All posts by New Britain Bo

One-upped by a Maine’ah

So I went to the club on Thursday to swim, and from the window I could see that some people were swimming, yet there was a sign on the Men's locker room door saying that the pool was temporarily closed. I donned my kit, showered, and went in to the pool, thinking at worst case I'd shvitz in the hot tub.

The pool was open (just minutes earlier), but the lifeguard said that it was only 70F (usually 81F), as they had just added a bunch of water and it hadn't heated up yet.

On with the cap and goggles, I descended into the cold pool. It was bracing.  I thought, Suck it up, Boyo, clicked 'Schwimmbad' on my Garmin, and proceeded to do my standard set.  I never did warm up.

Afterwards, in the hot tub, I was talking with another guy about the pool being cold.

He:  "Well, you know, I'm from Maine.  We swam in the ocean all the time.  It nevah got more than 56F but we didn't care." (i.e. we are real men)

So Nation, how's your New Year's Fitness McFithouse  going?

2017 Fitness+Health Redux

Had a weird year in 2017 for health and fitness.  Started the year with a month of planks (starting with 50 second plank and ending with a monster 6 minute plank, but it was an ugly plank).  Feb was a month of squats (starting with 30 and ending with 130).

Got the colonoscopy done this year (no polyps), but bowel prep OMG.

Had some great skate-skiing at Winding Trails in WeHa, but a spectacular wipeout on ice left me beaten/bruised, and soon I was at PT with a torn MCL.

Oncet the knee was healed, I picked up roller skate-skiing, and it is hard-going balance-wise:  any crack in the road or stick can send you caterwauling.

Noticed some blood in the urine after longish runs in May, and had visits to Dr. Fear, ultrasound (nada), and a cystoscopy (all clear).  Still had coloration until kidney stone passed in Sept.  Yikes, that was an awakening.

Lots of quality hiking in Scotland, Santa Barbara, and H'istan through the summer.

The race wall had been empty until a 5K in August (lousy timing, had to walk).  Started filling up the fall with short races, including Twin Cities 5K at the Capitol - first race I didn't have to walk some this year.  Last race was Moustache Run 5K in Minneapolis.

NBBW and I got mountain bikes for each other for our anniversary, so started getting into that - there are good trails not far from where we live.

Lots of swimming throughout the year - the only constant through all of this other stuff.

Discovered that Forest Lake School has their pool open for public lap swimming on weekdays from 5:30-7:30AM ($3) so started taking advantage of that over Thanksgiving and Xmas breaks.

Closed out the year with some cold-weather grouse-hunting with the little Hnos earlier this week, and an indoor triathlon this morning in Stillwater at a club (short swim, long spin, short run).

So Nation, what are you doing to keep yourself healthy and sane?