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Swimming
I’m still doing lots of bike rides although the past couple of weeks has been more limited due to the strong winds blowing. I feel a bit too unsteady when it gusts above 35kph so have done other sorts of exercise.
Our city leisure center was closed for a few months for renovations and reopened last month. Along with that they changed the name of the local recreation programs and relaunched with a special deal of 30 days for $30. This includes pool, spa, gym and fitness classes. Our local center only has the pool and spa but there’s another one not far either. Anyway, I signed up in the middle of the month and started going swimming just about every day for a while. After almost a week I developed a sore next and shoulders and had to take a break from it.
I’m pretty sure this was due to the fact that what I call swimming is definitely not proper form and I think I caused myself a bit of injury after overdoing the wrong methods. So I took a bit of a break and decided that now’s the time I need to learn how to swim properly. I signed up for lessons last week and started on Tuesday.
I have had one forty five minute lesson and already feel a lot more capable although I’m going more slowly than before. I learned how to blow bubbles and do the freestyle stroke properly. Most useful is knowing how to breathe properly which makes a huge difference. The lessons actually give unlimited use of the pool for practice between lessons so once my 30 membership runs out, I’ll still be good. I just won’t have access to the spa. Not that I use it for that long as I find it too hot after a while.
My neck and shoulder were still a bit sore after Tuesday so I took a break on Wednesday. But yesterday I went back and practiced for half an hour. My main thing was trying to get a proper rhythm and to manage to last a full lap. I got in twenty laps of swimming and took in a fair bit of water yesterday. Then today I went back and I already found it easier and my stamina had increased so I could manage a full lap most of the time. Well at least for the first half of my practice. I could feel I was doing it right some of the time and it feel really efficient and much easier on the body. Just that trying to swim continuous laps wasn’t a thing yet. After each lap I’d take a break and try to get my breathing under control. I am getting a bit better at breathing in through my mouth and blowing out bubbles through my nose. But it still feels a bit alien for me. I assume this will get better with time.
So I was taking a break after one of my laps and then a young girl in the next lane said “Excuse me” to get my attention. Then she told me I was a very good swimmer which really took me by surprise. I thanked her and told her I was just learning and then she wished me well and I did the same to her as she is learning too. I was quite touched by this and it really helped my confidence a lot. Of course once I was more self-conscious I started making more mistakes. Although I’m pretty sure that also was due to getting tired. I was trying to reach 750 meters of swimming but then the lane was needed for a real lesson and I decided that must be the warning that I needed to stop and take a break. I’d already been finding it hard to make it all the way through a lap and I wasn’t breathing so well as I had been.
I’m hoping to practice at least two more times before my next lesson but I’m already feeling so much more able than I was. I just wished I’d done this sooner.
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Good
Today was the beginning of another hot spike in temperatures for us. I think it got to 35 C today where we live. At least that’s what the car thermometer said. I had to take the dogs to the vet for vaccinations and a couple other issues and that started at 4pm. We got in rather late due to some emergencies that took priority. It was okay aside from the nuisance the dogs were making of themselves. We finished up just around 5pm and I came home. As it was warm and I was in the right mood, I went out for a bike ride soon afterwards.
It was still kind of hot, so I took two bottles of water with me and put one in my backpack just in case. I got started easily enough and got out onto the bike paths near us. I found today was an easy ride. My heart rate was on the higher side but it wasn’t making me feel ill so I didn’t take any drastic measures to change it. I kept a steady pace all the way to my destination and didn’t struggle all that much with the hills tonight although it was a definite workout.
Once I arrived I parked my bike and went into the shopping center for a few minutes break. I had a banana I’d taken with me so had a bit of a snack and then made sure to drink all the water in one of the bottles. I hadn’t stopped at all along the way. Then I went to refill the water before setting off again. Unfortunately this took long enough that it was just about sunset by the time I got going again. I wasn’t too fussed as it still felt pleasant outside and the bike path is well lit until I get to my neighborhood (where it’s lit but not as well). It did serve as a reminder that I need to get a light installed.
The ride back was even better than the ride there. It was such easy exercise that I didn’t feel as though I was working all that hard. It’s really interesting how that happens some days and then others just the simplest ride can be so hard to get through. The temperature had dropped a bit once the sun set and I found myself riding through pockets of cooler air. But as I got closer to home there were pockets of warmer air that I was hitting. I did stop briefly to take a photo of the pretty night skies fairly early on in the ride back.
Pretty sky during ride home When I got home I was feeling pretty good. I think this sort of exercise releases those endorphins and I felt like they were really flowing tonight. Even hours later I’m still feeling pretty good.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher with possible high temperatures that we don’t get in November ever. Just another tick in the evidence of climate change, methinks.
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Exercise
After seeing the new doctor last week, I felt like a freeze had been melted on my exercise (or lack of it). I think it just put me in the right frame of mind to get back to what I needed to improve my health. Anyway, I have started back to riding my bicycle again since that’s what I most enjoy for exercise. In recent months the only other significant exercise had been swimming some of the time I took my client (as a carer) to the pool.
I had to prepare a bit before riding as my bike’s been sitting unused on our patio for a long time. The tires were flat and it was very dusty. It’s also been rusting more and more after being outdoors for so long. I want to get a new bike some time and give this one away. I’m sure someone more able to could fix it up just fine and it would be great for someone.
A local highway has been extended near us and some parts have already opened. There’s a lovely bike/pedestrian path that runs alongside it and it goes halfway to another suburb that is kind of out in the country. But not really in the country any more. Just not quite city either. Anyway, I wanted to try out the new path and it seemed I could get there without too much trouble from home. So I tried it out and it’s lovely. Mostly flat and straight so there was little strain on my knee. That’s been what has put me off riding a lot because I just hadn’t had strength for riding up and down hills like I had been doing. I was able to keep a steady pace without getting too sore. At one point the path loops around and goes under the highway. This part runs alongside a road which I can’t identify yet. I think it might be one that goes to a local Aboriginal community but there’s no signage in that area to be sure. Anyway, the path continues on the other side and then it ends abruptly near the remaining construction on the road. It will be good when it’s finished because there will be an easy way to get to the next regular suburb in that direction.
On the way back I realised there’s an overpass for cyclists and pedestrians being created. It’s mostly done but the paving isn’t completed. Also from this direction there will soon be open good paths to reach Whiteman Park near us. I have gone there by bike in the past but it was scary to ride alongside the sometimes heavy traffic. Now there’s a pathway going straight to the park and into the park. Much safer now. The highway is supposed to be opening the section closer to us this weekend so I hope to make a journey to Whiteman Park soon, unless the pathway is still blocked.
I’ve done two bike rides and have done swimming this week, which is far better exercise than I’ve done for a while. It’s one of those things where it’s easier to continue once I get going on a regular basis. I’m hoping that I can keep it up. I’ll be seeing my new gp for follow up on Monday and hopefully that will help keep the momentum going.
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Still coughing but…
That’s about all that’s left of the crud going through our house for a while last month. Interesting is that Lego Lover had the shortest version of bug and is probably the most recovered even now. Most of the coughing is currently done by Game Fanatic and me…we seem to be the ones who get the long-lasting cough these days.
My cough comes and goes and is often triggered by cold foods and spicy foods and sometimes warm foods and sometimes cold air…fun. It won’t last forever but it’s aggravating.
Anyway, I am getting more regular exercise again. After my pool exercise last week I took another break and then restarted exercise again. This week when I was at the pool I was fine with the deep breaths so I figure my lungs or something was still healing the week before. I was in the pool twice this week and both times I felt pretty good afterwards. The other days I’ve been walking or using the spin bike. Tomorrow I’m kind of hoping it’s sunny enough to ride my bike. A bonus would be if it’s not too windy also. I didn’t do as much exercise today because my knees were bothering me a bit. Not painful but a bit sore after walking around in Fremantle for while today. So I didn’t end of burning off as many calories but I am going to try to not obsess about doing a minimum each day just yet.
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Restarting
This week I am back to exercise again and it’s not been all bad but not all good either. I’m trying to meet my daily calorie commitments set on my watch but came up just short on Tuesday. I did get exercise but it wasn’t the sort that easily is recorded on the watch. So this week won’t be a perfect one but I did get some exercise.
Today I did a short walk before going to meet my carer client. That went pretty well. It wasn’t exactly warm today but not really cold either. I walked on a path that has been a regular one of late and it’s mostly in shade. But I didn’t need my jacket so I think it was okay. If I’d been out longer I probably would have needed one since the sun was rapidly setting. It was only a twenty minute walk and I was walking a pretty quick pace and felt okay for it.
The real fun happened when I took G to the pool. I mostly was just walking laps but also did some laps (half laps sometimes) where I was doing kicking my feet and using my hands/arms to propel myself. I wouldn’t call it a swim exactly since I wasn’t doing proper strokes or movements but it wasn’t walking since my feet were off the ground. Anyway it’s 25 metres across and I managed to go to the other end the first time and was exhausted at first. I did more walking and then tried again and managed to go across and back to the start a few times. My arms and legs were fine but the breathing was really painful once I started taking in deep breaths. And then I end up coughing a lot. At one point I accidentally inhaled a tiny amount of pool water and that got me spluttering quite a bit. I decided to stick to just walking across after that since I’d already been in the water for a while.
Meanwhile at the Lorikeet house, the Scientist is mostly better now and the boys are still feeling pretty rotten. I think Game Fanatic had improved a bit during the day but tonight he’s really coughing a lot.
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Health and fitness
I’m pleased to share that I’ve made it to one of my longer term goals on my fitness and weight loss journey. I started back in August, I think, and I’ve lost just over seven kilograms which is pretty significant. I am not rushing the progress and trying not to get too tied to rigid routines because that seems to cause my downfall most of the time. My biggest improvements have been in my diet because I’ve been able to restrain myself from overdoing it a lot better lately than in the past few years.
My exercise has also been going pretty well too. I’ve been mostly cycling and walking for exercise up until now. I find I have a lot more stamina for climbing hills doing either and I can sort of keep up with the Scientist when walking with him. He walks really fast so I am still slow next to him even at my fittest….so he slows down for me and I speed up for him as much as possible.
I notice a couple weeks ago that I have a lot of sagginess in my arms so that motivated me to finally get on to doing some strength work after all this time. It’s still early days on this (only done it twice) but I started out using the Wii U Fit for some cardio work and then moved on to various other exercises including some using light weights. I’m mostly using a .5 kg dumbbell and it’s sad to see how even that is a bit of a strain after a couple of sets. Hopefully I will sort that out soon and be a bit more balanced overall.
My clothing size has definitely dropped in this time. I still need the same size tops but I can see it won’t be long until I move to the next size down. I’m just rather top-heavy so the fit isn’t quite right yet. On the other hand, the shorts I’ve been wearing have been just about sliding over my hips with almost no movement so I went out and got a couple pairs of shorts that are one size down. I do have some smaller ones here but I haven’t gotten down far enough to wear those yet.
I did have a couple instances in the last couple of months that seriously could have derailed my efforts. On one occasion I started out fine and I even felt as though I was exerting little effort for the first fifteen minutes. But then my heart started racing while climbing a hill and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to come down until I completely stopped riding when I stopped at some markets about half an hour from home (by bike). I walked around there and got a drink and then bought another drink along the way. I had made the mistake of forgetting to take water but that shouldn’t have caused the problem. Anyway, I started to feel better so decided to carry on with my ride and went to another suburb where I was again struggling with racing heart and struggle to get to the shopping centre there to get more fluids. I did feel a bit better but not particularly great to ride home. Fortunately the most direct way is a mostly downhill ride so I was able to coast most of the way and then go slowly the rest of the way home. I’m not quite sure why I had such a bad time of on that day because I didn’t feel unwell before I went out and I did feel unwell for a day or two afterwards.
Interesting thing is the next ride was totally opposite and was a good experience all around. It took me a few days before I tried to cycle again so it was a relief that it went so well that time.
Last weekend I bought an Apple watch, in part so that it would be easier to look at my stats while riding or walking instead of constantly looking at my phone. I’ve used it for cycling twice and it worked really well except for the fact the app I use somehow switched my activity to walking. I was able to change this before I stopped the app and it seems like it shows cycling as it should. I think this happened when the activity tracker accidentally started on the phone, which sent it to the watch, where something must have moved the digital crown and changed the activity there…and that made the change on the phone…sigh…will just have to be careful in the future about that. I don’t think there’d have been an issue had the app not started by accident.
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Walk in the park
Like most Wednesdays, I went for an hour walk in a park near where G (the guy I am a carer for) lives. I was a bit unsure whether it was a good idea to risk a walk because we’d had rain from mid-morning onwards. In the end it was just fine and no further rain reached me at all. I managed to go pretty fast today, with my first lap (kilometre) at 10.5 minutes and another of the laps was under ten minutes. The only time my laps went too long were when I stopped to take photos so I was keeping a good pace today.
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Bad dairy
I didn’t exercise for three days running and the weather was warm so I headed out on my bicycle in the afternoon to try to get back on track. The ride was good for the most part and I noticed I am not having to work quite as hard to climb hills as I did before. I guess this getting fit thing is paying off now. :)
My first stop was at some markets in a suburb a few kilometres away to buy a needed item for someone in the household. Then I popped over the big shopping centre across the road to buy bread before heading back towards home. My next stop was the Indian food shop that lies in a somewhat different direction. I would have taken a direct route but there are lots of roadwork areas along that path and I was uncertain how well I’d be able to cycle there. Essentially I rode most of the way home and travelled to this shop to buy curry paste for Game Fanatic.
They didn’t have the paste that we’ve been buying in stock so I got a couple different others to try. One of them was a Sri Lankan paste (which turned out to be quite bland). I needed to spend $10 to use my credit card so I wandered around an checked the fridge at the back. I discovered a bottle of mango lassi there and added that to my small haul.
The ride home was a bit more eventful because the chain on my bike suddenly popped off and I couldn’t get it back on properly. I ended calling the Scientist who was to meet me at a nearby shopping centre parking lot to help out. I walked the bike there and tried again and was able to sort out the chain but it was too late to call the Scientist again. Fortunately it’s only about a five minute drive from home. He was able to take the purchases home while I rode home.
I drank a bit of the lassi while on the way and it was bit thicker than I expected but not so much that I made note of it. The ride home from that point was uneventful from that point. I got home and had a shower. My appetite was almost non-existent and I hadn’t eaten very much during the day so it surprised me. I was able to eat a bit of food later in the evening and that didn’t sit well with me all afterwards. I felt more sick to my stomach than I had before. This wasn’t the stomach churning feeling I’ve had since the election.
I did sleep reasonably well but woke early and thought I should check out the bottle of the lassi which was in the fridge. I only drank about half of it before. I discovered there was no use-by date on it so I’m inclined to believe it was sticker that was removed previously. I should have checked it out when I bought it and paid for it. I’m guessing I had some sort of food poisoning from this…either that or it was coincidental. Needless to say, I won’t be drinking any more of it and I probably won’t ever buy any dairy products from that shop again. Sigh.
At least the bike ride went well though. :)
I
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Blast of summer
Yesterday we have an isolated, but massive, spike in temperature that left us with a preview of the summer to come. Well, I don’t know if it’s going to be a hot summer or not but it was definitely summer-like yesterday. I think it officially reached 37.2 C at our closest reporting station although my car registered 38 at one point.
I’ve been working as a carer for extra hours the past few weeks and yesterday I had my charge for four hours. We’ve been going to Whiteman Park, a state park located near where I live over the past three Saturdays. The plan for yesterday was to go, have a drink at the café and then do a walk on one of the trails before relaxing on the train ride at the end. Unfortunately the heat was a bit much for both of us and the water ran out too quickly so plans didn’t work out as expected and I ended up leaving G near the beginning/end (starts and ends in the same place) while I rushed off to get more water. It didn’t look like the train ride was going to be possible but we somehow did manage it in the end and it left G with a better feeling for the day than just the memory of it being so hot and being so tired and thirsty.
Meanwhile, our air conditioning got a pretty good workout during the day and well into the evening.
Today has been completely different with strong winds blowing and the temperature only just made it to 26 C, which feels rather chilly by comparison. I had ideas of going on a bike ride for exercise this afternoon but the strong winds have put me off and I will more likely do a walk instead.
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Bicycle
Two or three weeks ago, I discovered the chain on my bike had completely dried out and was showing signs of rust. It was a particularly wet winter this year so I guess that may have contributed also. My bicycle is over ten years old and it rides reasonably well but it does squeak a lot, even after it’s been serviced. It’s also showing signs of rust on the body. Not terrible shape but could be better.
This bike wasn’t all that expensive although it wasn’t a cheap one either. I started to consider the value of a getting a new bike versus the cost of service and repairs. I have been looking around at the costs of bicycles lately and the first thing I discovered is the price hasn’t gone up as much as I expected. Also there are lot more casual bikes available and those are pretty much the same price as what I have. The only drawback I’ve found is they don’t have that many gears, seven being the highest on the ones I’ve seen. While I have never used all 21 gears on my current one, I do often use the second set of seven. But then I haven’t used them all that much lately. I probably could get by with the limited gears and I’d gain a rack on the back for storing packages plus a basket at the front. I have a basket already but it doesn’t hold all that much, which makes the idea of cycling to the shops less practical if I can only carry limited amounts of goods. This option really expands the amount of shopping I can bring back. Not to mention it allows more space if I take my camera along for the ride.
I found a model that I like quite a bit so my plan is to put aside money over the next few months and buy it once I’ve reached my goal. Meanwhile I have taken my bike to a local, independently run shop for a service and to see if the chain needs to be replaced. It’s interesting that this small shop charges a far more reasonable price than any of the bigger stores around. I rode the bike to the shop yesterday and walked back. It took me about 45 minutes to walk less than three kilometres which was pretty slow for me. A kilometre is usually about 11,5 minutes to start with and often goes down to 10 minutes when I’ve built up to a good pace.
On Sunday, I managed to walk 12 kms in just over two hours, which was a pretty good time for that distance. Also, it’s quite a bit longer than my usual walk. I normally walk from 6-8 kms at most so this was a bit of a stretch. My feet were pretty sore after that walk and my body was till a bit achy yesterday when I cycled, walked and then did 90 minutes of tai chi and tai chi fan. Some of my muscles were really feeling it when I got home last night.