The 2017 Exercise Motivation Thread

[jtbo]

I had no idea buckets were such a valuable commodity in Finland! You have so much snow already. It's very cold and dry here, no snow yet though.

I've had a hectic week, but I've been doing 1 hour to 90 minutes yoga every day. The trouble with doing yoga in such cold weather is that I really don't want to take my socks off, but you can't do it properly unless you're bare foot.

I wonder if I should buy myself an electrically heated carpet to put under my yoga mat? Oh no, wait......there are cats in the house. There's no way they'd let me keep it to myself.

Buckets are not really valuable here, but people are people. Hundreds of people queue in a line when there are free buckets given and unlike our black Friday line up, these can become quite rough, there is at least one occasion where couple of kids were knocked down by people in bucket line up and in Finland that is really something.

This is for example our Black Friday chaos, keep on eye that guy in yellow shirt, that is quite outrageous move, coming from the side!:




Today I'm trying to have a rest day, hopefully more riding tomorrow.

 

[Norachan]

Shocking behaviour! And no sales staff to bow and wave them into the store? You'd never see anything like that around here.

90 minutes yoga and about an hour walk today.

 

[jtbo]

Shocking behaviour! And no sales staff to bow and wave them into the store? You'd never see anything like that around here.

90 minutes yoga and about an hour walk today.

That is because you have daylight, I'm sure of it, that must be the key! Or then people in Japan just are bit better organized:


I did manage only two naps today, somehow I was very tired after the night and had to take nap, then I ate and had to take new nap, I'm thinking of going to bed so this day was complete waste for me.

It seems that I'm sleeping quite poorly, that has been going on for a long time, but sometimes it is better.

 

[foxxycat]

no riding yet=too cold and snowy= 2°F at my house this morning. 16 last night when sun set. 25 during day and a chill.

just 20 min of light aerobics to keep heart rate up. plan on riding tomorrow and sunday.

Keep up the good work!

 

[jtbo]

We have just 28-32F some snowing, but quite mild weather really, usually around Christmas to new year we are going to have colder weather, also sometimes November has two weeks of really cold, but more often it is January when our really cold season starts.

I have had bike rides below -22F, lot of layers, gloves, mittens, scarf to cover everything but eyes, even breathing must be trough the scarf, big boots with enough socks, when you looks like a Michelin guy, add few more layers.

I did ride to work and back once when it was -43F, that was only 8km back then, forehead was the worst at downhill, then eyes froze open/shut, also clothes became hard like they would of been sheet metal.
That is really cold which luckily does not occur very often, but it is possible to ride in very cold if needed, just not too much fun anymore and often it is easier to just walk.

I was woken up by a guy sliding around with his BMW making a lot of noise at 3:30 am, had to call cops and they told they are nearby, very shortly after that noise did stop, so there is good chance they got the guy.

So no sleep for me this night either, annoying.

 

[jtbo]

Oh, life can be fair after all, today I saw that car wrecked near a roundabout and police had put their tape over it

No wonder noise abruptly did stop.

Today I made a bike ride, not much to tell about it, but at least burned some calories.

1 hour bike ride and 1 hour walking, that is enough for a day I guess.

Bit over 16 000 steps and all that, however I really did not felt pushing hard at all, somehow have been dizzy whole day too.

 

[foxxycat]

got two rides in this weekend. yesterday and today=-the road I ride on has much less traffic during the weekend and with the stupid snow not pushed off the road doesn't give me much room. oh that front tire sucks. I tried to drive through some snow/ice type and it slid sideways so I have to invest in a new front tire but for now I stick to dry pavement. I really hate how cold it's been. yesterday was 37 and today 27. I think todays the coldest I will try. I have a face wrap that works the bomb for my face. I wasn't even cold. I have a thin red wind breaker I wear over that bike jacket=and you know what? It does quite a good job blocking the wind and cold..and sweating too helps. I think I sweat more now than the summer.

Yesteday 5 miles today 4.25ish due to snow last night making road not as safe and too much traffic.


Why do these plow drivers not think about pedestrians? Where I ride is in the city=there's always people walking around...my vent of the day.

 

[jtbo]

got two rides in this weekend. yesterday and today=-the road I ride on has much less traffic during the weekend and with the stupid snow not pushed off the road doesn't give me much room. oh that front tire sucks. I tried to drive through some snow/ice type and it slid sideways so I have to invest in a new front tire but for now I stick to dry pavement. I really hate how cold it's been. yesterday was 37 and today 27. I think todays the coldest I will try. I have a face wrap that works the bomb for my face. I wasn't even cold. I have a thin red wind breaker I wear over that bike jacket=and you know what? It does quite a good job blocking the wind and cold..and sweating too helps. I think I sweat more now than the summer.

Yesteday 5 miles today 4.25ish due to snow last night making road not as safe and too much traffic.


Why do these plow drivers not think about pedestrians? Where I ride is in the city=there's always people walking around...my vent of the day.

That does sound like winter riding for sure, especially part with sweating more than summer, yep, it works that way, challenge is to be able to keep going long time with all that sweating

Wind blocking is most important thing, thin windproof fabric works wonders, I have such thin windproof bike jacket, under that thin micro fleece long sleeve shirt and under that technical t-shirt, it is good for -5C or so, I can add more layers under that if needed and if I ride road I use my EN471 Class 3 high visibility vest, which is also making me bit warmer.

Get safety vest made for work use, Class 3 is for highway use where traffic is over 50mph and that is best visibility version, Class 2 has bit less reflectors and fabric and is recommended for under 25mph traffic I believe.

I met snow plow too, bit poor camera angle, but you can see what kind of snow conditions we have on our paths, they kind of forget sections now and then. It is bit dark, but this was taken around noon, not much light during the days here.

This is vest I have, you can wash these kind of clothing only 25 times or so, which means it is better to get a cheap vest type and have something else as a jacket, because reflectors and fabric won't last more washes in a coat, so their performance decreases when washed more often than that:
Huomioliivi, luokka 3 - Heijastinliivi Heijastin - Biltema

In this clip my rear tire suddenly slides a bit, kinda managed to catch it, I have studded tire at front, but not at rear, so sometimes rear slips and slides. There was polished snow, plow had made small patch of snow very smooth and hard so it was white, but slippery as ice, which I could not spot, so it was like someone would of kicked rear tire under me, luckily rear tire got grip back on. There is lot of rectangle knobs at rear tire so it hooks up quite well most of the time.

I would of needed winter tire to keep going on that deep snow, I didn't have enough grip there, rear tire just spun, so had to go via other route.

Also had brake fail at downhill, brake lever felt like being solid piece of iron, took several seconds until something melted enough so that I had brakes again, good thing I braked well before I needed.

 

[Norachan]

You're brave riding in all that snow jtbo Too bad about that guy in the BMW, he sounds like what my Dad used to call "Boy Racer". (He used lots of other words for drivers like that too, but this is a family site so I can't tell you.)

Saturday was very busy, worked all day them did a supermarket and coin laundry run in the evening, so no time for anything else. Sunday I did about an hour yoga after work. 90 minutes yoga today. I should go for a walk, but I'm not feeling very motivated. It's looking for cold out there.

 

[Winchester]

I haven't been walking outside in quite a while; the doctor told me to try walking a bit every hour instead of trying to do it all over lunch. It gets me up and walking around more and he feels it's better for me. I miss being outside, (but I don't miss having to deal with sidewalks where the property owners don't shovel the snow and having to deal with snowplow drivers who plow the snow around corners and plow sidewalks shut at the street. In town, property owners are supposed to have their sidewalks shoveled within 24 hours of a snow storm, but that doesn't happen. Every once in a while, there'll be an article in the newspaper about the borough starting to fine people for not shoveling, but then that goes by the wayside, too. It's hard for the elderly to try to get around when they have to walk on unshoveled sidewalks.)

Anyway....Monday -
3.75 miles on the treadmill
12/12 hours with 300+ steps per hour
16,052 steps for the day - 7.8 miles

 

[jtbo]

Here cleaning sidewalks is municipality's task, but then again they use big machine and coarse is what I would call their precision in task.

Around 30 minutes of bike riding today + also I need to make cookies now, then clean oven and behind the oven as tomorrow they come to check my oven and maybe give replacement too, I hope.

 

[Merlin77]

I did some basketball today, and very, very soon I'll be lucky enough to go swimming in the tropics! I'm so excited. Last week, I also got to go rock climbing.

 

[Norachan]

I did some basketball today, and very, very soon I'll be lucky enough to go swimming in the tropics! I'm so excited. Last week, I also got to go rock climbing.

Wow, Lucky you! Where are you going?

I've had a manic couple of days. 1 hour of yoga on Monday. 1 hour of yoga and 30 minutes of foot ball with kindergarten kids on Tuesday. (None of them can kick straight and I had to keep running after the ball) 30 minutes yoga and 30 minutes on my bike today.

Snow not so bad here. Not even worth getting the shovel out for.

 

[Winchester]

We've had nuisance snow...meaning a couple of inches here and there, but not worth shoveling. The snow plows have been out salting the roads and they did plow one morning last week, largely because it was snowing during the morning commute. But really, nothing bad. Yet. But it's coming!

Tuesday -
4 miles on the treadmill
12/12 hours with 300+ steps per hour
15,812 steps for the day - 8.02 miles

 

[Merlin77]

Wow, Lucky you! Where are you going?

We're heading for Cuba!

 

[Winchester]

Wednesday -
4 miles on the treadmill
12/12 hours with 300+ steps per hour
17,011 steps for the day - 8.3 miles

 

[foxxycat]

got 20 min of step aerobics in which I know I will regret but I cant ride my bike until snow melts. today it's coldout. tonight another storm coming. snow all day tomorrow. ice on Saturday. then off from work until probably jan 2 so that's a long time to go. tonight going to gym and use their dumb bike. I hate their bike. it's uncomfortable. gonna check out gym in my town-see what they have for spinning machines. I hate big wide seats and it leans forward-hurts my hips and back. besides I can walk to the one in my town. it's under a mile away and only 25 a month...hmm...sounds like what I will do. good bye planet fitness.

 

[Winchester]

foxxycat I saw you guys are going to get hammered this weekend with snow and ice. Stay safe!

Thursday -
4 miles on the treadmill
12/12 hours with 300+ steps per hour
19,058 steps for the day - 9.28 miles

This morning (Friday), I went down to the treadmill and started out at 3.7. And promptly said, eh, the heck with it, and took it up to 4 mph right away. I kept it at 4 mph and got 4 miles in one hour... that's four 15-minute miles. It's been a while since I was able to do that and I was pleased. I was doing 4 miles in 62 minutes, so I got my time down a bit.

 

[acrazycatlady]

i went outside for 20 minutes at my own will
then i went inside and ate only half of a cheetos pack bc i felt kinda full
then i drank fresh milk

 

[jtbo]

Why people use cars? Those are so slow.

Neighbor used car and I used my bicycle, it seems without knowing we were going to same shop, it is around 20 minutes bike ride, during the ride I overtook neighbor twice and was first at shop.

I don't quite understand how this did happen, I did avoid a dog during the earlier ride, but still I don't think it was that close...