February 19, 2021
Dear Everyone:
Exercise.
I can’t say that it’s my favorite thing to do.
Back when I was in high school and on the newly-minted “girls”
gymnastics team, I did a whole lot of exercising,
I’d say around two to three
hours per day.
Now, not so much.
For one thing, I no longer need to be able to perform a
one-handed cartwheel on a four-inch-wide Balance Beam.
That was a long time ago.
However, last year,
or maybe the year before, an endocrinologist “advised” me to exercise
for about 150 minutes per week.
She said it would help keep my bones from disintegrating any
faster than absolutely necessary.
That, at least, made sense.
150 minutes per week
works out to 30 minutes per day, Monday through Friday, with weekends
off. I could do that.
In fact, I have a
whole series of Physical Therapy exercises, intended to strengthen my
back muscles, that I do pretty much every day.
That takes about an hour.
But it really doesn’t count as “vigorous” exercise.
A lot of it consists of twisting myself up like a pretzel, and
holding various positions for 30 seconds each.
Repeat for the other side.
Repeat for a total of three times.
Time consuming, but
hardly aerobic; it doesn’t burn a lot of calories.
Back before the
Pandemic closed our little “Fitness Center”
(also known as “the gym”), I
spent some time each day on the treadmill (approved by the
endocrinologist as long as I held onto the arm supports) and one of two
exercise cycles. This was
the one I could sit upon.
The other one was intended to simulate heavy cross-country Tour de
France-style racing. I
couldn’t even reach the seat on that one.
Generally, I spent about 15 minutes on the treadmill, followed by
15 minutes on the “bike”. On
the days I actually went to the gym.
But then Covid-19 came along and suddenly the
gym was closed. For a while
I tried walking. I even
“climbed” to the top of the nearby hill a few times.
But just walking was rather boring.
Plus you had to wear a mask just in case you encountered someone
else out walking. And there
were plenty of times when it was too hot in the summer, too cold in the
winter, to go rambling outside.
I needed an alternative.
Last September I realized that there was very
little chance of our little “Fitness Center” opening again anytime in
the near future. I decided
to “splurge” on myself and bought a Schwinn 270 recumbent bike.
Allow me to introduce my valiant steed,
Murgatroyd.
Technically, he’s not a “bike”.
“Bike” is short for “bicycle”, meaning “two wheels”.
Murgatroyd doesn’t have two wheels.
In fact, I’m not sure he has even one wheel (which would make him
a unicycle.) What he does
have is a whole lot of “bells and whistles”.
The seat is adjustable, for taller and/or
shorter individuals. Since
I’m not “sharing” Murgatroyd with anyone else, the seat stays exactly
where I put it.
There is a very large console which contains
the “brains” of the machine.
It has an upper display and a lower display and a plethora of buttons
most of which I’ve barely figured out.
I did manage to stumble my way through setting
myself up as one of four possible Users.
For the record, I’m User 1, also known as “Pete”.
When I start pedaling, Murgatroyd wakes up and says “Hello” to
Pete. Then I select a
Program and duration.
There are LOTS of programs to choose from.
I’m still very much in the “Fun” rides, staying firmly away from
greater “Challenges”. I’m
not yet ready to (literally) climb (figurative) mountains.
Seriously, programs with names like “Pike’s Peak”, “Mount Hood”,
“Summit Pass” and, I kid you not, “Pyramids”.
Like I’m going to pretend I’m
pedaling up and down the Great Pyramids.
For me, “Ride in the Park” is quite challenging
enough. It starts out easy,
then goes up a gentle incline, followed by a steeper incline.
Then there’s a respite before the gentle incline begins again.
We started out at 15 minutes each morning, then increased to a
half-hour. Now we’re at 45
minutes, which works out to about nine miles.
When you include the required “Cooling Down” period, plus
starting up and getting off, it’s best to allow a whole hour.
That’s plenty more than the endocrinologist wanted.
As for what I’m doing while Murgatroyd and I
are pedaling away, I’m reading my Kindle.
Murgatroyd doesn’t have a shelf to hold a book of any kind; but I
created a kind of sling with some 12-inch wide felt, a length of elastic
and some safety pins. The
whole thing slips right over the console and holds the Kindle at just
the right height for me to read.
And just above it, the console displays how many minutes I have
left to go and how many minutes I’ve already gone.
I can’t even guess how many books I’ve pedaled
through over the last few months.
The only exception is Sunday mornings when I watch the political
talk shows on the kitchen TV.
I have to turn the volume up a bit, but it doesn’t seem to have
bothered the neighbors yet.
So far, so good.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |