LOL, ohio! Glad to hear about the knee. Hope you celebrate well. My mom could not cook to save her life. 
Grandpa was our family chef, but his goshdarnit Ukrainian cooking with its 2 major ingredients (bacon and fried in bacon fat onions)… No wonder my sister and I were so skinny when we were kids.
Question 1. We decided to give baby kiddo a gym membership as a holiday gift. I am gym-challenged; other than a YMCA, I have never belonged to one. Are there any good national chains that have locations around the US? (We are not sure where baby kiddo would end eventually). Many thanks!
Question 2. Can one run a 10k a month after a laparoscopic abdominal surgery? Wishful thinking, I know.
Lifetime Fitness? I haven’t belonged but have enjoyed being a guest. They are fabulous.
As to question two, maybe. What does your doctor say? Ten k sounds a little long to these lay ears, but maybe you could run 5k by then. I had a laparoscopic female surgery some years ago and my doctor would have let me try it. She was a CrossFit fanatic, very fit, and told me to listen to my body.
No real exercise for me yesterday – I’m guessing sitting around for 3 hours in the morning waiting for 4 new tires on my car doesn’t count? Oh, and then battling my way through Costco and a couple other stores doing a little (very little) Christmas shopping…
Yes! This is my “issue” as well. A number of years ago we started exchanging only homemade gifts with my siblings. For me that means baking – and then H won’t let me gift everything away … Plus we tend to eat out more during this time of year. For example, we’re going to the Boston (Holiday) Pops on Sunday, and eating out before the performance.
Bunsen,what would Kiddo be looking for in a gym. Classes, instruction on how to use equipment, personal training, or just go in and do your thing on your own and leave?
BB, are you having the surgery???
Bunsen, I had a laparoscopic procedure that did not heal quickly or well - it sounds simple and painless, but there can be complications. I would allow yourself time to completely heal before training for anything. You don’t want to find yourself back at square one by overdoing things.
I really wanted pancakes this morning, so had a very unpleasant 10.54 mile run. Lots of rolling hills, my least favorite. Give me a good steep climb and get it over with. Went to breakfast then went and got our Christmas tree. I think a nap is next on the agenda.
abasket, my doc floated that possibility. I am in the overly cautious camp, so I will not do anything stupid. It is just D sent me a link to a race I absolutely cannot resist… and it may not happen next year, so I am trying to time things… we shall see. The race is very low key athletically, but quite spectacular as far as organization goes, so I would just walk it.
Michael, yes, yoga and other group fitness classes. A pool would be a huge plus. I know that a membership to a local independent studio would be a better gift, but this kid does not know where she will end up in a few months, so a larger chain with locations all over might be a better solution for now. We have YMCAs, Golds, etc.
Lizardly, thanks, I will look into that.
Bunsen- I bet you could run slowly or run/walk by then. Good luck with your decision and we are here to offer sound medical advice!
Sabaray- we are on the same wave length. We went for pancakes after the race!
My 6K did not go great. I really don’t like this race, although it is in a pretty part of town. It is very hilly and the early hills pretty much kill you off the bat. I do it because it is a Corporate Challenge series race and my company pays for it (and my husband wanted to run it this year). They only give awards one deep in the age groups, which I think is a bad idea. Anyway- 6K isn’t that long, but it hurts like hell and every year I say “never again”. Last year I was hampered by some of my vision issues (had to wear my glasses and wasn’t seeing well) so I was sure I would do better this year. I’ve run some long hilly races recently, so I felt well prepared.
Not so much, as it turns out. I think there is a big difference in pushing on hills in a short race v. really going slowly up them in a long race. I hated every minute, was 50 seconds slower than last year, and was 3rd in the age group, which for me isn’t very good in a small race. I am at the top of the age group at age 64, and the women ahead of me were at the bottom, but still… I wasn’t on their heels, either. I suspect that besides the speed I’ve obviously lost in the last year based on other results, drinking too much wine at a party last night didn’t help. My husband won his age group, which was 70-98, which I also think is not a good way to do the age group. He said “forget about aging up!”
It was a gloomy, chilly day, but not bad running weather at all. We got really chilled waiting for the awards, even though we changed into warm, dry clothes. I overdressed, of course, but I wasn’t sorry I did. 35:33 for about a 9:33 pace.
My corporate team won 3rd in our division (which I am positive only had 3 teams in it). There was me, 2 run/walker women and another woman who runs overslept and didn’t show up. So- for that performance, we got a nice plaque! Oh- we had a guy running the 12K- if he actually succeeded in heading out for the second lap of the same horrific course (many come through the first time and bag it) but I never saw him. We were all pretty bundled up.
I did race in the Topo UltraFly for the first time and liked them. They certainly aren’t racing shoes, but they felt good.
9:33 on hills IS pretty good! Well done. LOL about your H’s age “group” - it is more like a “generation”, not a group. What were they thinking???
Bunsen, since your daughter will likely relocate in the next few months, it may be that your best bet right now is your local Y assuming it is a nice facility with the features your daughter wants. Relatively inexpensive and probably can get month to month memberships. There can be a lot of vagaries from location to location with the big box national chains depending on the quality of management and the target population they are marketing to in a particular location. While the portability of membership is a nice feature, a big box chain facility that’s nice in your area could be a gigantic turnoff in another location because management sucks or the clientele they market to is not your daughter’s cup of tea. (My daughter, once upon a time, belonged to a big box national chain gym. The facility near our house, in a solid middle class family suburb, was nice. The facility 15 miles away in center city Philadelphia was a snake pit of instructors and clients hitting on every attractive girl who came in because the demographics of the target market were very different.) So, my thought is you could get the Y membership for now and then when your daughter relocates, she could scout out the local chain facilities or even better yet there may be a local independently owned full service athletic club that meets all her needs. You could then give her “part 2” of the gift.
Thanks, Michael! I think a Y makes sense. Our Ys here are awesome. In fact, D learned to swim at the Y. My secret hope that she will stay in Seattle…
I know exactly how you feel Bunsen ;).
Lol, this kid turned into an exercise junkie. She is doing yoga in the formal living room as we speak… She has some sort of a yoga app that shows the technique and speaks in a soft, soothing voice… And at the same time, D’s laptop is playing X Files! It is such a cacophony of sounds my head is spinning!
BunsenBurner – that’s so sweet! Zen calm and X files! So nice to think of a gym membership. If you’re due for that surgery you mentioned, good luck. Any surgery needs a decent amount of healing time.
dmd77 – glad you got out and ran! Sometimes it’s the only thing that will knock a lingering cold out of you and make you feel normal again.
I ran for the first time since Sunday and it was like I’d never run before. I have 5 weeks til the 10k I signed up for so I’m trying to create a running routine that will keep me fit but not make me crazy. So far this is what I came up with: do a 10k equivalent run once a week, timed, and see if I can make my times drop each week. Do additional 3-4 6’s each week and charge the hills (my running loop is where the race will be so it’d be good practice) or do speed work. Don’t go more than 2 days without running.
Off to get my first post-marathon pedicure. My feet are a mess. If you hear screams, in Korean, that’s on me.
BB, depending on your community another option might be a local community center with a fitness facility. My D lived in an upscale suburb shortly after graduating and was able to join her very nice, new-ish well equipped community rec center for short periods of time to trial it - like 3 months.
If you get a Y membership can it be transferred to another Y in another city???
In the past, Y memberships could be set up with a portability option. I will look into that. Thanks!
Sabaray, I saw that article in WaPo. Was a good swift kick in the bum for me. My primary has told me he’d rather tell me to lose weight than tell me to gain it, and that I have done so well after all my medical stuff, that I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. Reality is that if I’m not tough, the pounds just come pouring back. It will take me a year to re-lose what I’ve gained back. I got copies of my bloodwork today from my recent physical and I am NOT happy. A1C and glucose are great, cholesterol numbers are in the normal range, but the subtests within that are developing the imbalance that is indicative of metabolic syndrome.
I am ready to quit my job so I can get off my butt. 250 steps an hour during the workday doesn’t cut it.