An active weekend

Between Friday and yesterday, I think I did an hour of actual working out.  And those workouts were less than stellar.  Friday I cobbled together a quick at-home workout.  Saturday I went for a two mile trail run with my sister.  And Sunday was another random workout that had to be adapted when the treadmill didn't want to work.  

But I still got hours and hours of exercise this weekend.  And most of it was outdoors, which was great. 

First, on Friday, I walked to work from the train and then back to the train after work.  Midday, my colleague and I went on a (rather unsuccessful) trek to find donuts (note to self: if it's national donut day, go early, or you'll end up with not very tasty donuts), and strolled around midtown for about a half hour.  It was a nice break on a Friday afternoon. 

On Saturday, Bailey woke me up bright and early (5 a.m.!) for his morning walk.  We walked for about 15 minutes or so, which was a great way to start the day.  After breakfast, my sister and I headed to volunteer at the local park system to help maintain trails.  We went to a new-to-us park and grabbed our tools.  We were on the trails for about three hours, mostly digging up old water bars and putting new ones in.  It was a great upper body workout and a lot of fresh air. 

I dug the hole for this water bar using my trusty Pulaski. 

Since it was National Trails Day, Friends of the Park, a local non-profit, supplied a yummy lunch of sandwiches and sides for all of the volunteers. 

After lunch, my sister and I changed out of our trail maintenance clothes and into our trail running clothes.  Since we were unfamiliar with this particular park, we didn't get too adventurous and stayed on the trails that were the most well marked.  Altogether, we did about 2 miles, but there were lots of obstacles and sandy surfaces, so it took more effort than 2 miles on a road or paved trail would.

Once we got home, I took a quick nap outside on the hammock and then showered and changed for my next adventure: a 5 year old birthday party.  It was held out BounceU, which is a party place with two rooms full of bounce house-type things.  (I neglected to take any pictures because I was having too much fun running around like a 5 year old.)

One room had an obstacle course where you climbed up a relatively vertical wall and then slide down a pretty steep slide.  There was also this vinyl wall that was at about an 85 degree angle.  It had little velcro patches at various heights up the wall and you had to try and climb up as high as you could and stick a velcro flag to the patches.  It was tricky because you had to wear socks to bounce, so you had no traction whatsoever.  There was also a jousting bounce house in this room.  

The next room had a "spider web", which was basically a cylinder with layers of cargo nets going vertically.  You had to climb from one layer to the next until you got to the top, then you slid down a not-so-fast slide.  The only catch was that the cargo nets were made from a stretchy elastic material, so while it was easier for the adults to get through the nets to the next layer, it was really hard to pull yourself up or get any type of good footing.  There were also a few more bounce areas with basketball hoops and various obstacles.  Plus, there was a boxing ring with oversize boxing gloves.  I didn't box at all, but I did spend about 5 minutes in there letting a 6 year old run at me full force and then falling down when she hit me.  So, there's that.  

Let me tell you - bouncing around for about an hour and throwing and pulling yourself up things is a lot of work.  Plus, there was a lot of kid picking up and kid throwing.  So between that and all the digging on the trails, my arms were very sore Sunday morning. 

Sunday morning I woke up, took the dog for a 30 minute walk (he let me sleep until 6 a.m. Woohoo!) and then did a quick workout which included P90X2 abs and pushing the treadmill belt for 10 minutes, along with a few lunges and squats thrown in.  

After a quick shower, I was off to another local park for a beach cleanup.  Now, let me just say that I didn't think a beach cleanup would be much exercise at all.  I mean, you're basically strolling along the beach.  But, I didn't take into account that it's hard to walk on loose sand.  Or that there was a lot of bending and squatting down to examine things and pick up trash.  Not to mention the trash bag that I was toting with me, that kept getting heavier and heavier the further I went.  And I didn't want to drag it along behind me for fear that it would catch on something and rip.  So I was actually picking it up and carrying it with me. 

Isn't it pretty?  Especially once I threw out the cigarette pack that I found in here.

Plus, I got to spend a few hours on the beach.  Granted, it was the beach on the bay, but the beach nonetheless.  While there was some sunbathers and dogs playing in the water, it was pretty quiet, with just the sound of the waves lapping on the shore, so it was a really peaceful way to spend a Sunday morning. 

You can't really see it, but off to the very right of this picture is the city.

Overall, it was a very active weekend, and a very outside weekend.  Which is perfect, in my book.  Plus, I need to rack up as many outdoor hours and vitamin D as I can on the weekends to get me through the long work weeks in the city.