Second verse, same as the first

~ Chocolaterunsjudy

5winteractivities

So many people love their winter sports: skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, ice skating. Me? Not so much. Why do you think I don’t want to live somewhere cold & snowy?  We’re talking winter activities on the  Friday Five 2.0  from Fairytales & Fitness and Rachel @ Running on Happy. 

I must runfess, though, that my winter activities look pretty much like my activities in the spring, summer, and fall!

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Still running; taking advantage of free supported long runs

Always running
Even if I’m not training for anything, I run through the winter. Most winters I’m not training for anything. Because it’s hard. That lets me skip a run if the weather sucks. It lets me run less, run when I feel like it, run how far I feel like. I don’t do hills and I don’t do speedwork.

I don’t stop, though, because I don’t want to have to start from square one again. It’s my off season, which just means I run less and don’t run fast. Except for a few weeks here and there, whether from injury or recovering from a goal race, I really haven’t stopped running since I began eight years ago. Thankfully!

This year, of course, I am training through the winter. Mother Nature has been somewhat kind to me so far. I am praying that she continues to be in a good mood. Although February is notoriously harsh in these parts.

The one winter activity: shoveling
I’m not a fan of the snow blower. Thankfully I have Mr. Judy for that. When it snows there is almost always some areas that need some TLC with a regular shovel, and that usually falls to me.

So far there hasn’t been too much shoveling. I know people who truly enjoy it, but like any repetitive cleaning chore, it’s not one I enjoy. It gets in the way of my fitness.

I know, I know, it is exercise too, but I’d much rather be doing yoga, strength training, running . . . anything other than shoveling.

Breaking it up with the bike
I am so glad we bought my fitdesk last year. I’ve been trying hard to break up the sitting with little spurts of activity throughout the day, and the fitdesk is perfect for that. I try to get up every hour and bike for about 5-10 minutes.

I watch the news and scroll IG and voila! Cross training. I also try to get up and walk around when my Garmin Vivoactive vibrates to tell me I’ve been sitting too long. Those little bits of activity have a way of adding up!

Walking the dogs
There are days that it’s too icy, too wet, or too cold to walk the dogs. But those are the exceptions. Year round, almost every day, I am out there walking the dogs. It’s not a power walk — there is much sniffing and peeing (and more) going on.

But it is another way I add in a little more movement into my day. It makes it easier to hit 10k steps most days — on days when I don’t run and can’t walk the dogs, it’s hard to get up to 10k steps.

So if you want to move more, just get a dog. Or volunteer at a shelter — they love having volunteers walk the dogs, who sorely need that break from their kennel. It’s win-win: you get the fun and companionship of a dog without the upkeep, they get much needed socialization and exercise and fresh air.

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Baking: it’s a year round sport!

Even more baking
What, you don’t think baking is exercise? Well, no, I have to admit that it isn’t. But it gets you up and on your feet rather than putting a butt sized dent into your couch. You could make it a little more active by throwing in some exercises while waiting for things to bake (although I rarely do, I admit).

Baking is not a winter sport for me, I try to medal at it year-round. It’s a stress reliever like exercise, but then you have something yummy to eat, too! And it can be creative, too — although unlike cooking, you really do have to pay attention to what you’re doing. There was the time I grabbed the garlic salt instead of regular salt for the chocolate chip cookies . .  . not a good flavor combination; trust me.

Let me know in the comments:

#teamhibernate or #teamlovewinter?

Are you sad when there’s no snow (I do my happy dance then)?

Any epic baking fails?

 

20 thoughts on “Second verse, same as the first”

  6. I like the winter but this January has been COLD for France. So I am glad I am not training for anything… lets me skip my runs without feeling guilty, and have been doing all my workouts at home.

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  7. Totally #teamhibernate! And we won’t even start to get into my baking fails… although I’ll share my best fail. I was making brownies. I greased and floured the pan so the brownies wouldn’t stick (I used Crisco). An hour later, I still had uncooked mix. It wouldn’t set up. Apparently when you use a boatload of Crisco to grease your pan, it melts and adds liquid to your mix and it will never, ever, ever set up properly. 😀 As for the really funny part… I had made brownies many times before. Typical, lol.

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  8. I’m definitely on #teamhibernate with you! I’m with you on the baking, but I do tend to do it more in the winter. I try to limit the use of my oven as much as possible in the summer. 😄

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  9. I have mixed feelings about snow…I usually like one snow per year, enough to get a day off of work. I hate shoveling but we got a snowblower this year! I didnt think about areas that may need some shoveling, but it definitely won’t be as bad as when we didnt have a snowblower!

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  12. I don’t cook, but my husband does. He loves it! He cooks, I clean. I don’t see how y’all manage in all that snow and ice. Y’all amaze me! We’ve had a pretty mild winter. Of course the coldest weather would fall on the weekend of my third marathon which made for a challenging race, but I’ll post more on that on my blog soon.

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