Heavy Lifting: 2/7 – 13 WRD

~ Chocolaterunsjudy
This little path took about 20 minutes & there’s still ice underneath!

By Thursday I had uncovered about 2/3 of the driveway with the help of Mr. Judy — although poor Bandit didn’t get any paths in the backyard. Too frozen, not enough sun, and the driveway was the priority. I wasn’t really that sore from all that work, which kind of shocked me. I don’t life heavy weights, but I guess I do enough to keep myself in some kind of shape. Gets the heart rate up too!

I felt so accomplished when the lower driveway was finally clear!
More reflecting. You can also see in this photo how much ice was under the snow & ice! Even after several days of above freezing temps!

It took over a week of work to get that driveway clear of ice and snow. The backyard is still snowy & icy but Bandit does his business outside and I worked really hard on that driveway this week, since I had to go out quite a few days and also had to walk down it finally on Saturday to run.

bwrd

I’m joining Kim @ Kimrunsonthefly and Deborah @ Confessionsofamotherrunner, and thankful to find ice free places to run.

Workouts update

  • Monday: Yoga (30 min), Barre (20 min), Still shoveling ice!
  • Tuesday: Yoga AM (30 min), 4 miles easy, Still Shoveling Ice! (sorry Bandit, no walk for you), Yoga PM (20 min)
  • Wednesday: Yoga AM (20 min), STILL shoveling ice (which will probably take some more days and may not be fully done before the next cold snap), but Dogwalk finally
  • Thursday: Yoga (10 minutes), 3 miles easy, Dogwalk, Ice Shoveling, Yoga PM (20 minutes)
  • Friday: Yoga (30 min), Walking with PB, Short walk at Olana
  • Saturday: Yoga (30 min), Peloton Cycle WU (10 min), 3 miles easy including 5 x 30 sec strides at end, finally finished up clearing the driveway — enough, anyway
  • Sunday: Yoga (20 min), Filming some videos but otherwise relaxing!

Running Mileage: 10  (+1) 


PB = Killer B
TM = Treadmill
WU = warmup
CD = cooldown
SB = Stationary Bike

Running Update

Last runs in my 50s this week. A good time for reflections.

Tuesday Intention: go long-er
I know my runs are short and sweet, but it is what it is — although this was one of those tough short runs, the kind where your body is just not really enthused to be out and running. It’s also the first day I was able to get out of our neighborhood since our ice/snow storm Friday. Yes, the driveway is still almost completely ice but with temps hovering just above freezing (in the morning, when I ran), it’s beginning to soften. A little.

I bought these to bring to my mom. It was 2 dozen roses so I decided to keep 1 dozen for myself.

Thursday Intention: take it easy
I considered going a tiny bit longer today, and then shook myself mentally. I’ve been spending at least 30 minutes, often more, shoveling ice every day this week. If you’ve never had the pleasure, that’s damn hard work!

I wore my “fast” shoes and sure enough the run was significantly faster than my run on Tuesday.

The clouds were cool on this run. Very grateful they didn’t dump rain on me!

Saturday Intention: a little speed
The forecast was for rain when I headed out, but thankfully I did not get wet! Except for my feet a little from the puddles. I took it nice and easy and then tacked on some strides after 2.5 miles. Then more shoveling — but success! A relatively clear driveway & I forgot to take a photo of it — I was a bit tired by this point and really hungry, too.

Peacock Plant, which is dog friendly (but was put in the Yoga room that oddly Bandit doesn’t like to be in).

Favorites of the week
Another gift to myself arrived today — the plant above. I ordered it online from a place that actually denotes which plants are pet friendly, even though I plan to keep it in my Yoga room. It’s supposed to be easy to care for but I tend to forget to water in there since the rest of the plants are in the dining and living rooms.

Random photo from this week’s short walk at Olana on the way to visit my mom. Although it would warm up to almost 50, it was quite windy & chilly on the top of this hill in the morning!

ICYMI: I actually have an almost restorative-feeling Yin Yoga practice today, aimed at strengthening your back while deeply relaxing you, too. I practiced it several times this week myself after all that shoveling and it also helped me to sleep great! I highly recommend it! I’m also rambling a bit about aging in a vlog since I turn 60 tomorrow.

Sweet Dreams Yin Yoga click here * Who’s Afraid of Aging Vlog click here

Coming up on Tuesday & Friday: Tuesday I think I’m going to write about my last decade of running. Friday I’m sharing five reasons you may want to try oils in your beauty routine.

33 thoughts on “Heavy Lifting: 2/7 – 13 WRD”

  1. Ice is a beast. There were skating-worthy sheets of it on our walk this morning. Isn’t getting your driveway cleared such a good feeling of accomplishment? I runfess I enjoy a good shovel/ice chiseling session.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I hate shoveling, and this was massive (for such a small amount of snow). But yes, it was definitely a feeling of accomplishment when I was done!

      Especially as one day I watched one neighbor, who hadn’t cleared their similarly hilly driveway, have to make three attempts to get up it.

      I’m sorry about the nodule, too, Marcia. Glad that it’s ok, but frustrating and scary, too, I’m sure.

      Like

      Reply

  2. We have a huge driveway, so I know the work and sweat equity that goes into clearing it after Momma N dumps her wrath on you. We have a snowblower, but what’s the fun in that? 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. In this case, there was too much ice for the snowblower & with the bitterly cold days after the storm completely impossible for a snowblower.

      We haven’t had a wintry mix storm like that in a long, long time (thank goodness).

      Like

      Reply

  3. We had a thick coating of ice on the driveway last month and we couldn’t do anything to remove it. Our driveway is new and my hubs doesn’t want to put salt on it, to avoid pitting the concrete. So for a couple of days it was kind of scary. Fortunately, it melted. We’ve only just had snow since and that’s easier to remove.

    Happy birthday, Judy!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I can totally understand not wanting to put salt on it. I watched our neighbor, who also has a long, steep driveway get stuck twice just trying to get back up — but they hadn’t even tried to clear it. The next day they did. 😊

      Thanks, Wendy!

      Like

      Reply

  4. I actually enjoy shoveling snow — probably because we don’t get enough to shovel very often – but ice is another thing altogether. Those roses look so pretty. Glad you kept some for yourself.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. My cats are very curious and like to nibble and play with things so I decided not to keep the Croton Plants. I didn’t know peace lilies are toxic to animals, thanks for teaching me something new.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Pretty much all lilies are toxic to all cats & dogs.

        If we still had cats, the lilies would be in my husband’s spare room (it was the only room they weren’t allowed in). Because yes the cats can always get at them!

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Ice is very tricky and we get a lot here too bc o9ur temps are so up and down. Shoveling snow is really hard! I always feel it afterward. Hope you get some melting this week! Hope your mom enjoyed her flowers

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Wait what- you turn 60 tomorrow??? You kind of slipped that in there casually, and I think it’s a big deal! Do you mean “tomorrow” as in February 14th? Anyway, Happy Birthday and congratulations- I love milestones like that. I hope you’re doing something extra special to celebrate.
    i have to admit that when I read your sentence “it took over a week of work to get that driveway cleared of ice and snow” I had a sudden image of a huge storm coming your way and dumping a foot of snow on your driveway… ha ha… I guess that’s not funny. Hope it stays clear for you!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. No, no huge storms on the way, thankfully. It’s happened in the past, though, and I have the FB memories to remind me of it!

      In fact, mid week it should hit 50 again and maybe the ice in the back will start to melt (so Bandit can have some grass again).

      Yes, today is my 60th. Kind of a low key day, actually. If times were different I’d be celebrating differently (probably by not being here, LOL!) but it is what it is.

      Good eats, though. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  8. My hubby informed today that the ice has finally melted from our driveway.

    60 sounds young to me. Lol

    My best years of running were in my 60s. Hope yours are too.

    Enjoy your special day.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. We don’t get much sun on our driveway. It would not have just melted — all you have to do is look at the ice in our backyard, where normally there’s a path for Bandit. We can all walk over that so that we’ll wait til it melts (or at least gets warm enough to shovel).

      Your best running years may have been in your 60s, but then again, you didn’t start til later than me, so I’ve already been running longer than you had been at this age. Then again, your 60s aren’t over yet. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

    1. The gloves are very old but I do love them. Not so much for the color, although there’s that. More so for their mid weight. I have light, those gloves, and then super heavy gloves that are actually almost always too heavy, but they’re convertible so I can just put the top back.

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thanks, Kim! Very glad there is no shoveling that needs to be done today. 🙂 I have definitely had birthdays that were spent shoveling (and was almost born in the car due to a snowstorm — my mom loves telling that story).

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s