way... 

This path... in the entire 3-4Km section I might encounter four or five people along the entire length of it in the summer... but here it was a constant flow of people in either direction. 

I kind of gave up on riding around the trails for a bit - just too many people... large groups... not giving proper space to pass... 

Heading to Broadway for groceries with Amanda one day. 

She forgot her keys at home... and I had to ride all the way home and get the and come back so she could unlock her bike (it doesn't require the keys to lock it - one end just pops into the other). 

Library run with Keira. 

MOST people seem to have figured out how parking around the separated bike lane works... but then every once in a while there's someone who just doesn't get it ... and then someone else comes along and tries to join them...!? (black car is parked in the bike lane, Red one is trying to parallel park behind it, also in the bike lane, between teh black cars AND THE POST THE DENOTES THAT THERE IS A BIKE LANE THERE!? SERIOUSLY!?) 

Another Library run... 

Last library run of the month. AT the end of the month the temperature did drop for a bit - hence the fog on the river. 

Teh fog coming off the river did make all the trees along the river pretty with all teh frost.... 

Yeah, come to think of it... I think the only time I left the house in January was to get groceries... pick up books at the library... and a couple of Physiotherapy appointments... 

The other nice thing about the deep cold is there are FAR fewer people out on the trails!

Occasional person out walking their dog - sharply contrasting with the otherwise black and white environment! 

Fog. 

So much fog... 

Well enough of this not getting out! I decided February should be Get Fit (Again) February! I'm going to get out and run or walk or ride EVERY day throughout February! 

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

 We made it! Happy New Year!

Sunrise, 1 January 2021

Looking at my cycling stats on Strava... not terrible... better than nothing, I guess. There were a lot of rides over the last month or so that didn't get logged - computer just wasn't working... Not THAT many, but a large percentage of them. 

Comparing to the previous year though... 

Wow... What happened...!? 2020 Happened. With all of our regularly scheduled activities cancelled you'd think I'd have gotten more riding in... But that somehow that just wasn't the case. PART of it was the hand and knee injuries that kept me mostly off the bike the last two and a half months. A LITTLE BIT of it was the aforementioned computer issues. PART of it was not having any place to go. 

But those were only parts. Small parts. I don't do that much riding in November and December. The commuting is a relatively smaller part of the overall distance I do in the year, so not having a place to go was less of a factor than the overall malaise of the year and not wanting to even leave the house. 

I mean, look at this... 

This is 2019 - a pretty regular year not so much riding the first few months, generally building up to longer rides in the spring and lots of rides in the summer always a bit of a shift and correction in the first week of September as I adjust to a new schedule and then start working in some longer fun/exercise rides around all the getting-kids-to-places rides... 

And then there was 2020... 

WAY more riding in March-April-May... because there was nothing much else to do... but as the year wore on, motivation got more variable. Mercurial, even. And then the knee issue (which is doing much better now! The finger still isn't great - the fracture is more-or-less healed - but 8 weeks in a splint was probably a bit too long and the physiotherapy is taking some time...).

Well... that's over with, I guess. 

Hopefully this new year will be better.