Showing posts with label working out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label working out. Show all posts

Friday, March 18, 2016

Preparing for an active summer

Hiking in Colorado
Several days a week this winter I have been exercising indoors, preparing for an active summer season. Though my plans are still in progress, I see myself in the outdoors a lot this summer. I hope to backpack and bicycle in the Colorado high country, and need to develop my body to handle the trips. I need to be in shape for road trips too and keep my health good in general.
Four days each week, I do 50 crunches, 25 push-ups and 20 squats, plus 15 minutes of stretching my legs. My leg muscles have always been tight, and now they are tighter.
On alternate days I go the gym where I live, ride the recumbent bicycle and lift weights on the machines. I started bicycling 30 minutes a day during January's cold, now in March I ride harder for 20 minutes including a 5 minute cool down. I setup a manual workout, either a series of climbs or on-off wind sprints. On the weight machine I do ten sets of ten bench presses, pausing a few moments between each set. I also perform a rowing and a bar pull-down exercise with differing weights. My goal is to increase muscle mass and tone and to strengthen my core.
My plan has been working for me, and while I keep increasing weights and duration's a bit weekly, I am sleeping better, standing straighter and climbing stairs easier. My weight hasn't changed much, but you can now see the muscles in my arms and abs. My work is at a sit-down job indoors, so I get up every 30-40 minutes and walk around the building.

Pavement ends on Ridge Road in Castle Rock last summer
I live at 6300 feet of elevation, so I still get out of breath climbing stairs. When I used to live here and bicycle centuries weekly, I was still out of breath on stairs. I climb stairs daily at home and work and weekly when volunteering.
My good weather plans for April are to leave the gym behind and begin a 2 day per week hike while wearing a day pack for 5 miles each day, and increase the miles as summer approaches. I also plan to dust of my bicycle and begin riding that on local bike trails, alternating with hiking one to 2 days weekly. I plan to increase the mileage, days and training time on the local hills to be able to ride a metric century (60 miles) easily by mid summer.
No superlative goals yet, but I am getting rid of my winter flab and am toning up for a busy summer in Colorado, planing to be able to enjoy the great outdoors!