Ahhhh... pond (or in this case river) hockey. There is simply no better sport in the entire world. Even when you're alone! So w/ the cold temperatures the ice is finally thick and some of the rinks at local parks have been flooded. Not only that, but the Fox River is finally safe to skate on and I decided it couldn't hurt to get a little extra workout in today using the old hockey muscles. I had the day off work today and headed over to the laundromat in Batavia to get all my laundry done at once late in the afternoon. While stuff was in the dryer I made the short trip over to the "Depot Pond" on the Batavia Riverwalk, a man-made eddy that is perfect for skating. I laced up the skates (thanks for these awesome new ones Ashley!), threw on my hockey gloves and took off across the river. Was pretty darn cold and I had forgot my stocking cap, so didn't last too long - but it was FUN! A little bit of snow on the ice so it wasn't ideal but still kicked the puck around a bit and took some shots against the brick retaining wall that surrounds this portion of the "pond." That was fun till I fired my puck into the nearby playground - oops! Well, as my old teammates can attest to, I'm much more of a player than a practicer, so after a few more loops around the ice and some hard sprints (see I did get some good exercise!!) back and forth across the river my ears were freezing and I decided to call it a day after 15 or 20 minutes. Even so, I was beat! Just take a look at the picture to the left, skating is a GREAT workout. Bet no one on the islands has thought of this training technique!
Headed back to the laundromat and finished things up, meeting Ashley after she got off work to head over the the nearby fitness center to try it out. Looks like everyone at Batavia Enterprises (Ashley's work) and family will be getting free memberships as they are working this out in a business deal (they own the building the fitness center is in). Anyway, tonight we paid the $6 guest pass to check things out. Ashley had been here to work out before a lot but I hadn't ever been inside. This place is awesome!! It's in an old building w/ lots of character. Hardwood floors, exposed brick walls and the like. It doesn't have a gym or a pool and is really small but has everything else you could want. Ashley got on the eliptical machine and I jumped on the treadmill thinking I'd be beat after skating. Exactly the opposite! I had probably my best run since well before Christmas. I'm not sure if it was that I was warmed up, that I was with Ashley, or that I could watch my very own TV w/ sound (EVERY treadmill has a TV w/ DVD player and a headphone hookup, it's awesome and I watched a cool show on the History Channel about Bigfoot). One thing that really may have helped was a slowed down a bit to a 6.5 on the treadmill which is about a 9:10 minute mile. Slow, yes - but I think this will really help my endurance. Anyway, I was running and two miles were over just like that and I felt great! I ended up doing a 5K, walked for a little bit, then ran another half mile at a high speed. I probably could have run even further but didn't want to push it and be dead tomorrow (I'm sore now! But a good sore). Anyway, this is where we went and will be going all the time starting soon hopefully:
River West Family Fitness
As you can see from the graph, stayed completely consistent so that was really good. Headed out after the workout and split a Chinese dinner which was a good idea cuz it turned out to be HUGE! We have about half of it left over for lunch tomorrow and although I probably ate one crab rangoon to many it didn't completely ruin what I'd accomplished on the treadmill.
All right, it's getting late and I need to get to bed. OHH, but I wanted to say Peter's been posting lots of great updates so check out the latest at:
www.8tuffmiles.com
Seemed like there as something else I was gonna talk about, but it's slipping my mind and the mattress is calling. Later!
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