Football Epilogue

Granted Hyland Ski Area is no Heavenly and MN skiing is very different from in the mountains (more time on the lifts, more ice), it's still a great time and a great place to learn!  My daughter, Norah, gaining mastery of the slopes. She actually made it down some of the intermediate runs and even a black diamond!

Visit the App store (I suppose Apple has it too) and check out  Total Fitness A week or two ago I came across an app called "Total Fitness". I was looking for some variation in my strength training routine (you know, the days I'm not doing cardio).  The free version of this app provides an array of fairly basic workouts geared to various situations (e.g. two, three or four days per week, at home vs. at the gym). It also gives basic dietary suggestions, simple demonstrations of the various lifts.  I've been doing a two day per week workout and just started one of their ab routines to supplement my cardio days with. I'm liking it well enough that I went ahead and coughed up the $3.99 for the complete app that opened up all the workouts. This includes innocuous ones named after famous people both real and fictional (e.g. from Brad Pitt to Wolverine), provides some fitness challenges, has a custom workout builder and is ad-free.  I'm just gettin...

This is one of the sillier things I think people do. But what can I say, I am in a silly mood.

I love to ski. To be more specific I love downhill skiing. I was able to take a short break and go skiing at Heavenly ski area in South Lake Tahoe this last weekend.  I flew into Sacramento Thursday night, about the same time a big dump of snow was occurring in the mountains. Friday was a day for visiting old haunts (UC-Davis) and driving up to SLT while stopping at a couple wineries ( Grace Patriot and Madroña ) for some tasting. Saturday, I hit the slopes early. It was some of the best groomed (and a little bit of powder) skiing I thin I've ever encountered. The whole day was spent on the mountain with only a short lunch break and an afternoon rest before heading back to the Gondola.  I'm surprised I wasn't more sore, but my calves, quads and abs are certainly letting me know they are there. I hope the winter weather picks up some here in MN. I look forward to getting on the slopes some more this winter!

To spice up my cardio-life I found a new flavor of elliptical that piqued my interest. An  Octace Lateral Trainer  This thing, instead of having your usual feet locked into moving just forward and backwards under your body (think cross-country skiing). This toy has a lateral, or side-to-side, motion. Once my body got passed the adjusting to the motion, which can be a little uncomfortable for me, this thing gave a great workout. There were a ton of settings. I elected for an interval training session where the resistance changed, but I also played with just how much lateral motion there was. It kind of felt like I was speed skating. The bounce and side shifting motion became noticeable to my lower back. Stretching was definitely helpful afterwards. All-in-all it was a great workout and look forward to hopping on one again.

I totally needed it. Tension had built up in my back until I had nerve pain coming down both arms. Now I'm a ball of jelly. The pressure was awesome, I felt the triggering of pain going away. An hour got a good start, but I could have used two.  Now to not re-tense myself too quickly before the next one.