My Day Ahead – Sept 18, 2019

Today

Very early up, but no matter how early, the 6 year old’s still up before me, or waiting for me to wake up, lol!

Have to fix breakfast extra early to leave on time to join the inbound Austin traffic and get the 6 year old to school. From there, it’s off to the Y. We’d gone there Monday morning, but from the opposite direction, since the grandchild’s school is more towards town.

Whether Sheila and I can replicate the routines we followed at the Y Monday, esp the intensity, is unlikely I’d think. Or if we did, risk doing too much too soon. But going there and shadow-replicating our previous morning’s workout was not only probably doable, but wise 😊

Sometimes – benefits similar to cross training, like from cardio to weights & vice versa, in offering some recovery to the most recently worked muscle groups – can be gotten by lowering the intensity.

But at some point, me especially lol! I have to rest.

That’s ok. It’s what the doctor ordered 😊

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Yesterday

Morning
(walking, photography, tropical storm, Slaughter Creek)
Despite picking the grandson up from school, girding the Austin traffic getting to his school and back, plus doing a grocery shopping on the way back home at HEB, my wife & I knew this’d be our buffer day. Wednesday, in the morning at least, may mirror Monday.

Plus, with a tropical system hitting the coast a few hours away, we had the coolest most breezy morning since maybe a freak day late June!

We walked the grounds, feeling the light wind brush past us.

Hadn’t felt caresses like that (from nature 😊) since our years in Galveston.

And with the counter clockwise rotation from the storm literally storming Houston, our winds were dry-ish and fresh from the north.

After breakfast I worked on today’s post, about my most viewed image at Fine Art America, Week 2 in Sept, then decided, an hour before noon, to do what I’d been doing all spring until we’d done our move into our current place and summer’d followed & done us in, lol! I went for another walk.

That’s what I loved doing this spring, when I reached an average of 8-12,000 steps a day – easy walks broken up throughout the day. Before or after breakfast. Same for lunch and supper. And even a late evening twilight jaunt. It was nice. It was wonderful!

Summer and my two surgeries derailed that, lol!

So with 2000+ steps already logged, I went out and crossed over to a pathway that leads down to Slaughter Creek then chose the east facing trail to see if I could finally find the bank of the creek. I didn’t have any luck regarding that, but the smaller path paralleling the creek was easier to navigate than the last time I’d tried, maybe the 1st week in June.

When we’d 1st looked at the area, it was in the midst of a very wet spring and flowers and stems literally rose above the top of the 6 year old’s head. I’d thought, this is gonna be fabulous for pictures of flowers and a pasture like setting. But the Austin heat was in full force by the time we were moved and could venture out. The tall stems hadn’t withered away or been cut down yet and the pathways were bundles of dry uneven brush. This morning all that was gone too, leaving me a clear path and a clear view of the lay of the northern bank of the creek. Tall trees of oak whose heat-thinned canopy filtered splatters of light onto the ground. The shaded ground throbbed with deep russets and browns, while the lit areas gleamed with gold and spent yellow. It was hard sometimes to crop out folks’ fences further up the sloped bank, but I was finally – since before summer – getting interesting pictures in Austin again!

I plan to set up a folder on Fine Art America with pics for these and some those shocking flower filled pics of spring later on, with blog posts of course! 😊

The sun had begun to go in and out with the push of clouds from the storm.

What the weather people here call a “disturbance.”

Growing up along and near the coast, that meant it could be anything, from nothing – to literally the end of much of what we knew as home. I’d gone through Hurricane Carla in Houston when I was ten. It imprinted me. So I paid attention to that – the shift of the wind speed, the frequency of cloud-to-sun-changes. Clouds, I noticed, quickly covered the area around me in deep shade. Chance of rain was only 30%. We’ve seen a lot of the area’s floods happen on forecasts like that. Unlikely, today, I told myself, glancing south toward the unseen crest of Slaughter Creek’s bank. That’s about as much as I bothered thinking about it.

I glanced at my Garmin tracker.

Near 6000 steps. I should break 7500+ at that rate. Later.

I headed back. Besides. Sheila’d be getting lunch ready. I could already smell the vegetables and hear the pan sizzle.

The sun flickered. I hesitated, looking back where I’d walked back from.

Heard the silence, and went home. 😊

Evening
(counting steps, fitness ball)
By the time we went to the grocery store and got home, I was already close to 10,000 steps. I knew checking the mail and playing catch with the 6 year old with my new soft fitness ball would take me way over. No sense rushing!

The weird thing ‘bout tracking steps at the grocery store, and I’m not sure why, though most likely it’s whether I’m pushing a cart or walking free of it, like when Sheila’s with me, is whether I clock that many steps or not. I think I did close to 1000 steps just at the store, yet usually am lucky to get 3-500! My iPhone Health app’ll pick up my leg motions and measure the steps, but my wrist band won’t! Other than that, my Garmin tracker’ll pick up steps my phone app won’t, lol!

Considering the cost for the kind I have, it’s remarkable how much info I get.

It’s like with my new fitness ball. It’s the right size, and I can push my fingers into it easily for a secure grip. But even at 2 lbs, feels heavy to me for what I wanted, carrying & tossing on a walk outside. But I easily saw tons of its benefits playing with the grandson with it, making it more than worth keeping. A soft catch-able ball, just bigger than his hands, made him feel safe to experiment, play, see how he could toss it, how he could risk catching it, even onto his chest, even one handed, and not hurt. That’s worth a lot I’d say 😊

At this point in my recovery, I’ll get a 2nd fitness ball that’s air filled, very light, and that I can take on walks.

Two different uses. Two different reasons for different trackers, and fitness balls ❤️

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My Related Blog Posts

• Does Cross Training = Recovery Time? — My Yoga-to-Dance aha! Moments! – # 4
• #AgingGracefully – Easier to Hit Fitness Goal Metrics (hint: a lower target heart rate) – Yes!
• A Consistent Routine is Best, Except When It’s Not (Flexibility of Self Is…)

Plus –

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Related Amazon Search & Products

Walking Fitness

I do like to point out I pick my selections to showcase from my Amazon searches. May not always be the case, or wholly always the case, but for now, I prefer picking titles and book covers and gift items that just really appeal to me. There’s lots more to choose from, but only have so much room, lol! I hope you enjoy —

Thanks so much everyone! 😊

Adan

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